Subliminal psychodynamic activation: an experiment controlling for major possible confounding influences outlined by Fudin

40 and 48 subjects participated in two separate experiments aimed at reproducing the subliminal psychodynamic activation (SPA) phenomenon and taking into account the major methodological critique by Fudin (1986, 1990). Subjects were first exposed either to a full or one of all possible partial symbiotic messages and then to their anagram equivalents. Confounding and irrelevant influences were controlled; the results indicate that only the full symbiotic message improved motor performance. This strongly suggests that subjects encode the meaning of the full message and supports an interpretation in terms of an alleviation of an internal symbiotic conflict leading to a state of calmness conducive to improved motor performance.     

Subliminal stimulation, choice behavior and some personality correlates of subliminal sensitivity

The aim of this study was to investigate the possible relations between specific personality variables and the effect of subliminal stimulation on choice behavior. It was hypothesized that subjects with low anxiety, less neuroticism, and external locus of control and the trait of extraversion would be more susceptible to subliminal stimulation. 38 undergraduate students were exposed to subliminal messages urging them to choose symbols instead of numbers or letters. Analysis showed that subliminal stimulation did not generate a preference for symbols over numbers or letters. No support was observed for the hypothesis of an association between susceptibility and personality variables. These results may be explained in terms of symbol choice being a neutral message that did not relate to the subjects' needs and motivation.     

Effects of subliminal stimulation on masculinity-femininity ratings of a male model

The effects of subliminal stimulation on masculinity-femininity ratings of a male model were tested for 100 male undergraduates, randomly divided into four groups and individually shown a slide of a male model. One group received no further stimulation. A second group received a subliminal flash of white light across the image of the model; a third group was presented with the subliminal message "masculine," while a fourth group was presented with the subliminal message "feminine." Subjects were asked to rate the model on a six-point scale of masculinity-femininity. The differences in ratings among groups were not significant, indicating that subliminal stimulation did not influence masculinity-femininity value-norm-anchor judgments. There were no significant differences in the reported perception of additional stimuli or the tendency to be relaxed among the four groups. However, subjects who received the "masculine" message and reported that they were more relaxed did tend to rate the model higher in masculinity.     

Subliminal food images compromise superior working memory performance in women with restricting anorexia nervosa

Prefrontal cortex (PFC) is dysregulated in women with restricting anorexia nervosa (RAN). It is not known whether appetitive non-conscious stimuli bias cognitive responses in those with RAN. Thirteen women with RAN and 20 healthy controls (HC) completed a dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC) working memory task and an anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) conflict task, while masked subliminal food, aversive and neutral images were presented. During the DLPFC task, accuracy was higher in the RAN compared to the HC group, but superior performance was compromised when subliminal food stimuli were presented: errors positively correlated with self-reported trait anxiety in the RAN group. These effects were not observed in the ACC task. Appetitive activation is intact and anxiogenic in women with RAN, and non-consciously interacts with working memory processes associated with the DLPFC. This interaction mechanism may underlie cognitive inhibition of appetitive processes that are anxiety inducing, in people with AN.     

The impact of anxiety on sexual arousal in women

This study examined the impact of state anxiety, trait anxiety, and anxiety sensitivity on physiological and self-report measures of sexual arousal and sexual function in a non-clinical sample of women. Physiological sexual responses to an erotic stimulus were assessed using vaginal photoplethysmography, and subjective reactions were measured using questionnaires. Results suggested a curvilinear relationship between state anxiety and physiological sexual arousal (vaginal pulse amplitude; VPA). Trait anxiety and anxiety sensitivity were correlated with self-reported sexual arousal outside the laboratory. The findings may be interpreted in light of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) influences on sexual arousal and potential cognitive interference mechanisms associated with anxiety.     

The role of consciousness in attentional control differences in trait anxiety

Trait anxiety has long been associated with impaired selective attention to task-irrelevant threat stimuli, both when threat is presented consciously and outside of awareness. However recent research has suggested broader deficits in selective attention, with poorer ability to ignore supraliminal non-emotional information in anxiety. Here, we investigated whether anxiety could equally be associated with poorer selective attention for non-emotional stimuli in a subliminal context. Participants performed a simple arrow discrimination task, where prior incompatible or compatible response primes were presented before targets either unmasked (supraliminal) or masked (subliminal). While distractor interference was evident in both conditions, trait anxiety was associated with increased task-irrelevant processing only in the supraliminal condition; group effects were eliminated when primes were masked. Our findings are in line with traditional accounts suggesting that differences in selective attention and cognitive control solely modulate conscious distractor processing.     

