Emotional Memory & Gender Differneces
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Gender Differences in Memory of Emotional
and Non-Emotional Material
The differences between men and women is very popular when it comes to psychological testing. Studies are always being done to examine the possible differences between men and women amongst numerous variables. In my study, I hypothesized that there will be a difference between men and women, and the how well they remember emotional information. There have also been many studies done to show that emotional events are better remembered than neutral events.
It has been shown in pharmacological studies that epinephrine is a factor in the types of material we remember. Peripheral epinephrine stimulates the amygdala, which shows that emotional material is better remembered than material that is not emotional (Arntz, de Groot, Kindt, 2004). Studies like this one show that there is a lot of biological reasoning for why people remember information that they do.
Arntz, de Groot, Kindt (2004) did a study on memory of emotional material. They found that the emotional information they presented was remembered significantly better than the neutral information in both men and women. However, the results between genders was not stated.
In a study by Maljkovic, Martini (2005), it was stated that there has not been very much research done on emotional material and short-term memory. The research that has been done on short-term memory is also controversial. It was stated in this study that emotional information in the long-term memory is better remembered and more easily retrieved than information that is neutral.
According to Wundt, emotional material has to be measured. Since emotional material is not the same as non-emotional material, it is important that you look at the difference in the material you have, and measure and compare it. The measurement is based on valence and intensity (Maljkovic, Matini, 2005).
Manguno-Mire, Geer (1998), conducted a study on gender differences in emotional material. Their study stated a difference between the way males and females process information, and that it is consistent. Geer (1996) found that