Forgetting Explanation: Motivated Forgetting - Repression.

Forgetting Explanation: Motivated Forgetting - Repression.

1. Repression is sometimes referred to as motivated forgetting, meaning that we forget things because we wish to forget them.

   • According to psychodynamic theory, we have a set of unconscious defence mechanisms to protect our conscious self from unpleasant thoughts and events. Repression is a defence mechanism whereby unpleasant or upsetting memories are pushed into the unconscious, so that the conscious self is not upset by them.
     • According to psychodynamic theory, these unpleasant memories can stay in the unconscious for many years, perhaps for ever. However, although we may not be consciously aware of them, our conscious behaviour may be affect by their presence.
       • E.g. Someone who has repressed a childhood memory of a horrific accident may suffer from an unexplained anxiety disorder as an adult.
         • Research Study: Levinger and Clark (1961).

2. Psychiatrists refer to a condition known as dissociative amnesia, which takes several forms, but usually involves a failure to recall specific unpleasant or traumatic events. In very severe cases, sufferers even forget who they are or where they come from, sometimes even taking on a new identity altogether.

3. Evaluation.

   • The general problem with psychodynamic theory is that it cannot be tested easily. Defence mechanisms are unconscious processes, so do not lend themselves to investigation.
   • Word-association studies, like that of Levinger and Clark (1961), are not a very realistic test of repression, because memory for real-life unpleasant events is presumably much more emotionally disturbing than memory for lists of unpleasant words.
   • In the Williams study (1994) there may have been other explanations for the failure to recall the incidents of abuse. Former victims of abuse give various reasons for choosing not to talk about events they can clearly recall. E.g. They might wish to forget the past and get on with the future; they might be embarrassed; they might wish to protect their parents; or they simply prefer not to disclose such events to the interviewer (Femina et al. 1990).
   • Findings in single cases of dissociative amnesia should not be generalised to explain other cases of forgetting.
   • Our own experience tells us that many people do recall unpleasant memories very clearly indeed, so the question arises, why would we repress some unpleasant memories and not others?
   • There is evidence that people who have suffered upsetting experiences are more likely to be affected by anxiety disorders, although, in itself, this finding does not directly support the theory of repression.