Looking at threat-relevant stimuli: The role of anxiety and coping style

Abstract Results of numerous studies demonstrate that anxious subjects selectively attend to threat-related rather than to neutral stimuli. It has been argued that, as a result of this, anxious individuals more easily perceive and misattribute threatening stimuli in their environment, thereby creating a vicious circle of attention and anxiety. The evidence for this anxiety-linked attentional bias, however, is largely based on studies using subliminal or dichotic presentation of verbal stimuli. The present study sought to replicate these results by examining the relationship between anxiety and visual attention during prolonged exposure to threat-relevant (pictures of situations in a dental practice) and neutral (pictures of situations at a hairdresser salon) material with 45 women. No significant relationship emerged between dental trait anxiety and duration subjects directed gaze to the threat-relevant pictures. Neither self-reported state anxiety nor habitual coping style appeared to be significantly related to duration of visual attention for the threat-relevant pictures. Hence, no evidence was found supporting the hypothesis that high anxiety leads to a bias in attention towards emotionally threatening information. It is suggested that hypervigilance occurs in the early stages of the appraisal process.     

Misattribution, preparatory information, and speech anxiety

In two experiments with undergraduate subjects, I compared the effects of misattribution versus information manipulations on speech anxiety. In Experiment 1, some subjects were allegedly exposed to subliminal noise while reading a speech in front of a camera. These subjects were told that subliminal noise makes people feel either unpleasantly aroused or pleasantly relaxed or that it has no effect. Subjects in a fourth condition were given accurate information about how they would feel (unpleasantly aroused) but were not exposed to the subliminal noise misattribution source. In Experiment 2, I replicated the arousing noise and accurate information conditions from the first study and added two new groups incorporating a delay that should preclude misattribution. In both experiments, the alleged presence of arousing subliminal noise reduced subjects' speech dysfluencies during the speech task, whereas the presentation of accurate information alone did not have a comparable ameliorative effect. Thus, both experiments supported the misattribution interpretation of why neutral labels for arousal can reduce emotionality.     

Persistent effects of subliminal stimulation: sex differences and the effectiveness of debriefing

Persistent and non-trivial effects of unconscious stimuli have been reported (Sohlberg & Birgegard, 2003). This raises the ethical question of whether informing participants about such stimuli effectively returns them to a normal state. Two experiments (sex-mixed, N = 70 and 118) tested two kinds of debriefing to participants following subliminal (tachistoscopic) attachment-related or control stimulation. Measures were the Beck Depression Inventory, Structural Analysis of Social Behavior, and Retrospective Attachment. Results showed persistent effects. Simple debriefing about the stimulus was effective in preventing these, while more elaborate debriefing also describing the effects and mechanisms for them was less effective. Persistent effects were also strongly related to participant sex, but debriefing effects were similar in men and women with regard to the purpose of debriefing. The findings have implications for ethical recommendations for subliminal research, and suggest that this unexplored area requires more attention.     

The effects of physique-salient and physique non-salient exercise videos on women's body image, self-presentational concerns, and exercise motivation

This experiment examined the effects of exposure to physique-salient (PS) and physique non-salient (PNS) exercise videos and the moderating influence of perceived physique discrepancies, on body image, self-presentational concerns, and exercise motivation. Eighty inactive women (M age = 26) exercised to a 30 min instructional exercise video. In the PS condition, the video instructor wore revealing attire that emphasized her thin and toned physique. In the PNS condition, she wore attire that concealed her physique. Participants completed pre- and post-exercise measures of body image, social physique anxiety (SPA) and self-presentational efficacy (SPE) and a post-exercise measure of exercise motivation and perceived discrepancies with the instructor's body. No main or moderated effects emerged for video condition. However, greater perceived negative discrepancies were associated with poorer post-exercise body satisfaction and body evaluations, and higher state SPA. There were no effects on SPE or motivation. Results suggest that exercise videos that elicit perceived negative discrepancies can be detrimental to women's body images.     

