Forgetting - Motivated Forgetting (Repression)

Question 1

Why does Freud believe we forget?

Answer 1

He believed that we forget because certain memories are TOO psychologically PAINFUL to allow them to stay in the conscious mind

So we TRANSFER these memories out of our conscious mind and BURY them in the UNCONSCIOUS part of our mind

Question 2

Freud argued memories are not lost they are just…

Answer 2

INACCESSIBLE

Question 3

What is depressions way of dealing with?

Answer 3

Memories of TRAUMATIC events so that the ANXIETIES/negative emotions associated with the memory are NOT experienced on a day-to-day level

Question 4

What is repression an example of?

Answer 4

One of Freud’s DEFENCE MECHANISMS

Question 5

Outline the method of Levinger and Clark’s 1961 study into whether words with emotional connotations are repressed under laboratory conditions

Answer 5

Ppt’s were given a WORD ASSOCIATION TASK

They were presented with a series of EMOTIONALLY CHARGED words e.g. hate, anger, fear etc alongside other NEUTRAL words e.g. window, cow, tree

P’s had to say exactly what came into their mind when they saw each word WITHOUT HESITATION = FREE ASSOCIATION

Finally p’s were given the CUE word again e.g. hate, fear and were asked to recall the ASSOCIATIONS they reported earlier

Question 6

What are the results of the Levinger and Clark’s 1961 study?

Answer 6

P’s took LONGER to recall the associations of the EMOTIONAL WORDS, and recall of the associations of the emotionally charged words was generally POORER than the associations for the neutral words

Question 7

What did Levinger and Clark conclude from the their 1961 study?

Answer 7

This suggests that the emotionally charged words were more ANXIETY-PROVOKING and were not recalled as well due to REPRESSION

Question 8

What is one criticism of Levinger and Clark’s 1961 study?

Answer 8

ARTIFICIAL LAB STUDY

Question 9

What is Freud’s theory of forgetting?

Answer 9

Freud believed that forgetting is an UNCONSCIOUS MODIVATED process