My PhD will look at aspects of life story construction in people with low mood and depression. The construction of a positive and sustaining life-story narrative, which can be shared socially and internally, is essential for psychological well-being. The maintenance of an autobiographical life narrative, which is both constitent with the truth and coherent in terms of self-image, relies on the ability of the indivdual to selectively recall and rehearse memories from which the story is constructed.

Research has shown that people with depression tend to construct their life-story narratives in different ways from non-depressed controls, has investigated the cognitive mechanisms and behavioural traits such as over-general autobiographical memory and rumination. My research aims to combine findings from clinical, social and cognitive psychology to give insights in to how life-stories may be differentially constructed by people with depression, and how life story can act to perpetuate depression when mediated by other factors.