VIPs: Sigmund Freud and Elizabeth Loftus
Sigmund Freud
The above video gives a great glimpse into the life of Sigmund Freud. He is psychology's most famous figure and also one of the most influential thinkers from the twentieth century. Freud believed that we block memories that could cause us anxiety from our consciousness. The concept of repression is controversial though because there is mixed research evidence debating whether it is true or not. Sigmund Freud believed that the painful memories haunt us in some way and it is best to bring them out and resolve them through therapy.
Elizabeth Loftus
The Eyewitness Testimony above does a great job of giving an example of Elizabeth Loftus' constructed nature of memory. Researchers can alter memory by simply phrasing questions in a different way. This establishes the misinformation effect, which is having misleading information modify our memories. Her research focuses on psychology and the law. Her contributions to psychology has also helped the law a lot. She proved that eyewitnesses can't be relied on for cases since even if they aren't trying to, things can alter their memories.