Unconscious Goal Research Articles

无意识目标追求的发生机制及影响因素<br>The Mechanism and Influencing Factors of Unconscious Goal Pursuit

无意识目标追求是指个体在无意识状态下追求自动激活的目标的行为。自动激活的目标能促使个体处于目标行为的无意识准备状态，同时通过个体对目标价值进行判断，二者相互作用引起个体的无意识目标追求。影响无意识目标追求的因素包括目标关联的重要他人、目标表征的积极情感，以及个体对目标的感受性差异、对目标的内隐态度、实现目标所需的技能等。 Much of contemporary psychology has come to recognize that a great deal of human functioning is rooted in unconscious processes as well—that is, those processes that do not require conscious control. According to the goal auto-motive model, the goal representation can become capable of automatic activation. The researchers have discussed a mechanism for unconscious goal pursuit and demonstrated that the activated goal can lead people to prepare feasible actions that make the goal attainable and evaluate the value of the activated goal unconsciously. The factors that influence the goal pursuit may be the representations of significant others, the positive affect, the individual’s susceptibility differences, own implicit attitude, and skills about the unconscious goal pursuit.

From Primed Construct to Motivated Behavior

Past research has found that primes can automatically initiate unconscious goal striving. Recent models of priming have suggested that this effect can be moderated by validation processes. According to a goal-validation perspective, primes should cause changes in one's motivational state to the extent people have confidence in the prime-related mental content. Across three experiments, we provided the first direct empirical evidence for this goal-validation account. Using a variety of goal priming manipulations (cooperation vs. competition, achievement, and self-improvement vs. saving money) and validity inductions (power, ease, and writing about confidence), we demonstrated that the impact of goal primes on behavior occurs to a greater extent when conditions foster confidence (vs. doubt) in mental contents. Indeed, when conditions foster doubt, goal priming effects are eliminated or counter to the implications of the prime. The implications of these findings for research on goal priming and validation processes are discussed.

Unconscious goal activation and the hijacking of the executive function.

Building on research on unconscious human goal pursuit and the dynamic nature of our mental and physical world, this study examined the idea that an unconsciously activated goal hijacks executive control for its own attainment. This "hijacking" of the executive function by an unconscious goal should be evidenced by impaired performance on an unrelated task relying on executive control. The results of 6 experiments show that subliminal activation of a socializing goal, or an idiosyncratic personal goal, or an academic goal, harmed participants' performance on an executive function task, such as inhibition of prepotent responses and detection of text errors during reading. These effects were unique to executive control, were similar when the goal was activated consciously, and were independent of task motivation and perceived inter-goal relatedness between the primed goal and task goal. Furthermore, an unconscious goal occupied executive control to advance itself more strongly when the goal had personal value. Implications for theory and research on unconscious goal pursuit and the executive function are discussed.

Spontaneous inferences provide intuitive beliefs on which reasoning proper depends

AbstractSpontaneous inferences are unconscious, automatic, and apparently ubiquitous. Research has documented their variety (particularly in the social domain) and impact on memory and judgment. They are good candidates for Mercier and Sperber's (M&S's) “intuitive beliefs.” Forming spontaneous inferences is highly context sensitive, varying with the perceiver's conscious and unconscious goals, and implicit and explicit theories about the domain in question.

Once the money is in sight: Distinctive effects of conscious and unconscious rewards on task performance

Monetary rewards facilitate performance on behavioral and cognitive tasks, even when these rewards are perceived without conscious awareness. Also, recent research suggests that consciously (vs. unconsciously) perceived rewards may prompt people to more strongly concentrate on task stimuli and details. Here we propose that the latter is sometimes dysfunctional, in that it prevents improvements in task performance. We used an Attentional Blink paradigm, in which such enhanced concentration on task stimuli is detrimental to performance. Participants were consciously (supraliminally) or unconsciously (subliminally) exposed to a high-value or low-value coin that they could earn by performing well on an Attentional Blink trial. As hypothesized, high-value rewards increased performance when they were presented subliminally, while this performance benefit vanished when high-value rewards were presented consciously. We discuss this finding in the context of recent research on unconscious goal pursuit.

