Psychology Essay Example for Free

Psychology Essay Repression is one of the most recurring concepts in psychology. Something dreadful happens and the mind pushes the experience into remote place of the perception. It is one of the key base on which the structure of psychoanalysis rests. Two empirical studies show high degree of trust in the accuracy of the recovered recall heard by many therapists from their clients. Goodman (1991) conducted a large scale study of clinicians who have come across, in their practice, ritualistic and religion-related abuse cases such as allegations of highly peculiar and shocking immoral ritual abuse in the context of an alleged enormous, hidden network of well thought-out, Tran generational satanic cults. Statement of the problem Clients with SRA memories have reported in depth memories of abuse and experiences being used by cults during adolescence as serial baby breeders to provide undetectable infants for ritual sacrifices, (Rogers, 1992b). Bottoms et al. s (1991) analysis indicates that 30% of the clinicians interviewed had seen at least one case of child sexual abuse. Further investigation of 200 clinicians experiences shows that a considerable number of cases involved amnesic periods. Most of the clinicians believed that the so-called harm was actually done and that the ritualistic aspects were actually experienced by the clients. The focus of this study therefore will be based on the investigation of adult memories of childhood abuse. This will include re-examination of some of widely common belief of psychotherapist. For many years the therapist has believed that repressed memory is a great influence, since they are accessible to perception (Bowers, 1992). This research will investigate if there is any proof to support this augment. This study will be based on the following assumption: The psychotherapist ‘s interpretation is the cause of the patient’s disorder, those who cannot memorize a traumatic event at childhood are repressing their memory, those who dream about trauma are in fact in contact with accurate memory. Literature review A different approach to the issue of therapist belief was taken by Loftus and Herzog (1991). They carry out a detailed interview with 16 clinicians who had experienced at least one repressed memory case. The outcomes reveal that about 81 percent of the clinicians always believed in their clients. The most common foundation for belief was symptomatology, or body memories. Many clinicians believe that determining what is genuine and what is not genuine is not the job of a therapist. The conclusion from this study was that therapists believe their clients and often use symptomatology as a proof. The clinicians are overwhelmed with the emotional hurt that accompanies the expression of the memories. (Dawes, 1992) has argued that this wave of belief is based in large part on authority and social consent. There are those with stand positions who would like to reject the accuracy of all repressed memories and those who would accept them all as true. (Van Benschoten, 1990) agued that, these extreme positions will only worsen our troubles. According to Ganaway (1989) if memory is not authentic then it could be due to dream, false impression, or hallucination which is internally derived as a justifiable mechanism. Daro, 1988), agued that childhood sexual abuse is terribly common among different people and according to (Freyd, 1991); even the most conservative of them are high enough to support the enormity of child abuse. Many people who come for therapy were abused in the past when they were children and have always recalled their abuses and give all the possible evidence of being abuse in the past. The abuse may sometime be corroborated with pornographic photographs and thus may lead to un-authenticity of the memory. Repressed memory abuse cases could be authentic if the abuses are confirmed to be prevalence. However when memories ,do not return for 20 to 30 years, documented corroboration might be few, but this does not implies that the such memories are not true. Mack (1980) reported on a 27-year-old man who, recalled memories of seeing his mother trying to hang herself. Later, his father confirmed that in many occasion the mother had tried to killed herself and that the son had witnessed one attempt when he was only 3 years old. And this confirmation apparently led to a relief of symptoms in the son. Sometime memory might be said to be false and that does not implies that such person is actually lying. The psychotherapists who question the accuracy of reports have been overwhelmed with the honesty and intensity of the terror, rage, guilt, depression, and overall behavioral dysfunction accompanying the understanding of abuse (Ganaway, 1989,). Memories according to Ganaway (1989) could be brought about as a result of internal or external sources. The internal factor which produces an abuse memory may give a screen for more ordinary but, ironically, less tolerable, painful experiences of childhood. From the above literature we understand that if memory is untrue, then it will certainly lead to severe damage to the repetitive of potentially innocent people (Ganaway, 1989). This work therefore will investigate how to establish a factual memory, and its finding will be applied in the clinical, societies, and also for handling the patients of childhood trauma. Methodology  This chapter covers the following sections: participants, apparatus, design, and the procedures for carrying out this study. Participants A group of 80 a adult out patients with a reported memory of childhood a buse will be randomly selected Their level of continuous recall, will be tested ands the possible factors which led to the delay of recall will concurrently be investigated. Various abuses will be then be investigated (sexual abuse and physical abuse). At least one of the clinical therapist specialists will also be investigated on how they have been handling abuse cases. Apparatus The study will make use of the questionnaires, interview guides and observation to carry bout its research. These instruments will be administered by the researcher and the research assistant. Questionnaire schedules will be used to collect information from the outpatients because a great deal of the information can be obtained from the respondents directly through questionnaires in a short time. The information included continuity of memory, precipitants to delayed recall of childhood trauma, and the sources of memory confirmation. Oral interviews guidelines will also be used to collect information from the heads of the clinical therapist to verify information on the questionnaires. Interviews are advantageous because of face-to face interpersonal interaction. Non participants’ observation method will be used to collect information on the various respondents given either by the outpatients or the clinical therapist specialist. Procedures The research will start by preparation of the materials to be used for the study after carrying out a pilot study to verify the efficient of the materials. With the help of the research assistant, the questionnaires will be distributed to the selected respondents and they will be expected to fill them on the agreed period. Possible guideline will be issued to assist them understand the questions to be answered. Time, space and materials will be organized for the interview, and this will be set based on the respondent prevalence. Transport and allowances will be set aside as a way of appeasing the respondent. Cameras and radio tapes will also be used to capture the procedures. Data analysis and presentation  The data collected from the field will be analyzed and presented by use of descriptive statistics and other quantitative methods. These include the use of averages, percentages, deviations, variance and ranking. Percentages will be used to analyzed the number of the occurrences of the abuse, where the ranking be used to analyze the trend or the frequency of the abuse. Averages will be used to analyze the approximate number of people in the population affected by the trauma. This research will adopt the use SPSS and Microsoft Excel computer programmes.