Reduced Specificity of Autobiographical Memory in Cluster C Personality Disorders and the Role of Depression, Worry, and Experiential Avoidance Philip Spinhoven Leiden University Lotte Bamelis Maastricht University Marc Molendijk and Rimke Haringsma Leiden University Arnoud Arntz Maastricht University The study objective was to investigate whether, compared with nonclinical controls, participants with an avoidant, dependent, or obsessive– compulsive Cluster C personality disorder (PD) manifested reduced levels of memory specificity and whether the association of Cluster C PDs with memory specificity is mediated by repetitive negative thoughts and experiential avoidance. The Autobiographical Memory Test (R. J. McNally, N. B. Lasko, M. L. Macklin, & R. K. Pitman, 1995) was administered along with self-report measures (translated into Dutch) for repetitive, uncontrollable, and negative thinking in the form of worry (Penn State Worry Questionnaire; T. J. Meyer, M. L. Miller, R. L. Metzger, & T. D. Borkovec, 1990) and experiential avoidance (Acceptance and Action Questionnaire; S. C. Hayes et al., 2004) to 294 clinical participants diagnosed with Axis I disorders (assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM–IV Axis I Disorders [SCID-I]; M. B. First, R. L. Spitzer, M. Gibbon, & J. B. W. Williams, 1994) and Axis II disorders (assessed with the SCID-II; M. B. First, R. L. Spitzer, M. Gibbon, & J. B. W. Williams, 1997)—202 with avoidant, 49 with dependent, and 120 with obsessive– compulsive PD—and to 108 matched nonclinical controls. Participants with a Cluster C PD showed lower levels of memory specificity than did nonclinical controls. Depression and worry mediated the effect of Cluster C PDs on memory specificity. Besides depression severity, repetitive, uncontrollable, and negative thinking may constitute a general mechanism mediating the association of various Axis I and II disorders with memory specificity. Keywords: autobiographical memory, personality disorder, depression, worry, experiential avoidance Autobiographical memory concerns the recollection of person- ally experienced past events. This aspect of memory contributes to an individual’s sense of self and his ability to remain oriented in the world and to pursue goals effectively in light of past problem solving (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000). Overgenerality is one feature of autobiographical memory found to be closely linked with the psychopathology of emotion. In extending the mood- congruent memory paradigm to suicidal patients, Williams and Broadbent (1986), using a Galton cue-word paradigm, observed that suicidal patients, in many of their responses to positive and negative cue words, failed to provide a specific memory. Instead, they tended to respond with a memory that summarized a category of similar events (e.g., “I used to walk the dog every morning”). In this cuing methodology, overgenerality refers to the tendency to retrieve general memories despite instructions to describe specific autobiographical events. Given the central importance of autobiographical memory for human functioning and an individual’s sense of self in particular (Conway, Singer, & Tagini, 2004), the dearth of studies concern- ing memory overgenerality in Axis II personality disorder (PD) according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.; DSM–IV–TR; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) other than borderline PD is striking. It can be hypothesized that persons with a Cluster C PD will likely manifest memory overgenerality. The category of Cluster C PD refers to anxious or fearful PDs and comprises the following three PDs: avoidant PD (characterized by social inhibition, feelings of inad- equacy, extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation, and avoidance of social interaction); dependent PD (characterized by pervasive psychological dependence on other people); and obsessive– compulsive PD (characterized by rigid conformity to rules and moral codes, as well as excessive orderliness). A common char- acteristic of persons with a Cluster C PD is self-related anxiety, whether social and emotional– experiential anxiety in avoidant PD, anxiety due to abandonment and independence in dependent PD, Philip Spinhoven, Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands; Lotte Bamelis and Arnoud Arntz, Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands; Marc Molendijk and Rimke Haringsma, Department of Psychology, Leiden University. This research was funded by Grant OG-945-06-406, awarded to Arnoud Arntz by ZonMw, the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development. We wish to thank the participants in our study and express our appreciation to the participating psychiatric sites for their recruitment efforts. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Philip Spinhoven, Leiden University, Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, Wassenaarseweg 52, 2333 AK Leiden, The Netherlands. E-mail: spinhoven@fsw.leidenuniv.nl Journal of Abnormal Psychology © 2009 American Psychological Association 2009, Vol. 118, No. 3, 520 –530 0021-843X/09/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0016393 520