TY - JOUR

T1 - Involuntary autobiographical memories and future projections in social anxiety

AU - Del Palacio-Gonzalez, Adriana

AU - Berntsen, Dorthe

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - Intrusive involuntary memories and images are a cardinal phenomenon in a range of psychological disorders, but not systematically examined in social anxiety. We examined potential biases upon generating involuntary versus voluntary memories and future projections in individuals with high and low levels of social anxiety. Participants recorded involuntary and voluntary autobiographical events, and their associated emotional response in a structured mental time travel diary. High social anxiety was associated with more intense anxiety and embarrassment and greater use of a range of emotion regulation strategies upon generating all types of autobiographical events. Involuntary (versus voluntary) memories and future events were associated with a heightened emotional response independent of social anxiety, and memories were associated with more embarrassment than imagined future events. The effects of high versus low social anxiety and involuntary versus voluntary generation process were independent from each other. The findings have implications for affective and cognitive models of involuntary memories and future projections in emotional disorders.

AB - Intrusive involuntary memories and images are a cardinal phenomenon in a range of psychological disorders, but not systematically examined in social anxiety. We examined potential biases upon generating involuntary versus voluntary memories and future projections in individuals with high and low levels of social anxiety. Participants recorded involuntary and voluntary autobiographical events, and their associated emotional response in a structured mental time travel diary. High social anxiety was associated with more intense anxiety and embarrassment and greater use of a range of emotion regulation strategies upon generating all types of autobiographical events. Involuntary (versus voluntary) memories and future events were associated with a heightened emotional response independent of social anxiety, and memories were associated with more embarrassment than imagined future events. The effects of high versus low social anxiety and involuntary versus voluntary generation process were independent from each other. The findings have implications for affective and cognitive models of involuntary memories and future projections in emotional disorders.

KW - Social anxiety

KW - autobiographical memory

KW - emotion regulation

KW - future events

KW - involuntary retrieval

KW - spontaneous cognition

KW - DEPRESSION

KW - EVENTS

KW - MECHANISMS

KW - POSITIVE EMOTIONS

KW - IMAGES

KW - EMOTION REGULATION

KW - DISORDER

KW - MENTAL TIME-TRAVEL

KW - STRESS

U2 - 10.1080/09658211.2020.1738497

DO - 10.1080/09658211.2020.1738497

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 32148184

VL - 28

SP - 516

EP - 527

JO - Memory

JF - Memory

SN - 0965-8211

IS - 4

ER -