Memories of mother, complementarity and shame: predicting response to subliminal stimulation with "Mommy and I are one".

Full Abstract

A poorly understood finding with potentially wide-ranging implications is that subliminal stimulation with "Mommy and I are one" affects behavior. In this study (n= 62), "Mommy and I are one" lowered implicit mood (p= 0.0015) in comparison with a neutral stimulus ("People are walking"). The effect was most pronounced in shame-prone participants with less positive memories of their mother, and low self-mother complementarity (interaction p= 0.0044). Effects of a potentially shame-inducing stimulus ("I am completely isolated") were not significant (ps > 0.11). The results concerning less positive memories of mother replicate previous findings. We suggest that activation of unconscious associative networks explains the data. Though more research is needed, the cognitive content of these networks may involve representations of self-with-mother; for some, the affective content could involve shame.

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Author information

Author/s: Sohlberg, Staffan (S); Claesson, Katja (K); Birgegard, Andreas (A);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Sweden. Steffan.Sohlberg(-atsign-)psyk.uu.se

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal: Scandinavian journal of psychology (Scand J Psychol), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Sep; vol 44 (issue 4) : pp 339-46

Dates: Created 2003/07/30; Completed 2003/10/10; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12887555, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Affect
Female
Humans
Male
Memory

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