Discuss the role of emotion in psychology

Authors Avatar

Discuss the role of emotion in psychology

Emotion is often the greatest cause for either enhanced recall or impaired recall. Through many studies psychologists have found that it is not only facts we store in our memory but the emotion surrounding them.

Flashbulb memories involve an enduring imprint of events surrounding an important incident, the memory is not the event itself but where you were and what you were doing when you heard about it. Sheingold and Tenney (1982) provided evidence to support the concept of flashbulb memories. Participants were asked about personal memories and found most had good memories for when they were told and who told them. They found the flashbulb memories were strong and remained consistent over time; however there is no way of checking the accuracy of these memories.

As shown by Sheingold and Tenney, a flashbulb memory’s characteristic involves consistency and has an unchanging nature and they also involve a high level of emotional arousal which leads to better recall of the event. However Wright (1993) found evidence that goes against this definition, the study involved looking at people’s memories of the Hillsborough football disaster in 1989, 5 moths after the event. It was found that most of the participants didn’t report strong flashbulb memories; in fact many people had reconstructed their memories and had mixed their own with other people’s accounts. This evidence therefore goes against the idea that flashbulb memories remain consistent over time.

Join now!

On the other hand Conway (1994) suggested that the reason some studies don’t support flashbulb memories is because the event wasn’t significant to the individuals. Conway et al used Mrs Thatcher’s resignation as the basis for the creation of flashbulb memories. 11 months after 86% of the UK participants has a strong and consistent flashbulb memory compared to only 29% participants from other countries. This research suggests that flashbulb memories will only be strong if the event surrounding it is significant to the individual; the UK participants would have been more aware and connected to Mrs Thatcher’s resignation than ...

This is a preview of the whole essay