Abstract Summary: The repressed/false memory debate is marked by sharp polarities of what Loftus terms firm believers and skeptics who "point to the reconstructive nature of memory and ask for evidence and corroboration". The debate is far from theoretical since individual's reputations and futures are at stake. While the claims and arguments on both sides of the controversy will be discussed, the purpose here is to explore the nature of memory, repression and dissociation to determine if therapists can distinguish between true and false memories of childhood trauma.
Abstract This paper presents a research proposal for looking at whether or not a therapist can implant false memories in a patient. The paper evaluates the issue and suggests a methodology for studying this issue.
From the Paper "Davis and Dalgleish state that false memory syndrome is one of the most controversial issues in the mental health field, noting that essentially it involves recollection of memories usually of sexual abuse that were either falsely programmed or which are legitimately recovered. Bjorklund spells the notion of false memory syndrome out in more detail conceptualizing it as a condition in which an individual's identity and interpersonal relationships center around a..."
Abstract An explication of Yusef Komunyakaa's poem "Facing It," as the self expression of the poet - an African American and Vietnam War veteran - as he sees his reflection in the Vietnam Memorial.
From the Paper "In the poem "Facing It" by Yusef Komunyakaa, the author uses first person narration, metaphor, simile, images of light and darkness, personification, allusion and word connotation in order to convey to his detached audience the intimate experience of making his pilgrimage to the Vietnam War Veteran's Memorial in Washington DC. For Komunyakaa, an African American writer and Vietnam veteran, the emotions associated with the memorial are complex, sad, disheartening and cherished."
Tags: komunyakaa, facing it, yusef, vietnam war veteran, memorial
Abstract Looks at testing to ascertain whether a hypothesis is true or false. The paper examines the views of Thomas Kuhn and the "paradigm" and Karl Popper's contention that deductive testing is true science, and induction is false science.
From the Paper "True Science vs. Pseudo-Science
Introduction and Purpose
True science and pseudo-science, it has been argued, can be distinguished from one another by an examination of the nature of scientific discovery, with particular attention to the use of a ..."
A comparative analysis of the theme of love and false love in William Shakespeare's "King Lear", F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby" and "Fifth Business" by Robertson Davies.
769 words (approx. 3.1 pages), 0 sources, 2004, $ 27.95
Abstract This paper examines how although "King Lear" by William Shakespeare, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald and "Fifth Business" by Robertson Davies, are all very different works from different times and places, the main characters all possess a similar downfall or fatal flaw: They cannot distinguish true love from false love. It attempts to show how as a result, King Lear loses his kingdom and his life and how Nick Carraway, the narrator of "The Great Gatsby", gets involved with a dangerous, immoral crowd and undergoes a personal struggle with his own morals and lifestyle. It also looks at how Dunstan Ramsay, the narrator of "Fifth Business, tells the tale of his life, throughout which he suffers because of his inability to let go of a woman from his past.
From the Paper "In the Great Gatsby, Nick Carraway goes through his own hardships and makes his own mistakes. Most of these, like those of Lear, stem from his inability to distinguish between true and false love. He has an infatuation for Daisy Buchanan (one shared by many characters in the novel), and begins an affair with Jordan Baker, a cynical golfer. The problem, of course, is that he mistakes the infatuation or lust he has in the presence of these two women for real emotion, for real love. Because of this, he believes that they care for him, in some way at least, and that they are good people. As he finds out later, however, this is not the case."
Abstract This paper explores the theory of Alfred Tarski, which he published in 1936 called "Wahrheitsbegriff". It explains how he investigates the schema of colloquial language and formal language to prove whether such language usage is true in its context and logic or not. It discusses how theorists challenged Tarski's controversial equation, which he presents as his T schema for proving statements/ sentences true. It also states that most theorists disagree with this T schema "p" is true if p.
From the Paper "Tarski presumes that the rule for this equation is true if p is proven false. To achieve the desired result, he put forward the condition that in the T schema if a sentence is S then p is a replica or in another word S= p. However p will have to be untrue for S to be true. In formal language he perceives that correctness means that there is no ambiguity of truthfulness or untruthfulness of the existence of a sentence/phrase. Inconsistency according to him exists when the parts of the sentence does not conform to the object of the sentence (Tarski 1944)."
This paper reviews, chapter by chapter, the book, "The Many Faces of Christology", by Tyron L. Inbody, which explores the various ways of using Christ in religion or of seeing how Christ forms beliefs with a myriad of different outlooks.
Abstract The author presents four varying claims as to whether Christianity is truly the better, more truthful religion. The author points out that Exclusivism states Christianity is the true religion, and, therefore, no other can be true. The paper concludes that no one religion can say it is the one way among all the great truths of other religions, and for Christians, their way can be enriched and transformed by the true things about the other religions.