Limits of the Conscious Control of Action

After outlining why the notion of conscious control of action matters to us and after distinguishing different challenges to that notion, the contribution focuses on the challenge posed by the literature on unconscious goal pursuit. Based on a conceptual clarification of the notion of consciousness, I argue that the understanding of consciousness in that literature is too restricted. The possibility that the behaviors reported can be accounted for by nonconceptual forms of consciousness, such as emotions and motor experiences, rather than by – conscious or unconscious – conceptual level intentions tends to be disregarded, even though it promises to be empirically fruitful.

Intentions and Their Limits

This paper discusses psychological approaches to intentions and to the limits of intentions and the biological foundations of intentions. Following a minimum common argument about what intentions are, psychological aspects of intentions are reviewed. We begin with a discussion of the developmental perspective on intentions. Then, the focus turns to the discussion of the limits of intentions, followed by the presentation of strategies that can help to overcome problems of goal setting and goal striving. Finally, different aspects of intentions are addressed, for instance, intentions as results of decisions after deliberation and as processes of conscious and unconscious goal striving.

Stigma From Psychological Science: Group Differences, Not Deficits—Introduction to Stigma Special Section

Famed composer Judith Henderson observed that “our greatest strength as a human race is our ability to acknowledge our differences; our greatest weakness is our failure to embrace them.” As psychological scientists, we are experts at empirically identifying a vast array of distinctions among humans. But as psychological scientists, we can also fall prey to drawing invidious comparisons—contrasts and conclusions between groups of people that are made with either the explicit or unconscious goal of showing one group in a negative light (Cole & Stewart, 2001). Differences get framed as deficits, and such negativity enables stigma (Amundson, 2000). During my term as president of the Association for Psychological Science, I used the opportunity to call attention to this risk. In a column titled “On Not Being Human,” I traced the historical practice by philosophers and theologians to deem some groups of humans as subhuman and the unfortunate contemporary practice by some psychological scientists to do the same (Gernsbacher, 2007c). In a column titled “The Eye of the Beholder,” I illustrated how a neurological marker—the relative thickness of one’s cortex, or thinness, if you prefer—has been deemed an asset or a deficit depending on which group of participants has it (Gernsbacher, 2007a). In a column titled “Neural Diversity,” I illustrated how interpretations of brain imaging data are often susceptible to researchers’ bias (Gernsbacher, 2007b). For instance, activation in the amygdala is interpreted as reflecting the intense attachment, vigilant protectiveness, and empathy that characterize normal maternal attachment when the research participants are mothers looking at photos of their children (Leibenluft, Gobbini, Harrison, & Haxby, 2004), whereas activation in the same region is interpreted as identifying the regions involved in sexual/aggressive behavior when the research participants are boyfriends listening to sentences such as “my girlfriend gave a gorgeous birthday present to her ex-boyfriend” (Takahashi et al., 2006). In another column, titled “How to Spot Bias in Research,” I recommended a solution to such interpretative biases: Swap the participant groups’ labels (e.g., mothers vs. non-mothers or boyfriends vs. non-boyfriends) to see whether the resulting interpretation makes sense; if it doesn’t, the interpretation was most likely predisposed. For my Presidential Symposium, I gathered four of our field’s top scholars to continue to address the problem of stigma from psychological science and to provide further solutions. Susan Fiske of Princeton University addressed the topic with regard to gender differences; Douglas Medin of Northwestern University reviewed cross-cultural research; James Jones of the University of Delaware reflected on race differences; and Gregory Herek of the University of California, Davis, discussed sexualities. I am delighted that each of these scholars agreed to document their excellent presentations in the special section that follows.

自己制御における意識と無意識──意識的編集と目標プライミングの効果──

The present study explores the division of labor for consciousness and the unconscious by examining the effect that the conscious mental compilation of implementation intentions has on unconscious goal priming. Temptations (e.g., leisure activities) that compete with goals (e.g., to study) inhibit relevant goal pursuit. However, forming an implementation intention to pursue a goal without succumbing to temptations may set off automatic self-regulation based on renewed associations where activation of temptation triggers goal pursuit. An experiment with undergraduates (N=143) revealed that in the "no conscious compilation" control condition, goal priming facilitated and temptation priming inhibited subsequent task performance. However, in the "conscious compilation" condition, temptation priming facilitated subsequent task performance equally as much as goal priming did. These results are consistent with the notion that automatic goal pursuit in the direction counter to existing mental associations could be achieved following conscious compilation of implementation intentions. Implications of these findings for effective coordination of consciousness and the unconscious in self-regulation are discussed.

