The Unconscious Mind

By John A. Bargh, Ezequiel Morsella. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 2008

921 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The unconscious mind is still viewed by many psychological scientists as the shadow of a “real” conscious mind, though there now exists substantial evidence that the unconscious is not identifiably less flexible, complex, controlling, deliberative, or action-oriented than is its counterpart. This “conscious-centric” bias is due in part to the operational definition within cognitive psychology that equates unconscious with subliminal. We review the evidence challenging this restricted view of the unconscious emerging from contemporary social cognition research, which has traditionally defined the unconscious in terms of its unintentional nature; this research has demonstrated the existence of several independent unconscious behavioral guidance systems: perceptual, evaluative, and motivational. From this perspective, it is concluded that in both phylogeny and ontogeny, actions of an unconscious mind precede the arrival of a conscious mind—that action precedes reflection.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c7efb59d5ec38fb4be3ee8a29fd4ac40ec79daa3

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Citations in the corpus

The Right Brain Implicit Self Lies at the Core of Psychoanalysis (2011, background): “In the broader psychological literature Bargh and Morsella (2008) conclude, “Freud’s model of the unconscious as the primary guiding influence over every day life, even today, is more specific and detailed than any to be found in contemporary cognitive or social psychology” (p.”
The Relevance and Viability of Subconscious Goals in the Workplace (2010, methodology): “Bargh and Morsella (2008) criticized the use of this technique because subliminal stimuli, they said, do not naturally occur.”
Attentional focus and motor learning: a review of 15 years (2013, background): “…be highly accessible, even unconsciously, in many circumstances, including all movement contexts influencing thoughts, actions, and behavior (e.g., Bargh & Morsella, 2008; Chartrand & Bargh, 2002) we argued that conditions that trigger neural activation in the self system (e.g., internal focus…”
False Memories: What the Hell are They For? (2009, background): “If the study of false memory has a grandfather, it is Sir Frederick Bartlett, whose 1932 book Remembering had tremendous impact (see Ceci & Bruck, 1993 and Goodman, 1984, for reviews of other early scholars of memory’s fallibility). In some of his research, Bartlett told Cambridge denizens a Native ”
In two minds: Dual processes and beyond. (2009, background): “Philosophers continued to develop broadly metaphysical theories of the unconscious throughout the nineteenth century (Gardner 2003).”
The duality of mind: an historical perspective (2009, background): “Philosophers continued to develop broadly metaphysical theories of the unconscious throughout the nineteenth century (Gardner 2003).”
Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior (2012, background): “Typically we have the former in mind when speaking of ‘the unconscious mind’ (e.g., Gardner 2003, pp. 107-108).”
Intuition: A Challenge for Psychological Research on Decision Making (2010, background): “…intuition researchers is to identify useful ways of classifying different mechanisms of subconscious informationprocessing systems and, by specifying their functions, to illuminate the conditions under which they are functional and dysfunctional for the organism (see also Bargh & Morsella, 2008).”
Renovating the Pyramid of Needs: Contemporary Extensions Built Upon Ancient Foundations (2010, neutral): “Indeed, one of the most potent conclusions to emerge from the enormous psychological literature on goal activation is that goal activation is highly sensitive to immediate contextual cues (e.g., Aarts & Hassin, 2005; Bargh & Morsella, 2008).”