| Abstract: | A review of the experimental literature on selective recall has failed to support the psychoanalytic hypotheses that (a) repression and defense involve an active memory inhibition independent of selective learning or interfering anxiety, (b) the content of the defense persists in the unconscious. These findings in conjunction with further analysis of ambiguous aspects of the psychoanalytic concept have led to the adoption of a level of awareness model of defensive behavior. In this model defense was conceived as an absence of reflective awareness of esteem-reducing feelings affected primarily through the learning of behavioral habits which influence expectancy and attentional processes. A program for research into the relation of level of awareness to defense was outlined. The development of appropriate techniques and procedures to assess level of awareness was emphasized. The potential contribution of combined criterion measures of level of awareness and of behavioral response dimensions such as selective recall for clarifying the relationship of successful and unsuccessful defense to anxiety was discussed. (77 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