意識的目標と非意識的目標はどのように異なるのか? 教示またはプライミングによるステレオタイプ抑制の効果

意識的目標と非意識的目標はどのように異なるのか? 教示またはプライミングによるステレオタイプ抑制の効果

Anticipated success at unconscious goal pursuit: Consequences for mood, self-esteem, and the evaluation of a goal-relevant task

This study extends recent research showing that fulfillment of unconscious goals can have the same affective consequences as fulfillment of conscious goals (T. L. Chartrand, 2001). Participants were unobtrusively primed with stimuli either relevant or irrelevant to the goal to seek knowledge. Next, an opportunity to fulfill the knowledge-seeking goal was announced (i.e., a test and subsequent feedback on a fictitious cognitive ability). As expected, participants in the knowledge-goal condition responded more positively to the announcement in terms of mood, self-esteem, and test evaluation than did participants in the no-goal condition. Consistent with a motivational account, the priming procedure did not influence mood and self-esteem when these variables were measured before test announcement.

Assessing students' plans for college.

Based on a contemporary cognitive-psychoanalytic theory (control-mastery theory; J. Weiss, H. Sampson, & Mount Zion Psychotherapy Research Group, 1986), this study proposed that college students have plans for college that consist of conscious and unconscious goals and obstructions to be overcome in meeting those goals. The construct of unconscious guilt was used to mediate the dual goals of autonomy and attachment. The idiographic plan-formulation method was adapted to derive plans for 12 sophomore women. Acceptable interjudge reliabilities and criterion validity were demonstrated, and several themes in the goals and obstructions were illustrated. Students worried more about mothers than about fathers, particularly when they perceived the mother as weak or needy. The potential of the method for generating inferences about unconscious process for normative development is discussed.

Specifying the dynamic behavior of management systems

Decision making in any complex system is a very difficult task. In Man, decisions are reached as a result of trying to satisfy both conscious and unconscious goals. To emulate this in a computer system we need to find a way of representing goals and modeling the decision making process. This paper describes a model for decision making in the context of the management of distributed computer systems, and discusses the implications for the representation of goals and other information used during the decision making process. The work described in this paper was performed in the ESPRIT II project DOMAINS. This project is concerned with developing an architecture for the integrated management of all resources in a networked system. The emphasis of this paper lies in modeling rather than implementation.

Social Attitudes and Sociological Enquiry

The term 'attitude', both in colloquial as well as in scientific usage, refers to the dispositions of men to view things in certain ways and to act accordingly. Attitudes are complexes of ideas and sentiments. In reality, some of the elements which are contained, or are thought to be contained in attitudes, are also those which are contained in motives; but, analytically, attitudes and motives are different. When an observer imputes a motive to someone, he asserts the existence of a conscious or unconscious goal to be realized, even when its realization fails; when one imputes an attitude one refers only to that dispositional state of a person which is regularly directed towards particular categories of persons or objects, regardless of the particular goals which he may pursue. In many situations, particularly structured social situations, the same sets of motives and attitudes are regularly mobilized together. In everyday life one infers attitudes from ordinary conduct, not from specially designed enquiries. One usually uses an attitudinal concept to cover a complex of acts and expressions, both verbal and non-verbal. From a parent's punitive reaction to a range of misdemeanours on the part of his child, from facial expressions, and scolding manner and content of speech, one infers the attitude of authoritarianism or, in layman's terms, of 'strictness'. From the reaction of an employer to the demands of his employees and from other expressions which one can observe, one infers an attitude of contempt, or consideration, superiority or relative equality. To refer to such attitudes is to impute to someone a stable disposition; and such imputation may have the role of providing a short-hand label for a complex of interrelated acts and expressions; or, it may have the additional role of providing an hypothesis for the explanation or prediction of conduct. Sociologists, one assumes, are never interested in attitudes as a final object of enquiry but always as part of an ultimate aim of studying the structure of social conduct; for them, an enquiry into attitudes must be justified by the assumptions that attitudes are predictive of conduct. A study of attitudes towards foremen, managers, workers, doctors, patients or God himself, must be presumed to enable one to predict or explain the conduct of men in their dealings with foremen, workers,

Transvestism and pruritus perinei.

