Psychology & Law 2000words essay
Sharonhy
RecoveredFalseMemories.pptxRecovered & False Memories
CRM 389 Session 4
Childhood sexual abuse….
Very often childhood sexual abuse victims (CSA) have suppressed memories.
It was believed that recovered memory of CSA could be used as a therapy for the victim to ‘heal’.
The unintended result: any of the people who recovered these memories confronted the person whom they remembered abusing them, and some cases ended up in the criminal courts with successful prosecutions.
…..Or is it?
There were those who questioned whether all such memories should be accepted as accurate reflections of real events (e.g. Loftus, 1993).
It was argued that some, perhaps even most, of such recovered memories might in fact be false memories produced, at least in part, by the therapists themselves.
In response to such concerns, bodies such as the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association issued guidance to their members regarding the potential dangers of unintentionally implanting false memories in patients (1995).
Repressed Memories of Child Sex Abuse:
https://childmolestationattorneys.com/repressed-memories-child-sex-abuse/
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other concerns
The argument is critical for the science of memory, but also for thousands of people who have either recovered memories or have been accused of abuse on the basis of such memories, not to mention the families and friends of all concerned. Against this backdrop, the British Psychological Society’s Working Party on Recovered Memories (WPRM) published their report, recommendations, and the results of a survey they conducted with BPS accredited practitioners.
Little Direct evidence
However, in 1995 there was little direct experimental evidence of the impact of so-called ‘memory recovery’ techniques and the relative ease with which some false reports can be created. Much of the evidence at that time was based on memory studies not specifically designed to address the recovered memory debate.
Distorted memories
Before 1995 there was much literature showing that memories could be distorted (by misinformation, by stereotypes, and so on), but only a couple of studies on the creation of false memories for entire events
More relevant studies on recovered memory debate
Since the publication of the WPRM, there have been significant efforts directed towards designing studies that are more relevant to the recovered memory debate, and more emphasis within some case studies on investigating firstly the veridically (reality) of the memories and, secondly, whether there had indeed been a period of forgetting
Four areas of review
False reports of entire events
Forgetting memories for events
Remembering forgetting and forgetting remembering
Case studies
1) False reports of entire events
False events could be added to people’s memories; it is easier to implant a memory for an event if the person believes that the event is physically possible and also likely to happen (Pezdek et al., in press; Scoboria et al., 2004).
dissociative tendencies (i.e. having difficulties integrating thoughts, memories, images etc.). People who report much dissociation are likely to be the most susceptible to memory distortions (e.g. Ost et al., 2005; Wright & Livingston-Raper, 2001).
2) Forgetting memories or events
Several surveys of people with documented childhood sexual abuse have found that some of the people fail to report this abuse due to a lack of willingness to disclose, as opposed to a lack of memory Goodman et al. (2003).
Prior to 1995, two special mechanisms were generally put forward to explain the inaccessibility of memories for some events: repression and dissociation.
3) Remembering forgetting and forgetting remembering
People’s ability to make metacognitive judgments about their own memories: any periods during the a person’s life for which they had few or no memories (i.e. remembering forgetting). If “yes”, there may have been a traumatic event had caused these periods of amnesia.
Another aspect of metacognitive judgments is that people often forget that they have previously remembered an event.
4) Case studies
Were you Sexually Abused as a Child? How to Tell:
https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/were-you-sexually-abused-as-a-child.htm
Are You Repressing Memories Of Sexual Abuse?:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V3tyBeJ6kM
Repressed Memories of Child Sex Abuse:
https://childmolestationattorneys.com/repressed-memories-child-sex-abuse/
Why Victims of Childhood Sex Abuse May Bury Memories For Years or Even Decades:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov1O7BX7UwQ&feature=youtu.be
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