The effect of training specific autobiographical memory on the attribution style of adult depressed patients Download PDF

Introduction: Depression has been the greatest and the most common mental illness in the current century and, in fact, is the first mental disorder that has long been of interest to philosophers and physicians. According to researchers, people with depression have a unique way of attribution style that can be considered as one of the fundamental causes of this disorder. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of training specific autobiographical memory on the attribution style of depressed adults. Materials and methodology: The method of this research is experimental with the control group. The population included all adult depressed patients who referred to the psychiatrist's offices in Isfahan and the sample consisted of 18 participants who were selected randomly. For the implementation of the study, the ASQ attribution style questionnaire was used. The data were analyzed through the analysis of covariance using the SPSS software. Results: The results indicated that training autobiographical memory can have significant effect on improving the attribution style of depressed adults (p < 00.1). Discussion and conclusion: The results showed that this training causes the absorption of emotional experiences with a new structure in the cognitive system and the individual accepts it as one of their usual experiences. In fact, by recalling specific memories, individuals are helped to think about past events and consider positions with more realistic attributions.