Intentional Forgetting and Emotions Essay Sample

Emotional memories that people want to bury are sometimes difficult to go forth behind ; particularly the painful 1s or the 1s recorded visually may be the toughest to bury. ( University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill [ UNCCH ] . 2009 ) . Take the illustration when you watch the intelligence on Television and see images of force and war. it may lodge in your memory more than if you read a headline on a newspaper. ( Payne. 2007 ) Intentional burying aid worlds update their memory with new information ; we frequently forget events. take a incorrect way. come to a switched meeting clip but events like holding a bad class on an test or a negative remark from a friend can be difficult to bury ( Corrigan. 2004 ) . Because when we try to bury we mentally isolate specific information and attempt to barricade it. During this procedure. we make connexions between our life and the emotional event which make the knowing forgetting difficult as emotion makes events really noticeable and hence extremely accessible in our memory.

This consequence differs from old surveies of knowing forgetting and it’s relation to emotional events where they used words stimulations like “sex” or “murder” the impact of artworks or violent images is more powerful to alter the manner a individual feels. The UNC survey centre asked 218 participants to respond to images alternatively of text and concluded that the word slaying. for illustration. didn’t made people afraid every bit much as the 1s who saw images of slayings which had a powerful impact on the manner they feel. This research besides showed that both unpleasant and pleasant emotional memories resist to knowing forgetting. The trouble of burying something depends on the manner that our emotions adhere memories into the encephalon ; the painful or traumatic the emotion the harder it will be to bury. However. it doesn’t average that emotional memories can ne’er be forgotten ; if the motive to bury is strong plenty. one can wholly bury an event ( “Journal of Experimental Social Psychology” . 2007 ) .

What is more interesting is that females and males have different tolerances over the knowing forgetting ; adult female tend to concentrate on negative memories because they are more open to emotional upsets like depression which make them increase their focal point on negative emotions ( Dolcos. 2008 ) . The research conducted by Institute for Psychological Research at Universidad del Salvador used questionnaire on 71 participants which 38 of them are adult females. The concluding consequence revealed that both adult females and work forces who have high extraversion inclined to retrieve more positive events from their life. Work force who have high neurosis leaned to remember more parts of negative memories so work forces with low neurosis. while both adult females with high and low neurosis tended to retrieve negative memories over and over. This phenomenon is called contemplation and is known to be associated with depression.

Depressed people feel frequently times sad that’s why they collect most negative memories. and as a consequence of their feeling of unhappiness they recall negative memories. So in fact it’s barbarous circle. ( Dolcos. 2008 ) . Positive memories precede a more positive temper in general. so the research suggest besides that if a individual keeps making gratifying actions and alter his temper to “happy” it’s more likely that the individual will remember less bad memories. To reason. our emotions are of import because they shape our memories and adhere them into our encephalons to do strong or weak memories. However. due to the malleability of our heads. we can alter our feeling/mood and hence be able to bury painful memories if we build the right motive.

Mentions:

* Payne. K. ( 2007 ) . The Memories You Want To Forget. 12-15.

* University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ( 2009. August 15 ) . The Memories You Want To Forget.

* Corrigan. E. ( 2004 ) . The Impact of the Entourage on Your Memories. 23-26.

* Ku. G. ( 2007 ) . Journal of Experimental Social Psychology: Emotions and memories. 105 ( 2 ) . 221-232.

* Dolcos. F. ( 2008 ) . University of Illinois Psychology Journals. 176-184.