More handpicked essays just for you.
Theories of counseling and their relevances
Theories and techniques of counseling
Theories of counseling and their relevances
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The idea of whether a memory can be forgotten and then remembered, and the thought of suggesting a memory and then have it remembered are at the heart of the childhood abuse issue. Most clinical psychologists believe recovered memory is rare, although laboratory studies have shown that the memory is usually not accurate and can be influenced by outside factors. This issue has not been directly studied since researchers have not subjected people to traumatic events to test their memory of them. Therefore, it has not been determined if a traumatic event is encoded and stored differently in memory compared to a non-traumatic event. (American Psychological Association, 1995). Traumas affect the short and long term memory of children differently from adults. Some believe childhood trauma may lead to problems in memory storage and retrieval. Severe forms of child sexual abuse are conducive to disturbances of memory such as disassociation or delayed memory. Researchers have argued that there is no support that disassociation shelters people from the pain of memory. There is a consensus among researchers and clinicians that most people that were sexually abused as children remember most of the encounter. (American Psychological Association, 1995). The issue that relates to Recovered memory versus a pseudomemory continues to have conflicting views. Most leaders agree that it is a rare occurrence that early childhood abuse that has been forgotten can be remembered later. The leaders also agree that it is possible to construct psuedomemories for events that never happened. A growing body of research evidence suggests that psuedomemories of child abuse even though it never happened are both persistent and convincing. (Brainerd & Reyna, 1998). The issues that relate to the validity of memories of childhood abuse has raised many critical issues for the psychological community. Several issues have not been solved which points to the ideas that many areas of research must still be pursued. Some of them are as follows: • Need a better understanding of how we store recollections of events in memory both accurate and inaccurate. (American Psychological Association, 1995). • Determine which clinical techniques are more likely to lead to the creation of false memories versus those that create conditions where actual events of childhood abuse can be remembered accurately.
In conclusion, memory errors can be made by the retrieval stage of memory. The false memory syndrome and coerced confessions can take place in this stage. Both of these concepts can be unconscious
...at because of the size of the children there would have been physical symptoms, no documented evidence of this sort was presented during the case. Out of 100 students no physical symptoms were ever recorded, and not one student said anything about abuse until four years later when the investigator was pursued (Silvergate, 2004) No parents ever filed complaints prior to police investigation. Because memories are malleable and children are even more vulnerable to authority, it is very probable that some children just complied to the leading questions due to fear, but is it possible that they all could? The influence of the investigators parallels to the influence of therapists in cases of sexually abused children's recovered memories.
Amici curiae is a social psychologist and legal scholar who studies the effects of the Recovered Memory Syndrome on individuals’ behaviors and judicial practices. Amici has conducted research and published several peer-reviewed articles explaining the role of hypnosis in uncovering repressed memories and related traumas that come along with it. This brief intends to provide the Court with relevant and current literature explaining the recovered memory phenomenon and its relationship with psychotherapeutic techniques where recovery of memories often occurs. Research presented by amici demonstrates that cases of sexual abuse, real or imagined, must be given careful consideration as victims undergo significant emotional
McNally, R. J., Clancy, S. A., Barrett, H. M., Parker, H. A., Ristuccia, C. S., & Perlman, C. A. (2006). Autobiographical memory specificity in adults reporting repressed, recovered, or continuous memories of childhood sexual abuse. Cognition & Emotion, 20(3/4), 527-535. doi:10.1080/02699930500342779
This would help us in understanding the reconstructive aspect of memory further. Thereupon conscious efforts could be taken to reduce false memories in individuals suffering from psychological disorders. As some disorders are usually a result of misinterpretation of events in life due to perverted inner beliefs or fears, this can be an appropriate intervention . Classically, it is true for adult reconstruction of childhood abuse and trauma which is widely studied. The research shows that these sort of memories are often distorted and self created, with no relevance to reality.
Child abuse is a serious issue in today's society. Many people have been victims of child abuse. There are three forms of child abuse: physical, emotional, and sexual. Many researchers believe that sexual abuse is the most detremental of the three. A middle-aged adult who is feeling depressed will probably not relate it back to his childhood, but maybe he should. The short-term effects of childhood sexual abuse have been proven valid, but now the question is, do the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse affect middle-aged adults? Many contradicting views arise from the subject of childhood sexual abuse. Researchers and psychologists argue on this issue. Childhood sexual abuse has the potential to damage a child physically, emotionally, and behaviorally for the rest of his or her childhood, and the effects have been connected to lasting into middle-aged adulthood.
