The Social Psychology of Transference Flashcards
Explain the procedure that the researchers in this chapter used to study transference.
First session: Participants describe two significant others in their life. One who is loved and one who is disliked. They then list equal positive and negative phrases characterizing the individual.
Second: In a second, seemingly unrelated experimental session they are told they will interact with a buddy in a mentoring program the university is testing. They are told the individual was interviewed and then are provided a description of the person to read. The description includes adjectives they used to describe either a positive or negative significant other in their life. (In the control participants are given another person’s buddy description). Then the participants are asked to describe their opinion of the buddy, will they enjoy interacting with them? The degree to which participants go beyond the information given is equal to the degree of transference they experience.
What are two implications of transference that are discussed in this chapter?
Information about a significant other can be triggered by information from the environment.
Individuals express more confidence in having been presented information about a new person if the person resembles a significant other in their own life.
