Characteristics of autobiographical memories and prospective imagery across a spectrum of hypomanic personality traits.
Evidence of a strong causal relationship between mental imagery and emotion has informed psychological conceptualisations of disordered positive mood states (i.e., mania). Holmes et al.'s cognitive model of bipolar disorder asserts a prominent role for intrusive and affect-laden positive imagery of the past and the future in the amplification and maintenance of positive mood and associated manic behaviours. The aims of the current study were two-fold: (1) to test aspects of this model in a non-clinical population sampled for hypomanic personality traits and (2) to examine the phenomenological characteristics of positive autobiographical memories and imagery of the future. Undergraduate students (N = 80) completed a battery of self-report questionnaires and rated their positive and negative memories and images of the future on a number of dimensions. We found significant positive correlations between hypomanic tendencies and the (1) everyday experience and use of mental imagery, (2) experience of intrusive mental imagery of future events, (3) emotional intensity and sensory detail of positive but not negative autobiographical memories. Results are discussed in the context of their theoretical and clinical implications, and directions for future research are considered.
a School of Psychology , The University of New South Wales , Sydney , NSW , Australia.
Brittany
B
McGill
Michelle L
ML
Moulds
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010551:Personality; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D010556:Personality Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D055815:Young Adult
Autobiographical memory; Bipolar disorder; Hypomanic personality; Mental imagery; Prospective thinking