The role of perfectionism and autobiographical memory in a sample of parasuicide patients

Rasmussen, Susan and O'Connor, R.C. and Brodie, Dallas (2008) The role of perfectionism and autobiographical memory in a sample of parasuicide patients. Crisis - The Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention, 29 (2). pp. 64-72. ISSN 0227-5910

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between social perfectionism, overgeneral autobiographical memory recall, and psychological distress (hopelessness, depression/anxiety, and suicidal ideation) in a sample of parasuicide patients. Forty patients who had been admitted to a Scottish hospital following an episode of deliberate self-harm participated in the study. The participants completed the autobiographical memory task and a battery of self-report measures (multidimensional perfectionism, hopelessness, depression/anxiety, and suicidal ideation). The results showed that repetitive self-harmers were more overgeneral in their recall of positive autobiographical memories than were first-time self-harmers. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that socially prescribed perfectionism interacted with overgeneral recall of both positive and negative memories to predict suicidal ideation/depression. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research.

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