Ethical Considerations For Memory Modification

Larry Watson suggests that traumatic experiences transform children into adults, and that disturbing experiences lead to changes of mind, growth in morals, and an emerging sense of adulthood.

We are going to explore the world of ethical issues in psychology. As in any medical or mental health fields there are rules we all must follow as professionals. In this essay today we will be exploring a case study where we have a young lady who has been stricken by a mental disability. We will be looking at the facts in which her disability was handled by a professional in the field of psychology. We also will be discussing the rights and wrongs that are presented in her case study. We will also be discussing the APA ethical codes and gain a clearer understanding of where some things went wrong and why shall we begin.

This moral dilemma Loftus talks about is difficult indeed whether to implant false memories. I do not think it is ethical to implant false memories into people's mind. I say this because memories represent our identities. Taking away who we are seems to be really immoral as our identity are based on these memories. Memories aren’t all the time always good, but these horrible ones are what make up our identities as replacing them would create a whole new us which is basically brain watching a person and violates the ethics of psychology. This not only takes away our identity in some way, but also lies to

When children experience a traumatic event, not only does it affect their emotions but it can affect many areas of development if not all of them. Equally, health and learning difficulties can also have a less desirable effect on holistic development. By looking at how such factors can affect child development, we can work towards finding a suitable learning method and helping children overcome and recover from their experiences.

The sudden recovery of repressed memories from a traumatic event such as childhood sexual abuse can be both validating and confusing for clients that are seeking help with various problems. These new memories might be able to help client identify the cause of their feelings and issues that are affecting their life. However for others it can be a very difficult time because of the conflicting emotions about the abuser. Worst of all when dealing with the recovery of repressed memories they may be all together false. The accuracy of recovered memories in regards to sexual abuse is low and can come with significant consequences. These false memories can be very harmful to the client as

Ethical dilemmas are one of the many sensitive issues that come with doing psychological research with human participants. As seen in several famous psychology studies such as the Stanford prison experiment, Milgram experiment, and Tuskegee experiment, ethics in psychological studies are important to protect both the individuals being subjected to research and the researcher. While these specific experiments did not include children, it does bring up an important conversation regarding ethics in research. There are several guidelines put in place by the American Psychological Association to protect humans during research. However, special considerations and guidelines are put into place when working with

The core-concept of an individual is largely influenced by one’s ability to regulate internal emotional states and one’s behavioral reactions to external stress. Children who experience trauma have difficulty managing their emotional states thus leading to poor perceptions of themselves. A distorted sense of self can potentially lead to loss of autobiographical memories, poor body image, and disturbances in sense of separateness in which the person may appear detached and distant (Carr, 2012). It may also lead to difficulty with impulse control which includes aggression

Studies investigating the capacity of patients with mild-to-moderate cognitive impairment to give consent or those analyzing the decision-making of surrogates of AD patients with dementia often present conflicting results. The ethical principle of autonomy clearly recognizes each person’s right to make informed decisions with respect to participation in research. However, taking into account the nature of the disease, (which affects cognitive processing in a critical way) and its progression towards dementia there are justified concerns about the capacity of these patients to give informed consent in an AD research context. Thus, there is a need to equilibrate the protection of vulnerable adults with their right to choose to participate in such research. It is debatable whether patients with mild to moderate impairment are capable of giving informed consent. For instance, while some studies assessing the consent-giving capacities of mildly cognitively impaired AD patients conclude that they do not have these capacities (Kim et al., 2001), others seem to show that the reverse is true and a proportion of patients with mild and moderate AD are perfectly capable of making informed decisions (Karlawish et al. 2002).

Cognitive enhancement is a rapidly evolving medical advancement which has the potential to drastically change society as we know it. Cognitive enhancement technologies, such as pharmaceutical and genetic cognitive enhancement methods, raise a wide variety of ethical concerns despite their potential to greatly benefit society. This paper will focus on cognitive enhancement drugs, also known as nootropics, such as Adderall, Ritalin, and Modafinil. In this paper, I will argue that we have a moral obligation to utilize pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement methods in order to benefit society as a whole. I will also consider a potential objection to the presented argument which questions the benefits of cognitive enhancement drugs if their successful

Teaching About Repressed Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse - This article describes an undergrad 3 credit hour course taught in the fall at Rollins College. It examines human memory and its role in two applied issues which include repressed memory of childhood sexual abuse and eye witness testimony. The course content includes four components: 1) the instructor introduces students to the subject matter, 2) students review the nature of science, 3) learn about the extensive literature on the nature of human memory, and 4) learn about the anecdotal and scientific literature (for and against) on repressed memories of childhood sexual abuse and the literature on the accuracy of eyewitness testimony and identification. Freud and the notion of repression is discussed both in this article and in

Humans have been seeking many different ways to improve their cognitive ability for thousands of years. For example, education has been used in order to learn and improve on cognitive ability and to improve our understanding of the world (Bostrom and Sandberg, 2009). With the advance of technology, resources and medicine, humans have managed to develop cognitive enhancing drugs that improve our cognitive ability by improving the attention, motivation and working memory.

Since this is a huge problem in the legal system, there has been a huge debate on whether or not the reports of recovering memories of abuse can be authentic, since human memory is susceptible to distortion. These types of memories can either help or hurt people in the system for example prosecuting an innocent person who was accused of being an abuser. However, very few studies have been done on the population of at risk children such as those in foster care or adoption.

The three main ethical issues in psychology using human participants are: Privacy, physical and psychological harm and deception.

In this experiment, subjects are explained that this is “a ‘learning experiment’ to ... study the effects of punishment on memory” (4). Yet, the real intention here is to measure the participants’ compliance towards the experimenter. This controversy is unethical as subjects are volunteering for a cause that does not exist. They are misled since they are not exposed to the real purpose of this study.

Almost anyone that has had the misfortune of enduring an early childhood traumatic experience will readily admit that it has had lasting effects on his life. A traumatic occurrence at an early time in one's life will not only change the person's way of thinking, but it will also alter the relationships that this person has with certain people, places, or things. Normally comfortable settings will suddenly become extremely uncomfortable. People that the child was once at great ease with unexpectedly are transformed into completely different people in the child's eyes. For an adult, traumatic experiences are easier to handle, at least in my opinion. But for a child, going through a tragic event could completely destroy the type of