Download memory and psychological disorders

Megan Imbert
April 2, 2005
1.
The first flashbulb memory I inquired about was with my friend Bahar. Bahar’s
memory was of a time she visited Turkey on August 17, 1999 and an earthquake hit at 3
a.m. Bahar was hardly wearing clothes because of the climate and remembers her Uncle
coming in to her room to get out. She felt the building shaking and thought it was under
attack. Once she was outside she recalled a stranger grabbing her to see if she was alright
and spent the rest of the night sleeping outside where the smell was very foul of death
and destruction. Bahar felt her memory was extremely vivid and extremely accurate
rating a 5 in both areas.
The next flashbulb memory is with Nicole. It was the third week of March in
2004, it was a rainy day and there was an uneasy feeling in her school that day. She
passed her friend Gina around a corner who was all dressed up to tell her that three of her
close friends had been in a terrible car accident the night before. Nicole began crying.
No one knew the details, but she found out all of her friends were in school, but Heather
who had a broken back which she found out from one of the kids she had second block
with. Nicole felt her memory was a 4 for vividness and a 5 for accuracy.
The last flashbulb memory is of Liz. Two summers ago July 6, 2003 Liz was at
the beach having a barbeque on her deck wearing capri’s and a night shirt, while her
grandmother was beating her grandfather in a card game when she got a call from her
friend saying that her two friends got hit by a drunk driver. She remembers being very
confused and quiet. She went to the hospital to find out her friend Alicia was going to be
paralyzed. Liz rates her vividness and accuracy of her memory as both 4’s.
Since, this all of the flashbulb memories are all traumatic events the people I
interviewed are convinced that their memories are vivid and very accurate. All of these
events were surprising, important, and emotionally arousing events (Textbook, 241). The
memories are accurate in terms of who told them what happened, where they were, but
the specifics may only be an estimate. However, each person I interviewed was
exceptionally confident in the memory that she told, and when asked questions were able
to recall what she thought happened. It seems the reason flashbulb memories, especially
of traumatic events are ingrained in the mind because of the extensive amount of thought
a person does once such an event happens.
2.
American Civilization is a course in which the professor gives two exams the
entire semester. There is a lot of information that is covered during those segments in
time. Typically I study by reviewing my notes every few days and making not cards for
these exams. My grades could be better if I used the methods we have been taught in
class. Elaborative rehearsal would help me if I applied the knowledge that I have
learned, or read further about an event or person in history. If I did more research of the
information regarding a certain topic in class I would become more personally attached to
the ideas and have the information pertaining to that subject encoded into my long term
memory. In order for me to properly encode the information I wish to store in my long
term memory, I must rehears it by using maintenance and elaborative rehearsal. If I
rehearsed my note a little every day and did distributed practice, I would be more
effective (Lecture, 4/22). Once I believe I know the information, I should over learn it
and review more. Also, in order to encode my notes better I should recall the meanings
and significance of certain events rather than relying solely on the professor’s lectures in
class. I tend to procrastinate and am disorganized. In order for me to encode information
properly I must develop exceptional organization skills and then review. Hopefully, once
that information has been encoded and I must retrieve it I should rewrite the notes the
same way I did in class. To better prepare myself for an exam I should construct multiple
choice options to test my recognition and continue to rehearse. For more complex ideas I
should write a short answer or essay about the information without using my notes to test
how much information I really have obtained. Lastly, since I forget about 70 % of what I
learn according to Ebbinghaus’ Curve of Forgetting (Lecture, 4/22), I must be sure to
fully encode the information and use it so it does not decay. In order for me to perform
better in all of my classes I should use more effective ways of encoding information to
long term memory.
3.
Certain types of psychological disorders are present in more men than women and
vice versa for a number of possible reasons. There are certain biological traits present in
men and women that set them apart. Also, gender schemas in US society may form the
source behind the gender divisions in psychological disorder prevalence.
First, I will discuss the certain biological traits present in men and women that
could be the reason there is an apparent division. Women have a tendency to be more in
touch with their emotions, senses, and are more self conscious than men. Due to nature,
women tend to be more cautious, and have higher levels of anxiety. Women have a
higher probability of getting depression and certain phobias because of this high
emotional intensity, and fear of rejection. Women are more emotionally attached
individuals that require a high sense of security and that their biological needs are met.
Women also tend to overgeneralize due to their more detail oriented personalities. Men
tend to be more aggressive and impulsive creatures by nature. Men are more prone to
substance abuse and dependence, antisocial disorder, and personality disorder because of
their more primitive power driven nature. When any of these biological traits are
threatened, so is one’s mental health.
Gender schemas in the US may be a reason for this division because women have
been until recent years more accepted being stay at home moms. When women played
this stay at home role in society they were subservient to men.
Women could have
easily experienced the Cognitive Triad with a negative view of oneself, the world, and the
future due to this isolationism at home (Lecture, 5/2). Women having responsibilities at
home, the workplace, and also typically being the primary caregivers experience much
more stress, and anxiety in today’s society. Where women could displace this anxiety
and keep it in the unconscious mind (Textbook, 412), in fear of ruining relationships or
creating disorder in their lifestyles.
Men in US society are usually the primary providers for families, working long
hours, and possibly feeling inadequate at home. The feelings of inadequacy could be due
to always being at work, not having time to spend with his wife or children. Men tend to
be more controlling in relationships or prefer to have power which could lead to
destructive behavior once stress and anxiety is added. People with Borderline Personality
Disorder tend to be impulsive, moody, and have difficulty maintaining intimacy (Lecture,
5/2). The stress of typical male adult lifestyle’s in US culture makes it difficult to
prioritize one’s life the way in which one would like to live. It seems that money is the
root of evil and what many people are willing to risk their sanity for. Men may lead to
impulse spending and gambling (Text, 425), which could lead to less intimacy at home
and ruin families. This lifestyle of a male that works long hours, drinks to relieve stress
at a bar, and then gambles to come home to a wife that may have depression or
agoraphobia because she could have been abused or has been isolated for a very long
time and wishes her life was different, could be a very real case in US society.