Objective: Autobiographical memory (AM) referred to the memory for both biographical information about the self and memory for one's life experiences. Ruminative responses can be defined as behaviour and thoughts that focus one's attention on one's depressive symptoms and on the implication of these symptoms, whereas distracting responses refer to thoughts and behaviours that take the individual's mind off his or her low mood and promote engagement in pleasant or neutral activities. Research demonstrated rumination is associated with course of depression whereas distraction leads to relief from the depressed mood. Depressed people exhibit more deficiencies both in autobiographical memory (AM) retrieval as well as in social problem solving (SPS) than the normal controls. One possible explanation for these deficits was rumination impedes SPS via AM retrieval during SPS. Distraction would help to improve SPS by having more beneficial specific AMs during SPS.
Method: 30 clinically depressed participants and 30 healthy controls were recruited. They were randomly assigned to either the rumination or the distraction group. Participants completed the BDI, AMT. Then the Rumination/Distraction manipulation was administered; at the end they performed the SPS (the MEPS procedures) and AM retrieval during SPS.
Results: Two 2 (depressed status: nondepressed vs. depressed) ✕ 2 (thinking style: rumination vs. distraction) ANOVAs were then calculated to examine the effects of rumination/distraction on SPS performance. For the MEPS means score, there was also a significant depressed status ✕ thinking style interaction (F(1,56) = 6.793, p < .05). For the MEPS effectiveness score, a depressed status ✕ thinking style interaction effect was observed (F(1, 56) = 7.499, p < .01). When examining the relationship between SPS and AM during SPS, for the depressed distracters, the significant positive correlations were found between their MEPS means scores and specific AM retrieval (r = .456, p < .05), and their MEPS effectiveness scores (r = .369, p < .01).
Conclusion: The depressed ruminators performed worse on both measures of SPS than the other 3 groups. It was suggested that rumination interacts with level of mood severity to influence SPS performance. The depressed participants retrieved significantly less specific AMs and more categoric AMs during SPS than the nondepressed participants. However, during SPS depressed ruminators retrieved more specific AMs but not categoric AMs, than depressed distracters. With respect to the association between SPS and AM retrieval during SPS, specific AM was associated with a better SPS performance, especially in depressed distracters. It suggested that distraction is enhancing mental awareness in depressed people. Categoric AM was found to be associated with poor SPS in depressed ruminators. Rumination interacts with level of mood severity to influence SPS and AM retrieval during SPS.