The Role of Emotion:

Flashbulb memories are detailed and long-lasting memories that are usually highly significant and emotional. McCloskey et al (1988) aimed to test the accuracy of flashbulb memories. He interviewed members of the public a few days after the space shuttle disaster in 1986 about their memories usrrounding the event and again 9 months later. He found that there were inaccuracies in their memories and discrepancies between shortly after the event and 9 months later. He concluded that flashbulb memories are subject to the same inaccuracies and forgetting as other memories. The findings suggests that flashbulb memroies are not special tupes of memories. This study has the advantage of not being an artificial laboratory study, meaning it has good ecological validity. However, the study has been criticised on the grounds that the shuttle disaster did not meet the criteria for flashbulb memories for all members of the public as  memories affect different people in different ways.

Freud's proposed that the unconscious mind represses painful memories back into the unconscious to prevent further anxiety, this is what freud called his theory of repression. Hunter (1957) conducted a case study of Irene, who watcher her mother slowly dying for 60 days, when her mother died, Irene was highly distraught. Soon after, she appeared to have no memory of the events surrounding her mother's death…