Repressors Vs. Sensitizors

1
Repressors Vs. Sensitizors

• Measurement
• RS Scale
• Too highly correlated with anxiety
• TMAS/MCSD
• Anxiety Defensiveness
• Validity of construct
• Reported anxiety
• Physiological indices
• Memory
• Health Implications

2
Research on Unconscious

• Two questions
• Unconscious content (can we demonstrate existence
  of unconscious content?)
• Unconscious process (can we be affected by
  stimuli not consciously perceived?)

3
Unconscious Content

• Unconscious material available but not
  accessible
• Hypermnesia - recall previously inaccessible
  material
• Clinical recovered memories
• Problem paramnesia (false memory)

4
Unconscious Content

• Hypermnesia
• Lab Erdelyi
• Present stimuli (words, pictures)
• Exhaustive recall tx 1
• Free associate
• Exhaustive recall tx 2
• Results tx2 gt tx1 (false memory controlled)

5
Unconscious Content

• Dissociation - nonunitary consciousness (no
  awareness of material but external evidence for
  material)
• Clinical
• DID
• Emotion awareness
• Problem report bias

6
Unconscious Content

• Dissociation - Lab research
• Hypnosis (Hilgard)
• Suggestion No experience of pain
• Immerse hand cold water
• No pain reported but automatic writing suggests
  pain

7
Unconscious Content

• Dissociation - Lab research
• Implicit/Explicit memory divergence
• Explicit memory - conscious, deliberate recall
• Implicit memory - material affects task
  performance

8
Implicit-Explicit Memory Experiment

• Demonstrate implicit but no explicit memory
• Present Words Explicit test Implicit test
• Hair 0 HA_ _
• Bear BE_ _
• Antegrade amnesiacs
• Normal participants (with delay)

9
Unconscious Content

• Implicit Stereotypes
• An implicit stereotype is a stereotype that is
  powerful enough to operate without conscious
  control.
• The more closely associated two concepts are, the
  easier it is to respond to them as a single unit.
  So, if young and good are strongly associated, it
  should be easier to respond faster when you are
  asked to give the same response

10
Unconscious Processes

• Perceptions
• Semantic Priming
• Prime Target Lexical Decisions
• Doctor Nail Faster for related
• Doctor Nurse target/prime pairs
• Hammer Nail Related concepts
• Hammer Nurse activated
• Masked primes (not perceived) yield same
  effect

11
Unconscious Processes

• Perceptions
• Social Priming
• Person perception (inherent ambiguity)
• Activated (primed) constructs affect perceptions
• Occurs without awareness

12
Unconscious Processes

• Perceptions
• Social Priming Experiment (Higgins, Srull)
• Study 1 (prime hostility)
• Sentence completion hit cat the his
• 80 (primed hostile) vs. 20)
• Study 2 (person perception)
• ambiguous description (e.g., refuse to donate)
• Primed hostile perceive target more negatively
• no awareness can prime subliminally

13
Unconscious Processes

• Affective reactions
• Zajonc. Mere exposure effect Familiarity
  produces liking
• Present stimuli left ear
• Shadow prose right ear
• Prefer exposed stimuli but no recognition
• Occurs with other stimuli (e.g., geometric shapes)

14
Unconscious Processes

• Affective reactions
• Silverman. Psychopathology. Explicit test of
  psychoanalytic model
• Model
• Unconscious activate wish gt Defense mechanisms gt
  Related pathology if defenses inadequate
• Subliminal presentation of aggressive stimuli
  increase levels of depressed for clinically
  depressed

15
Unconscious Processes

• Related Issue What is the quality of
  unconscious thought?
• Is it superior to conscious thought?
• Although controversial, some research
  (Dyksterhuis) suggests unconscious decisions are
  better

16
Unconscious vs. Conscious Thought

• What is conscious thought?
• Thinking about something while consciously
  attending to it.
• What is unconscious thought?
• Thinking about something while not attending to
  it.
• Associating, reasoning, weighing, evaluating
  while consciousness is thinking about something
  else.

17
Dijksterhuis (2006)

• Rooms for rent
• Participants receive information about 4
  apartments.
• Each apartment is described by 12 aspects (Apt. A
  is big, Apt. C is in a nice area).
• Information for each apartment is presented for
  15 secs.
• Three apartments have 5 positive and 7 negative
  aspects.
• One is better 8 positive and 4 negative.
• Participants choose an apartment
• 1. Immediately
• 2. After thinking about it for three minutes
• 3. After being distracted for three minutes
  (unconscious thought)

18
Percentage Choosing Best Apartment
19
Unconscious Thought

• Always better?
• Complex rather than simple
• Processing not acquiring (input assumed to be
  acquired)
• Some failures to replicate