非自主闯入焦虑发生的机制：阈下启动效应的实验研究

本研究采用阈下情感启动范式, 研究威胁信息启动效应及其特质焦虑的调节作用,旨在揭示焦虑非自主闯入性特点形成的机制。实验在随机的三种条件下（阈上/阈下/基线）给38名被试呈现两种目标词（威胁词和中性词）,其中基线条件不呈现目标词;之后要求被试在回避目标词的条件下完成组词任务,结果：（1）无论是中性词还是威胁词,被试阈下条件下目标词的击中率显著高于基线条件;（2）特质焦虑对阈下启动效应起着调节作用：高焦虑组被试威胁词的启动效应显著高于中性词,低焦虑组被试中性词的启动效应显著高于威胁词。结论：阈下启动效应显著,高特质焦虑组个体对威胁信息的无意识加工会增强对威胁信息的意识加工,产生闯入性想法,导致焦虑非自主闯入性的特点。     

Examining the role of social physique anxiety on the relationship between physical appearance comparisons and disordered eating symptoms among Spanish emerging adults

The present study extends previous research by examining the moderating/mediating role of social physique anxiety (SPA) on the relationship between physical appearance comparisons (PAC) and symptoms of disordered eating (DE) in adolescent population. A total of 555 emerging adults (59% women) ranging from 18 to 30 years of age (M = 21.34, SD = 2.80) were recruited from two public universities from Spain using a non-probabilistic sampling technique. Participants completed a self-reported questionnaire comprising the variables of research interest. Once the effects of sex (i.e., being men or women), age, body mass index, and depressive symptoms were controlled for, the results from bootstrapping cross-sectional regression analyses supported both the moderating and mediating effect of SPA on the relationship between PAC and DE. Sex did not moderate any of these relationships. From these findings, it follows that incorporating strategies aimed at decreasing PAC and SPA may contribute to improved prevention efforts aimed at decreasing DE among Spanish emerging adults of both sexes.     

Need for closure and anxiety in delusions: a longitudinal investigation in early psychosis

This study investigated the role of need for closure (NFC) and anxiety in delusions. The Need For Closure Scale (NFCS) and measures of trait and state anxiety were administered to an early psychosis group with current delusions, a clinical (generalised anxiety disorder--GAD) control group and a non-clinical control group. The battery of questionnaires was repeated at follow-up one year later. The NFCS did not meet criteria for a unidimensional scale and two sub-scales were removed from all further analyses. At baseline the deluded and GAD groups scored significantly higher on the reduced NFCS (NFCS-R) than the control group. Trait anxiety was related to NFCS-R in the GAD and non-clinical control groups, but not in the deluded group. At follow-up all groups scored significantly lower on the NFCS-R, perhaps suggesting a practice effect, although the two clinical groups continued to have higher scores than the non-clinical control group. The recovered and non-recovered deluded groups did not differ on the NFCS-R one year later, unlike in the GAD group where recovered participants had significantly lower scores than the non-recovered. Change scores on the NFCS-R and trait anxiety were correlated at trend level in the GAD and non-clinical control groups, but not in the deluded group. These findings suggest that whilst NFC and trait anxiety are related in non-psychotic groups, NFC may be implicated in the formation of delusions, independently of anxiety, in psychotic individuals.     

Preattentive bias for emotional information in panic disorder with agoraphobia.

A combined emotional Stroop and implicit memory (tachistoscopic identification) task with 3 types of words (panic-related, interpersonal threat, and neutral words) and 2 exposure conditions (subliminal, supraliminal) was administered to 35 patients with panic disorder and 35 age- and sex-matched controls. The patients showed Stroop interference for panic-related words both sub- and supraliminally and a similar but not equally robust effect on interpersonal threat words. On the tachistoscopic identification task, the patients identified more panic-related words than the controls did but showed no implicit memory bias effect. The patients' subliminal Stroop interference for panic-related words was found to correlate with trait anxiety and depression, although not with anxiety sensitivity.     

