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Subliminal psychodynamic activation, food consumption, and self‐confidence
Author(s) -
Talbot Nancy L.,
Duberstein Paul R.,
Scott Paula
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/1097-4679(199111)47:6<813::aid-jclp2270470613>3.0.co;2-#
Subject(s) - subliminal stimuli , psychology , attractiveness , interpersonal communication , psychodynamics , context (archaeology) , personality , stimulus (psychology) , developmental psychology , social psychology , audiology , cognitive psychology , psychotherapist , psychoanalysis , medicine , paleontology , biology
The subliminal psychodynamic activation (SPA) method was used to study the effects of a message related to loss and separation on the behavior of anaclitic and control subjects in a sample of male college students ( N = 148). In the subliminal condition (4 ms exposure time), subjects shown the experimental message “Mommy is Leaving Me” ate significantly fewer crackers than those exposed to the neutral message “Mona is Loaning It” ( p = .04). Subjects subliminally exposed to the experimental message reported less confidence in their interpersonal attractiveness than those subliminally shown the neutral stimulus ( p = .05). These findings, which support the hypothesis that semantic analyses are performed unconsciously, are discussed in the context of recent research on both the SPA paradigm and the anaclitic personality.