A2 PSYCHOLOGY – HOW SCIENCE WORKS - RESEARCH TASK
INVESTIGATING REPRESSION – MOTIVATED FORGETTING
The aim – is to investigate Sigmund Freud’s theory of Repression. This suggests that we
will forget material that is unpleasant and is a threat to our conscious mind, he called it an
ego defence mechanism. This is based on original research by Levinger and Clark (1961)
which appeared to support Freud’s idea.
The method – is a laboratory experiment using a list of words, half are emotionally
negative words, the other half neutral ones. The same participant is used for both
conditions.
Participants – they should be over 16.
Ethical considerations – You need to find emotionally negative words that are not going
to unduly upset your participants (eg: don’t use “cancer” if your participants best friend has
just been diagnosed with it). Consider how you are going to protect your participants from
psychology harm in this way.
Procedure – You could work in pairs on this.
1) Write out a list of five neutral and five emotionally charged words of similar length.
2) Combine the words into a single list, randomising the order.
3) Ask your participant to give you (verbally) a word that they associate with each word
in your list. You will need to write these down alongside the words in your original
list.
4) After a short delay (30 seconds is enough) ask your participant to recall as many of
the words that they gave you as possible (ie: not the words in your list).
5) Compare the number of words that they remembered with the emotionally negative
words in your list with the number they remembered with the neutral words.
6) Repeat this with as many participants as you can in the time available.
7) What can you conclude from your findings?
8) Be prepared to contribute your conclusions to a class discussion.
Findings: This type of research provides quantative data, which means it is possible to
analyse statistically. Which statistic would you use?
Conclusions: What conclusions can you reach regarding Freud’s theory?
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A2 PSYCHOLOGY – HOW SCIENCE WORKS - RESEARCH TASK
INVESTIGATING REPRESSION – MOTIVATED FORGETTING
Attempt to answer these questions.
What was the independent variable (IV) in this experiment?
How could word length become confounding variable?
Suggest at least one other confounding variable?
What was the experimental design used (ie: independent groups, matched pairs,
repeated measures)?
State the Experiential Hypothesis in this experiment (note- this has to be testable – it can
only be right or wrong)?
Based on your experience can you suggest an alternative explanation for Levinger &
Clarks findings?
Comment on the ecological validity of this research?
Comment on the experimental validity of this research?
What are the ethical issues involved in this research?
How could you use other research methods to investigate this topic further?
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