Positive Affective Priming: A Behavioral Technique to Facilitate Therapeutic Engagement by Families,Caregivers, and Teachers

Affective priming is a technique used in experimental psychology to investigate the organization of emotional schemata not fully available to conscious awareness. The presentation of stimuli (the prime) with strong positive emotional valence alters the accessibility of positive stimuli within the individual's emotionally encoded cognitive system. By altering the valence of internal stimuli, it offers a method for influencing families, caregivers, and teachers serving as mediators in child behavior therapy. The need for priming is greatest where adults involved in therapy as agents of child behavior change have such negative feelings toward the targeted client, or to the therapeutic context, that acceptance and engagement with therapy are compromised. Examples of how positive affective priming might be used clinically are provided.