Greenberg raised two issues concerning an experiment reported by Malik, et al. on the method of subliminal psychodynamic activation. One relates to the appropriateness of control and threshold stimuli and the other to the use of subjective thresholds. Both concerns are addressed.
Thirty-four college students were asked to classify ambiguous colors (e.g., blue-green) into their components (e.g., blue or green). They did this first while alone and later with confederates who opposed their previous answers. It was found that most subjects conformed to some degree,
with results matching those of classic conformity studies. An ANOVA indicated that female subjects conformed more than males, but that there were no differences based on the gender of the confederates. An interpretation based on superior female emotional sensitivity is offered as an alternative
to past explanations of this recurring gender difference.
The present experiment investigated the effects of subliminal psychodynamic stimuli on anxiety as measured by heart rate. Following an anxiety-inducing task, male and female subjects were tachistoscopically shown, at their subjective thresholds, one of five subliminal stimuli, MOMMY AND I ARE ONE, DADDY AND I ARE ONE (symbiotic messages). MOMMY HAS LEFT ME (abandonment message), I AM HAPPY AND CALM (positively toned but nonsymbiotic phrase), or MYMMO NAD I REA ENO (control stimulus). It was hypothesized that men would exhibit a greater decrease in heart rate after exposure to the MOMMY stimulus than the control message. No definitive predictions were made for women. The abandonment phrase was expected to increase heart rate. A positively toned message was included to assess whether its effects would be comparable to those hypothesized for the MOMMY message. The results yielded no significant effects for stimulus or gender and so provided no support for the hypotheses.
This report discusses the problems associated with the prevailing view that the province of unconscious influence is highly restricted. It is argued that present empirical data neither strongly support nor argue against a circumscribed notion of the unconscious.
Masling (1998) stated that we did not find the effects of subliminal psychodynamic activation because of experimental artifacts. We reject his assertion that our failure to uncover effects was due to procedural problems and reassert our claim that the method was sound.
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