6. With respect to the controversy regarding reports of repressed memories of sexual abuse, statements by major psychological and psychiatric associations suggest that:
In contrast to more traditional therapies such as client centered therapy and psychoanalytic therapy there is little attention paid to childhood recollections. Cognitive therapists tend to focus on the “here-and-now”.
Ever since it was thought of by psychologist Sigmund Freud the topic has been a debatable one for some time now with critics on both sides arguing over its validity. Many psychologists have claimed that the research is preposterous and impossible to prove. One researcher in particular, Dr. Richard J. McNally, is quoted in an article saying, “The notion that traumatic events can be repressed and later recovered is the most pernicious bit of folklore ever to infect psychology and psychiatry” (Media Report). In the past 30 years individuals have begun coming forth claiming that they were victims of childhood sexual abuse, CSA, years prior to sharing with media. The victims claimed that they had not recalled the abuse until recently and had been repressing the memory of it. Ever since then researchers have been looking for answers in...
As we look into the effects of trauma on infants, we first must consider to what extent infants have memory. Many people assume that trauma cannot affect children who are too young to remember what happened. Perhaps, they even think that these infants are lucky because they experienced trauma so young that they grow up as if nothing had ever happened. However, studies show that we may need to think beyond our intuition.
Recently there has been an extreme debate between "false" vs. "repressed" memories of abuse. A false memory is created when an event that really happened becomes confused with images produced by trying to remember an imagined event. The term false memory syndrome refers to the notion that illusionary and untrue memories of earlier child abuse can be 'recalled' by adult clients during therapy. In an increasingly polarized and emotive debate, extreme positions have been adopted, on one side by those believing that recovered memories nearly always represent actual traumatic experiences, for example, Fredrickson (1992) who argues for a 'repressed memory syndrome' and, on the other side, by those describing a growing epidemic of false memories of abuse which did not occur. (Gardner, 1992; Loftus, 1993; Ofshe & Watters, 1993; Yapko, 1994).
Recovered memories of childhood trauma and abuse has become one of the most controversial issues within the field of psychology. Controversy surrounding repressed memory - sometimes referred to as the memory wars – reached its’ peak in the early 1990s, where there was a rise in the number of people reporting memories of childhood trauma and abuse that had allegedly been repressed for many years (Lindsay & Read, 2001). There are a number of different factors that have contributed to the dispute surrounding recovered memories. Firstly, there is an ongoing debate about whether these types of memories actually exist or whether these accusations arose as a result of suggestive therapeutic procedures. In particular, this debate focuses on two main
Trauma is a psychological reaction to sudden traumatic events and overwhelming issues from outside. Additionally, the exposure to activities that are outside the human’s normal experiences. Traumatic events become external and incorporate into the mind (Bloom, 1999, p. 2). Traumatization happens when the internal and external forces do not appropriately cope with the external threat. Furthermore, trauma causes problems because the client’s mind and body react in a different way and their response to social groups. The symptoms of trauma relate to irritability, intrusive thoughts, panic and anxiety, dissociation and trance-like states, and self-injurious behaviors (Bloom, 1999, p. 2). Childhood trauma happens when they live in fear for the lives of someone they love (Bloom, 1999, p. 2). Judith Herman’s trauma theory states that the idea of repressed memories relates to unconscious behavior. These repressed behaviors include those inhibited behaviors relate to memories of childhood abuse. From McNally’s point of view memories of trauma cannot be repressed especially those that are more violent (Suleiman, 2008, p. 279). In addition, one of the theories used to dealing with trauma includes the coping theory. With situations, people tend to use problem-solving and emotion-focused coping. Emotion-focused coping happens when people are dealing with stressors. When the stressors become more
The treatment of childhood maltreatment effects s still in its infancy, however. It is likely that the next decade will bring with it a burfeoning of treatment techniques and approaches relevant to child abuse sequale. As this field develops, so too grows the opportunity for clincians to provide increasingly more effective services to abuse survivors. To the extent that child abuse trauma underlies a significant proportion of modern mental health problems, these developments are likely to have substantial implications for mental health practice in the years to come. (P.163)
Many people think of the physical and sexual sides of child abuse and they often forget