Observing the self, avoiding the experience? The role of the observer perspective in autobiographical recall and its relationship to depression in adolescence

Links between depressive symptoms and the observer perspective for autobiographical memories and imagined events: a high familial risk study

“…The association between increased use of the observer perspective for memories and MFQ depressive symptoms is consistent with previous findings in non-clinical samples (Hawkins-Elder & Salmon, 2020;Nelis et al, 2013), and in individuals with MDD (Kuyken & Howell, 2006;Kuyken & Moulds, 2009;Lemogne et al, 2006). Importantly, the current study extends findings to depressive symptoms in young adults with a parent with MDD who are at higher (genetic and environmental) risk of developing depression and depressionrelated risk factors.…”

“…Inconsistency with previous literature could be attributable to differences in methods. For instance, the current study used the oral AMT, whereas other studies have used the minimal instructions written AMT (Hawkins-Elder & Salmon, 2020;Nelis et al, 2013) and other minimal instruction event cueing paradigms (McDermott et al, 2016). Furthermore, we focus on valence of the event itself rather than cue valence seen in previous studies.…”

“…The method used to measure depressive symptoms has been seen to moderate the relationship between other cognitive biases and depression; for instance, there is a stronger relationship between clinicianrated depressive symptoms (typically selecting a more severe selection of depressive symptoms) and overgeneral memory than there is for selfreported depressive symptoms (Hallford et al, 2020b). Given the previous literature for an association between observer perspective and depressive symptoms has typically used self-reported dimensional questionnaire measures of depressive symptoms (Hallford, 2019;Hawkins-Elder & Salmon, 2020;McFadden & Siedlecki, 2020;Nelis et al, 2013), further research comparing the relationship for different methods of assessing depression (e.g. questionnaire checklist versus diagnostic assessment) would be elucidate reasons for the differences in the current study.…”

“…A number of covariates were included in analyses given their associations with visual perspective and depressive symptoms. These were participant age (Mars et al, 2012;Rathbone et al, 2015;Siedlecki et al, 2015); gender (Hawkins-Elder & Salmon, 2020;Thapar et al, 2012); IQ (Zammit et al, 2004); and temporal distance/event remoteness (Akhtar et al, 2017;Berntsen & Rubin, 2006;Falco et al, 2015;McFadden & Siedlecki, 2020). Age and gender were reported in the questionnaire booklet along with MFQ depressive symptoms.…”

“…This relationship has been seen in adults and adolescents with MDD (Kuyken & Howell, 2006;Kuyken & Moulds, 2009;Lemogne et al, 2006), participants with remitted MDD (Bergouignan et al, 2008), unaffected individuals with the serotonin-transporter-linked promoter region (5-HTTLPR) "risk" polymorphism and life stress exposure (Lemogne et al, 2009a), and with depressive symptoms in non-clinical adolescent and adult samples (Hawkins-Elder & Salmon, 2020;Nelis et al, 2013). The majority of studies directly comparing visual perspective by event valence have found that increased observer/ reduced field perspective for positive events, but not negative events, is associated with depressive symptoms (Bergouignan et al, 2008;Hawkins-Elder & Salmon, 2020;Kuyken & Moulds, 2009;Lemogne et al, 2006;Nelis et al, 2013). If the function of the observer perspective is to distance oneself from the memory-related emotions, this suggests that individuals with depression may (consciously or unconsciously) be reducing positive emotions gained from recalling positive memories but still deriving normal levels of negative emotions from negative events.…”