Transvestism and pruritus perinei.

The Different Schools of

SYCHOANALYSIS, like nursing, is very hard to define. Although its principles have become the therapeutic tools of many different schools of psychiatric thought, a precise definition of psychoanalysis has not yet been agreed upon. No one questions, however, that a very basic fact in the therapy is making conscious the unconscious, by removing repression, coping with resistance, and understanding the role of transference. The differences lie in two general areas. Some schools question aspects of Freud's theory of personality development, and there is a difference of opinion about the type of unconscious material which is most significant. The Freudian school stresses the importance of recalling the past (the genetic approach), while Adler and Homey stress the importance of the patient's unconscious goals. Other schools, especially those of Jung and Sullivan, feel that both aspects are of great importance. Freud originated the theory of psychoanalysis and, from its beginning around 1890 until about 1910, his thinking completely dominated the scene. During those years, he continued to develop his theories and changed some of his earlier conceptions. Although he remained a powerful thinker and force in the field until his death in 1939, divergences of opinion among some of his pupils began to appear, and out of a few of these divergences new schools were formed.

The Different Schools of Psychoanalysis

SYCHOANALYSIS, like nursing, is very hard to define. Although its principles have become the therapeutic tools of many different schools of psychiatric thought, a precise definition of psychoanalysis has not yet been agreed upon. No one questions, however, that a very basic fact in the therapy is making conscious the unconscious, by removing repression, coping with resistance, and understanding the role of transference. The differences lie in two general areas. Some schools question aspects of Freud's theory of personality development, and there is a difference of opinion about the type of unconscious material which is most significant. The Freudian school stresses the importance of recalling the past (the genetic approach), while Adler and Homey stress the importance of the patient's unconscious goals. Other schools, especially those of Jung and Sullivan, feel that both aspects are of great importance. Freud originated the theory of psychoanalysis and, from its beginning around 1890 until about 1910, his thinking completely dominated the scene. During those years, he continued to develop his theories and changed some of his earlier conceptions. Although he remained a powerful thinker and force in the field until his death in 1939, divergences of opinion among some of his pupils began to appear, and out of a few of these divergences new schools were formed.

Record Keeping in Group Work a Contribution to Sociology

T IS DIFFICULT to discover an adequate method of describing a group because of its ever changing quality. It is a collection of spontaneous interactions occurring simultaneously in many directions. It has depth as well as length and breadth and by consecutive observations it is possible to discern distinct patterns and definite direction toward conscious or unconscious goals. In spite of the fact that description of this entity through categorizing and conceptualization endangers the portrayal of the dynamic quality of the group, which is its essential characteristic, it is necessary for real understanding of the group process. The group worker must break through the social organism with which he is working to understand both the individuals who make up the group and the process which they create. To psychology he looks for concepts and interpretations relating to the individual and to sociology for those pertaining to the group. The group worker must fuse the observations of the sociologist with the knowledge of the psychologist to understand the needs of groups and of the individuals in them. The group worker is at present in the noman's land between the two fields, for often the psychologist who endeavors to know the whole individual and all his relationships on a conscious and unconscious level fails to conceive this knowledge in terms of the stream of culture of which it is a part; and on the other hand the sociologist may observe part of the individual in the relationship apparent only at the time and fail to give consideration to the other parts of the individual not then apparent. If the group worker's only concern were the group at the time of meeting, he could limit his attention to behavior as exhibited in groups, but he is also concerned with the individual as a person and must therefore attempt to understand the individual as a whole as well as the part of him seen in group relationship. This dual need of the group worker makes it necessary for him to experiment in recording with the use of concepts developed by both psychology and sociology. The records to which reference in this paper are made are those with which the writer has had occasion to be familiar, the majority of which are written about groups in agencies in Cleveland which have a co-operative relationship with the School of Applied Social Sciences of Western Reserve University. A few, however, are those from other cities in which group workers have been interested in experimenting in record keeping. All have