Table of Contents
Jesus of Nazareth and Christology
Jesus Christ and the Identity of God: The Christological Creeds of Yesterday and Today
Evangelical Christology
Table of Contents
Liberal and Post-liberal Christologies
Feminist Christology
Christology and the Atonement: Is Atonement Theology Sacralization of Abuse?
Jesus, Judaism, and Christianity
Is Jesus the Only Way, Truth, and Life?
Conclusion
From the Paper "The concept of God that Christians accept originally came from Judaism. The "theistic God" is the God of ?philosophy, theology, and piety,? according to Inbody. But the concept of God is under attack, writes Inbody: He is being dismissed as "an illusion" or a ?key concept in an ideology of alienation and oppression, suffering, and injustice.? Meanwhile, historically, by the early second century, some Christians believed that Jesus Christ was not ?a human being at all,? but only ?appeared to be human.? In the 5th Century the question was often asked, were Christ's "divine and human natures" thoroughly "fused"? But these are the kinds of questions, Inbody writes, that are raised only when theologians "interfere with popular piety" ? because most modern Christians tend to avoid "theological debates and definitions" ? in particular, Christology. "
Abstract The first part of this paper looks at the surprising number of convictions that have been overturned due to DNA evidence or the work of tenacious lawyers and relatives. It then examines the difficulties that keep the wrongfully convicted from finding employment, pursuing an education, and re-building their lives upon their release, and the obstacles they once faced in seeking redress from the state. The next part looks at the current difficulties former inmates contend with in their fight to secure compensation for their wrongful convictions. In the last part, the paper looks at the compensation programs in place to address the needs of the wrongfully convicted, paying particular attention to the provisions in the Wrongful Conviction Bill.
From the Paper "A 2002 study by the Associated Press followed the lives of 110 former inmates after their convictions were overturned due to DNA tests. Majority of the men in this study reported that the vindication failed to bring them the fabled happy ending. Due to their lack of education and training, many find it difficult to secure regular jobs. Most of these men spent the ages of 28 through 38 in prison, a period of life that is often seen as the "critical wage-earning years" (Cohen and Hastings). Many analysts thus believe that their current job and financial difficulties could have continuing repercussions through the normal span of a person's wage earning years."
Tags: wage, job, dna, employment, wrongful, conviction, bill
Abstract The paper shows that while the use of psychological interrogation methods is currently permissible by the courts in Canada, Great Britain and the U.S.A., many researchers argue that psychological interrogation is, in essence, no different than blatant coercion. Confession Law has slowly evolved over time alongside the evolution of interrogation methods. The paper discusses how prior to the 18th Century, English Common Law accepted confessions without any restrictions, which allowed confessions extracted through torture to be accepted as viable representations of objective truth. Today, the bottom line on the admissibility of confessions is that they are "typically excluded if elicited by physical violence, by a threat of harm or punishment, by a promise of leniency or immunity from prosecution, or by failure to notify a suspect of his or her constitutional rights to counsel and silence" (Kassin & McNall, 1991). The paper shows that despite these seemingly stringent laws regarding the admissibility of confessions, psychological interrogation methods are adept at circumventing the law, and continue to employ methods that run the risk of eliciting false confessions. This paper reviews the literature on Psychological Interrogation methods, false confessions and the implications of both.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Psychological Interrogation Tactics
Inside the Interrogation Room
Custodial Legal Advice & The Right to Silence
Psychological Interrogation Functioning as Coercion
Police Interrogations and Confessions
Communicating Promises and Threats by Pragmatic Implication
False Confessions
Occurrence of False Confessions
Creation of False Confessions
An Empirical Study On Recall
Discourse Study
Interrogative Suggestibility & Delinquent Boys
Psychological Characteristics of False Confessors
Consequences of False Confessions
From the Paper "Interrogation, as defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary, is the act of "questioning; formally and systematically." Interrogations within criminal justice systems are used to gather information relevant to investigations, and more importantly, to elicit confessions from suspects. Methods of interrogation have changed drastically throughout history, but the ultimate goal of obtaining confessions has held constant. While the whips and chains of the past have now exited the western world's interrogation rooms, many scholars argue that today's suspects are still subjected to psychological tortures. Psychological Interrogation is the most recent approach used by law enforcement officials to extract information from suspects."
Tags: applied, brutality, deprivation, police, psychology, sleep, social
This paper reviews an experiment relating to false confessions as conducted and reported by Saul M. Kassin and Katherine L. Kiechel (1996) in the article "The Social Psychology of False Confessions: Compliance, Internalization, and Confabulation".
