Question

During the process of psychotherapy, Elaine recovered some long-forgotten and painful memories from her childhood. This experience led her to conclude that these memories must have been repressed for many years. Discuss the issues involved in assessing Elaine's claim.

Answer 1

Repression - a defense mechanism and acts to keep information out of conscious awareness (Ex. Child abuse)
• False Memory - inaccurate memory that feels like an accurate memory (
• Source Misattribution - attributing a memory to the wrong source, resulting in a false memory (could happen if you dream or someone telling you a story about something and then you thinking that it is a real memory)
• Imagination inflation - happens when you vividly imagine the event and thus thinking it really happened
• Observation Inflation Effect - happens when you observe someone else's actions and then think that you were the one who performed those actions 
• Misinformation Effect - happens when memory is distorted by exposure to misleading information (misleading information given at the time of the test)