Dissociation, reality monitoring, trauma, and thought suppression

The tendency to dissociate is characterized by deficits in autobiographical memory. Poor reality monitoring, i.e., the ability to decide whether an event truly happened or was imagined may give rise to autobiographical memory problems. It was hypothesized that the tendency to dissociate, as measured by the Dissociation Experience Scale (DES), is related to deficiencies in reality monitoring. Yet, the results of two laboratory measures of reality monitoring showed no such relationship in a sample of undergraduate students scoring high on the DES. The tendency to dissociate was found to be related to self-reports of traumatization. This association, however, was mediated by a measure of deliberate attempts to suppress memory elements from entering consciousness. This finding suggests that memory problems relating to trauma may be due to 'willful forgetting'.