Abstract This paper examines research about coerced-internalized false confessions, which occur when innocent suspects actually believe that he or she is guilty of the crime; many of which are the result of police interrogation in which deceptive and deceitful practices may be used and accepted by the judicial system. The author points out that the article "The Social Psychology of False Confessions" tested the hypothesis that the presentation of false evidence can lead individuals who are vulnerable to confess to an act, which they did not commit, and, more important, to internalize the confession and perhaps confabulate details in memory consistent with that new belief. The paper relates that the researchers used an experimental method, which the paper describes, and concludes that this experiment was well-executed and well-reported.
From the Paper "There were two independent variables in this experiment. First, the subject's level of vulnerability was manipulated by varying the pace of the task. Therefore, the confederate read at either a fast or slow pace. Second, the experimenters varied the use of false incrimination evidence. The confederates either "witnessed" or acknowledged the mistake or some confederates did not "witness", or see the subject touch the ALT key. The dependent variable was the confessions. Three forms of social influence were evaluated: compliance, internalization, and confabulation. To assess compliance, the experimenter handwrote a confession and asked the subject to sign it. "
Abstract This paper explores what false memory is and how and why we use it. It also explores the difference between semantic and phonological processing. The effects of false memory and the varying factors influencing it including thought processing and time before encoding are investigated and discussed thoroughly. The papers also compares this experiement to other similar studies. The results are consistent across all participants and support the theory of false memory effects efficiently.
From the Paper "One hypothesis that can be looked at is: HA: False memory effects are influenced by the depth of processing at encoding. HO: False memory effects are not influenced by the depth of processing at encoding. This can be studied by looking at the empirical results and searching for a large difference between the amount of unstudied critical words and the amount of unstudied unrelated words that are "remembered" across the field of participants. Another hypothesis that can be tested is: HA: False memory effects occur for phonological as well as semantic associates of encoding lists. HO: False memory effects occur for only phonological associates of encoding lists. From the results, it cannot be proven that these types of false memory effects absolutely exist, but can be strongly argued that they do. The larger amount of participants used the better the result that we can achieve."
Abstract In this article, the writer discusses the book 'Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold' by C.S. Lewis and notes that Lewis has created a complex novel in his retelling of the story of Cupid and Psyche. The writer points out that it is a novel with numerous themes and meanings, one which is very deep and reflects on the very core of the interaction between human nature and spirituality. The writer relates that speaking largely on the power of God, the Divine, love, jealousy and family among other themes, Lewis creates a powerful character in Orual whose transformation reflects on the very nature of God's involvement in life and on love, spirituality, and holiness within an individual. The writer concludes that Orual went through the process of gaining a face through her conversion and through her realization of her own self-deception, Lewis is suggesting that it requires internal awakening of the divine before true conversion and understanding of God can be reached.
From the Paper "Orual's conversion, and her own struggles with the divine, is reflective of the challenges humans must overcome to discover God. To find God, one must first find God in him or herself. Only through finding the divine inside, can one truly discover God. With the veil over the faces, to borrow Lewis' metaphor, humans have to face, and therefore cannot see the face of God. The face of God is not for humans to see anyway, because it is so pure and divine. However, there will come a day when we all have faces, as the title suggests, and then truly can we discover God. Ultimately, we must discover the Godliness in us as individuals; we must all undergo the conversion of Orual. The love that humans think they feel is not unconditional and it has to be to discover God. Discovering God is finding heavenly love in oneself, and to discover that one must believe in the greater spiritual powers without empirical proof. Psyche found her true happiness by trusting God, and she had beauty that was limitless. In Till We Have Faces, Lewis depicts how humans must go through a conversion, a difficult conversion in which they find true love in themselves in order to understand the true love of God. Only then, can God be discovered."
An examination of Lydia Marie Child's short story, "The Quadroons" and how the virtues described in it contrast to Barbara Welter's "The Cult of True Womanhood."
Abstract This paper discusses Lydia Marie Child's short story, "The Quadroons" and how it relates the socially controversial issues such as slavery and anti-miscegenation laws that American women faced during the nineteenth century. The paper specifically shows how Child's characters in context appear to uphold the pillars of Barbara Welter's "The Cult of True Womanhood," but on closer inspection they are truly offering an alternative to the virtues defined in the cult.
From the Paper "After Rosalie's death due to a broken heart, and Edward's death, Charlotte also proves to be a progressive character. Putting anti-miscegenation laws aside, she allows Xarifa to stay in the cottage and to continue all of her studies for free. This action by Charlotte is not only pious, but also highlights on the virtue of domesticity Welter speaks about in her article. Even though she never really communicates openly with Xarifa, Charlotte's actions are domestic through the appeals of motherhood and compassion. Once again, by going along with the cult, the character's actions put a harsher light on the laws and we sympathize with yet another Quadroon."
Tags: anti-miscegenation, abolition, slavery, women
Abstract This paper argues that a false promise is always immoral. The author relates that the target of the false promise doesn't share the purpose or end of the liar's action.