Anxiety, conscious awareness and change detection

Attentional scanning was studied in anxious and non-anxious participants, using a modified change detection paradigm. Participants detected changes in pairs of emotional scenes separated by two task irrelevant slides, which contained an emotionally valenced scene (the 'distractor scene') and a visual mask. In agreement with attentional control theory, change detection latencies were slower overall for anxious participants. Change detection in anxious, but not non-anxious, participants was influenced by the emotional valence and exposure duration of distractor scenes. When negative distractor scenes were presented at subliminal exposure durations, anxious participants detected changes more rapidly than when supraliminal negative scenes or subliminal positive scenes were presented. We propose that for anxious participants, subliminal presentation of emotionally negative distractor scenes stimulated attention into a dynamic state in the absence of attentional engagement. Presentation of the same scenes at longer exposure times was accompanied by conscious awareness, attentional engagement, and slower change detection.     

Mood state and gambling: Using mobile telephones to track emotions

Mobile telephones were used to collect data on the relationship between gambling and mood state from gamblers in the field. Seventeen gamblers called an interactive voice response system running on a computer before, during and after a gambling episode. Measures taken in this way included self‐reports of anxiety/arousal, the amount of money gambled, whether the result was a win or loss, the amount won or lost, and the type of gambling engaged in. Other measures were taken during an initial briefing session using conventional questionnaires that included self‐reports of anxiety/arousal taken in a non‐gambling situation, dissociation during gambling, and a measure of degree of impairment of control. The results showed that subjective anxiety/arousal levels were significantly higher during and after gambling than during the urge to gamble or at baselines. Losing was associated with increased subjective anxiety/arousal after play, and winning was associated with a decrease in subjective anxiety/arousal. This suggests that gambling may be a cause of increased subjective anxiety/arousal, rather than functioning to relieve it. A cluster of variables associated with impaired control and subjective anxiety/arousal levels was also identified. The method of collecting data using mobile telephones appears to be a valuable development.     

Anxiety, self-control and shooting performance

55 rifle shooters were administered state-trait anxiety and self-control questionnaires. Shooting performance was recorded on 7 competitive occasions. Analysis indicated shooting performance is dependent more on anxiety state than on anxiety trait and self-control. Highly skilled shooters were less anxious and performed better across all competitions than moderately skilled shooters but did not differ on self-control and anxiety trait. The assumption that increased anxiety negatively affects performance through the mediation of self-control should be further studied.     

Investigating merger: subliminal psychodynamic activation and oneness motivation research

Two programs of empirical research have endeavored to explicate some of the unconscious processes involved in adult phenomena of merger, symbiosis, or oneness. Starting in the 1960s under the leadership of Lloyd Silverman (see, e.g., Silverman, Lachmann, and Milich 1982), subliminal psychodynamic activation (SPA) has used subliminal methods to prime and manipulate these processes. Later research into what was termed oneness motivation (OM) posited the existence of a chronic personality variable and explored it independently of priming (see, e.g., Siegel and Weinberger 1998). These lines of research have established links between unconscious processes of oneness and a range of clinical and nonclinical outcomes.     

Family planning needs and behavior of Mexican American women: a study of health care professionals and their clientele

"A random sample of Mexican American women and a sample of family planning health care professionals, both from two major southwestern cities in the United States, were compared in terms of their reports of birth control methods used, problems in obtaining family planning services, and values involved in making fertility-related decisions, within the Mexican American population.... While there were points of agreement between the two samples, discrepancies were found in reports of problems in obtaining family planning services, fertility-related values, and in the acceptability of female sterilization as a birth control method. It was concluded that family planning professionals in these service areas tend to stereotype Mexican American women, and may not yet realize that the family planning attitudes and behavior of these women are probably changing in significant ways." (SUMMARY IN SPA)     

大学生自尊与微信成瘾：状态焦虑和网络人际信任的中介作用

摘要 为探究大学生微信成瘾的原因及其心理机制,采用自尊量表、网络人际信任量表、状态焦虑量表和微信成瘾量表对931名来自三所高校的大学生进行调查。结果表明：（1）自尊与焦虑、微信成瘾显著负相关;焦虑与网络人际信任显著负相关;网络人际信任、焦虑与微信成瘾显著正相关。（2）自尊对微信成瘾有显著的直接预测作用,而且能够通过焦虑、以及焦虑和网络人际信任的链式中介作用间接对微信成瘾产生影响。研究结果对减少大学生微信成瘾具有一定的借鉴意义。