Narrative and emotion integration in psychotherapy: investigating the relationship between autobiographical memory specificity and expressed emotional arousal in brief emotion-focused and client-centred treatments of depression.
Clinically depressed individuals have consistently been shown to demonstrate a bias for overgeneral autobiographical memory (ABM) disclosure, a strategy used to protect against the access of intense, primary emotions that may accompany specific memories. The present study examined how ABM specificity in client narratives was related to expressed emotional arousal in brief emotion-focused and client-centred psychotherapy for depression. Emotion episodes identified in two early-, two middle-, and two late-therapy transcripts drawn from 34 clients from the York I Depression Study were rated for degree of ABM specificity and expressed emotional arousal. A hierarchical linear modelling analysis demonstrated that greater ABM specificity was associated with higher expressed emotional arousal for clients who were no longer depressed at therapy termination.
Boritz
Tali Zweig
TZ
Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. tboritz@yorku.ca
Angus
Lynne
L
Monette
Georges
G
Hollis-Walker
Laurie
L
Warwar
Serine
S
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D033262:Narration; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009629:Person-Centered Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D011614:Psychotherapy, Brief / Q000379:methods*; D012650:Self Disclosure