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BACKGROUND Self-harm/suicide (SH/S) are major public health concerns globally, with attention increasingly focused on the role of the online environment as a helpful or harmful influence. Longitudinal research on the impact of SH/S-related internet use is limited, highlighting a paucity of evidence on the long-term effects of engaging with such content. OBJECTIVE This study aims to explore why people view, search for, and post SH/S content online over a longitudinal period, and the consequences of doing this. METHODS This study employed qualitative and digital ethnographic methods over a 6- month period, including interviews at three time-points to explore individual narratives of online engagement with SH/S content. A trajectory analysis approach involving four steps was used to interpret data. RESULTS Findings from 14 participants established the online journey of people who engage with SH/S content. Five themes were identified, which were influenced by cognitive flexibility: initial interactions with SH/S content, changes in where and what SH/S content people engage with, changes in experiences of SH/S behaviours associated with online SH/S content engagement, the disengagement-re-engagement cycle, and future perspectives of online SH/S content engagement. Some participants used metacognition and digital efficacy to control online engagements but were still vulnerable due to the compelling nature of the content. CONCLUSIONS Results demonstrated the complexity of online interactions, with beneficial and harmful content closely intertwined. Participants found it challenging to disengage from SH/S content, highlighting the need for interventions that prioritise upskilling users to improve their control over behaviour. Moreover, the study underscores the responsibility of online industry leaders to develop tools that enhance the safety of online spaces.

BACKGROUND The positive and negative effects of interacting with online content on mental health and especially self-harm, are well documented. Lived experience stories are one such type of static online content, frequently published on healthcare or third sector organization websites, as well as social media and blogs, as a form of support for those seeking help online. OBJECTIVE To increase understanding about how people who self-harm engage with and evaluate online lived experience stories. METHODS Four online focus groups were conducted with thirteen people with recent self-harm experience (aged 16-40 years). Three example lived experience stories were read aloud to participants, who were then asked to share their reactions to the stories. Participants were also encouraged to reflect on stories previously encountered online. Data were analysed thematically. RESULTS Five themes were generated: i) stories of recovery from self-harm and their emotional impact; ii) impact on self-help and help-seeking behaviors; iii) identifying with the narrator; iv) authenticity; v) language and stereotyping. CONCLUSIONS Lived experience stories published online can provide a valuable form of support for those experiencing self-harm. They can be motivating and empowering for the reader, as well as having the potential to distract from urges to self-harm. However, these effects are moderated by age, and narratives of recovery may demoralise older readers. Our findings have implications for organizations publishing lived experience content, and for community guidelines and moderators of online forums in which users share their stories. These include the need to consider the narrator’s age, relatability and authenticity of their journey, and to avoid using stigmatizing language.

Two experiments investigated the bi-directional relationship between episodic autobiographical memories (ABMs) and semantic self-images in dysphoric and nondysphoric individuals. Participants in Experiment 1 generated positive and negative "I am" statements, which were then used to cue specific ABMs. Nondysphoric participants generated similar numbers of ABMs to positive and negative cues, suggesting both positive and negative self-images are supported by clusters of specific ABMs. The same was observed in dysphoric participants, but phenomenological ratings showed that they rated positive ABMs as less vivid, and negative ABMs more central to their life story, than the nondysphoric group. Participants in Experiment 2 retrieved positive or negative ABMs and then generated "I am" self-statements. Retrieving positive ABMs increased the positivity of self-statements in the nondysphoric but not the dysphoric group. These findings suggest the interaction between ABMs and self-images functions to promote a positive view of the self, but this is disrupted in dysphoria.

Three experiments investigated the relationship between future thinking and false memories. In Experiment 1, participants remembered familiar events (e.g., a holiday) from their past, imagined planning the same events in the future, or took part in a control condition in which they visualized typical events. They then rated a series of schema-related and schema-unrelated nouns for how likely they were to be encountered within those events. In a surprise recognition test, participants in the future condition falsely recognized more schema-related items than participants in the past and control conditions. No reliable effects of rating condition were observed in correct recognition. Experiment 2 found the same pattern when participants imagined unfamiliar events (e.g., taking part in a bank robbery) from past or future perspectives. Participants in Experiment 3 remembered a past or imagined a future holiday and were then instructed to generate items that someone might take on a holiday. Participants in the future condition generated more nonstudied items and fewer studied items relative to participants in the past condition. The findings of Experiments 1 and 2 indicate that simulating future events enhances the activation of related items that gives rise to false memories. The findings of Experiment 3 suggest that these activation processes play an adaptive role in guiding the planning of future events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Previous research has shown that rating words for their relevance to a survival scenario leads to better retention of the words than rating them for self-reference. Past studies have, however, relied exclusively on an autobiographical self-reference task in which participants rate how easily a common noun brings to mind a personal experience. We report five experiments comparing survival processing to a descriptive self-reference task in which participants rated how well trait words described them. Rating trait adjectives for survival value led to higher levels of recall and recognition than rating them for their relevance to a moving home scenario. Rating the adjectives for self-reference, however, led to higher levels of recall (Experiments 1 and 3) and recollection (Experiment 2) than survival rating. Experiment 4 replaced trait adjectives with trait nouns and found that self-reference led to greater recognition accuracy than survival processing. Experiment 5 used trait nouns followed by tests of free recall and found a memory advantage following self-reference that was not influenced by the imageability of the stimuli. The findings are discussed in terms of theories of the survival processing and self-reference effects and the relationship between them.

Previous research has shown that rating words for their relevance to a future scenario enhances memory for those words. The current study investigated the effect of future thinking on false memory using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott (DRM) procedure. In Experiment 1, participants rated words from 6 DRM lists for relevance to a past or future event (with or without planning) or in terms of pleasantness. In a surprise recall test, levels of correct recall did not vary between the rating tasks, but the future rating conditions led to significantly higher levels of false recall than the past and pleasantness conditions did. Experiment 2 found that future rating led to higher levels of false recognition than did past and pleasantness ratings but did not affect correct recognition. The effect in false recognition was, however, eliminated when DRM items were presented in random order. Participants in Experiment 3 were presented with both DRM lists and lists of unrelated words. Future rating increased levels of false recognition for DRM lures but did not affect correct recognition for DRM or unrelated lists. The findings are discussed in terms of the view that false memories can be associated with adaptive memory functions. ispartof: Memory & Cognition vol:44 issue:7 pages:1076-1084 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Autobiographical memory (AM) is believed to serve self, social and directive functions; however, little is known regarding how this triad of functions operates in depression. Using the Thinking About Life Experiences questionnaire [Bluck, S., & Alea, N. (2011). Crafting the TALE: Construction of a measure to assess the functions of autobiographical remembering. Memory, 19, 470-486.; Bluck, S., Alea, N., Habermas, T., & Rubin, D. C. (2005). A TALE of three functions: The self-reported uses of autobiographical memory. Social Cognition, 23, 91-117.], two studies explored the relationship between depressive symptomology and the self-reported frequency and usefulness of AMs for self, social and directive purposes. Study 1 revealed that thinking more frequently but talking less frequently about past life events was significantly associated with higher depression scores. Recalling past events more frequently to maintain self-continuity was also significantly associated with higher depressive symptomology. However, results from Study 2 indicated that higher levels of depression were also significantly associated with less-frequent useful recollections of past life events for self-continuity purposes. Taken together, the findings suggest atypical utilisations of AM to serve self-continuity functions in depression and can be interpreted within the wider context of ruminative thought processes.