RESEARCH PAPER 2
Research Paper: Outline and Reference Page Assignment
Introduction
Thesis Statement: False memory syndrome of childhood abuse is when an individual
highly depends on the memory of a horrific occurrence that the individual strongly thinks
transpired but is fallacious.
Key points
1. False memory syndrome
2. Memory Wars and repressed memories.
3. Can traumatic events be forgotten and then remembered? What do brain-imaging
studies suggest?
Body of Paper
False memory syndrome is when strong recollections of events do not take place.
1. Memory is recognized to be imperfect.
2. Recovered memory therapy relies on the view of repression.
3. Traumatic incidents can lie dormant and surface when prompted, is accepted.
4. Conversely, alarming events cannot be forgotten (Boakes, 1995).
5. Clinicians and cognitive psychologists understand how memory works
differently (Smith, 1997).
The "memory wars" refer to the controversy over the validity of suppressed memories
that various therapists and memory researchers engaged in throughout the 1990s.
1. Contrary to clinicians, memory researchers contend that no
convincing scientific evidence exists that repressed memories exist.
2. According to clinicians, repressing memories is the mind's defense strategy.
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3. “Repressed memories are fabricated, according to memory researchers.
Memory is either erroneous, suppressed knowingly, or not
remembered” (Demmeyer et al., 1997, p. 253).
4. According to research, the brain's physical memory mechanisms can
occasionally erase memories of child sexual abuse and other upsetting
occurrences (McNally & Geraets, 2009).
5. “The controversy regarding recovered memories is primarily about adults who
claim to have lost and later regained memories of abuse” (Knapp &
VandeCreek, 2000, p. 366).
In response to trauma, dissociative episodes frequently happen. Brain imaging studies are
offering to back dissociative episodes in childhood trauma.
1. Are adult claims of suddenly remembering horrific childhood events
likely accurate?
2. “A body of research says that memory is unpredictable and that effortless
persuasion under laboratory experimentations can cause a person to be
confident that an event occurred even when it did not” (Kendall,
2021, para. 3).
3. Therapists focusing on adult distress from childhood events tend to
disagree. They argue that laboratory experimentations do not always
suggest that delayed memories are possible and are factual.
4. “Therapists state that abuse faced early in life can overwhelm the central
nervous system and cause children to split off a painful memory from
conscious awareness” (Kendall, 2021, para. 3).
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5. Brain-imaging studies are beginning to prove disassociative amnesia.
References
Boakes, J. (1995). False memory syndrome.The Lancet,346(8982), 1048–1049.
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(95)91736-5
Dammeyer, M. D., Narina, N. N., & McCoy, M. L. (1997). Repressed memory and other
controversial origins of sexual abuse allegations: Beliefs among psychologists and
clinical social workers.Child Maltreatment,2(3), 252–263.
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-
journals/repressed-memory-other-controversial-origins/docview/197290462/se-2
Kendall, J. (2021). Forgotten memories of traumatic events get some backing from brain-
imaging studies. Scientific American.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/forgotten-memories-of-traumatic-events-get-
some-backing-from-brain-imaging-studies/
Knapp, S., & VandeCreek, L. (2000). Recovered memories of childhood abuse: Is there an
underlying professional consensus?LProfessional Psychology: Research and
Practice,L31(4), 365–371. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.31.4.365
McNally, R. J., & Geraerts, E. (2009). A new solution to the recovered memory debate.
Perspectives on Psychological Science, 4(2), 126–134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-
6924.2009.01112.x
Smith, M. C. (1997). The recovered memory/false memory debate.Canadian Journal of
Experimental Psychology,51(3), 258–260.
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-
journals/recovered-memory-false-debate/docview/200337563/se-2
