According to the auto-motive model, behavioral goals can be automatically activated by situational cues and may subsequently guide behavior without individual awarness. Semantic priming has become a popular paradigm for investigating effects of automatic goal activation. Nevertheless, a critical assumption of the model, i.e., that goals can be activated by semantic primes related to situational features associated with the goal, is often assumed rather than tested in experiments using semantic priming procedures. Results of four studies testing the potential of such a prime for goal activation by assessing emotional responses, subjective goal importance, behavioral intentions, and enhanced perception of goal-related stimuli do not support this assumption. The implications of these findings and a critical evaluation of results of other studies are discussed in terms of possible limitations of semantic priming procedures for testing hypotheses derived from the auto-motive model.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AartsH.DijksterhuisA. (2000) Habits as knowledge structures: Automaticity in goal-directed behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 53–63.
2.
AndersonJ. R. (1983) The architecture of cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer. Press.
3.
AustinJ. T.VancouverJ. B. (1996) Goal constructs in psychology: Structure, process, and content. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 338–375.
4.
BarghJ. A. (1990) Auto-motives: Preconscious determinants of social interaction. In HigginsE. T.SorrentinoR. M. (Eds.), Handbook of motivation and cognition. Vol. 2. New York: Guilford. Pp. 93–130.
5.
BarghJ. A.ChartrandT. L. (1999) The unbearable automaticity of being. American Psychologist, 54, 462–492.
6.
BarghJ. A.ChartrandT. L. (2000) The mind in the middle: A practical guide to priming and automaticity research. In ReisH. T.JuddC. M. (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univer. Press. Pp. 253–285.
7.
BarghJ. A.FergusonM. J. (2000) Beyond behaviorism: On the automaticity of higher mental processes. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 925–945.
8.
BarghJ. A.GollwitzerP. M. (1994) Environmental control of goal-directed action: Automatic and strategic contingencies between situations and behavior. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 41, 71–124.
9.
BarghJ. A.GollwitzerP. M.Lee-ChaiA.BarndollarK.TrötschelR. (2001) The automated will: Nonconscious activation and pursuit of behavioral goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 1014–1027.
10.
BarghJ. A.RaymondP.PryorJ.StrackF. (1995) Attractiveness of the underling: An automatic power → sex association and its consequences for sexual harassment and aggression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 768–761.
11.
ChartrandT. L.BarghJ. A. (1996) Automatic activation of impression formation and memorization goals: Nonconscious goal priming reproduces effects of explicit task instructions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 464–478.
12.
CookT. D.CampbellD. T. (1979) Quasi-experimentation: Design & analysis issues for field settings. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
13.
FazioR. H. (1990) A practical guide to the use of response latency in social psychological research. In ClarkM. S.HendrickC. (Eds.), Research methods in personality and social psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Pp. 74–97.
14.
HigginsE. T. (1996) Knowledge activation: Accessibility, applicability, and salience. In HigginsE. T.KruglanskiA. W. (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles. New York: Guilford. Pp. 133–168.
15.
HigginsE. T. (1997) Beyond pleasure and pain. American Psychologist, 52, 1280–1300.
16.
KeltnerD.GrossJ. J. (1999) Functional accounts of emotions. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 467–480.
17.
KruglanskiA. W. (1996) Motivated social cognition: Principles of the interface. In HigginsE. T.KruglanskiA. W. (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles. New York: Guilford. Pp. 493–520.
18.
LarsenR. J.FredricksonB. L. (1999) Measurement issues in emotion research. In KahnemanD.DienerE.SchwartzN. (Eds.), Well-being: The foundations of hedonic psychology. New York: Russell Sage Found. Pp. 40–60.
19.
LevesqueC.PelletierL. G. (2003) On the investigation of primed and chronic autonomous and heteronomous motivational orientations. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 1570–1584.
20.
MacraeC. N.JohnstonL. (1998) Help, I need somebody: Automatic action and inaction. Social Cognition, 16, 400–417.
21.
SchwartzS. H. (1992) Universals in the structure and content of values: Theoretical advances and empirical tests in 20 countries. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25, 1–65.
22.
SpencerS. J.FeinS.WolfeC. T.FongC.DunnM. A. (1998) Automatic activation of stereotypes: The role of self-image threat. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 1139–1152.
23.
SrullT. K.WyerR. S.Jr. (1979) The role of category accessibility in the interpretation of information about persons: Some determinants and implications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1660–1672.
24.
VancouverJ. B.ScherbaumC. A.Jr. (2000) Automaticity, goals, and environmental interactions. American Psychologist, 55, 763–764.
