Impact of thinking about the past with a function : relationships between rumination, depressive symptoms and the self-continuity function

Abstract

Rumination is associated with the occurrence and maintenance of depression. It often involves autobiographical memory (i.e., memory of one’s personal experience), as by definition it is a process of repeated thoughts about problems and experiences in the past. Some recent research revealed that people recall memories to serve certain purposes and this plays a role in the relationship between rumination and depressive symptoms. Ricarte et al. (2020) found that recalling memories for reaching certain purposes while a person ruminates is associated with reduced depressive symptoms. For example, people sometimes recall past memories with their loved ones in order to feel closer with them and this reduces the negative emotional effect of rumination. In other words, the functions of autobiographical memory can be used as an emotion regulation strategy to produce positive psychological benefits. It was hypothesized that people’s tendency to recall memories for maintaining self-continuity (i.e. self-continuity function) which is concerned with the need to feel like the same person over time could also have positive emotional effects. This study examined the moderating role of the self-continuity function on the relationship between rumination and depressive symptoms. One hundred and three healthy young adults have been recruited. However, the self-continuity function was not associated with positive psychological benefits. The self-continuity function weakened the positive effects an adaptive form of rumination (i.e. constructive rumination) had on emotions while it did not interact with the more maladaptive form of rumination (i.e. unconstructive rumination). This study shed light on the other factors such as age that should be considered in exploring the emotional impact of the self-continuity function and how the self-continuity function interacted distinctly with the two different types of rumination which would affect young adult’s emotional wellbeing.