Williams Lawrence E, Huang Julie Y, Bargh John A
Department of Psychology, Yale University, PO Box 208205, New Haven, CT, 06520-8205.
Eur J Soc Psychol. 2009 Dec 1;39(7):1257-1267. doi: 10.1002/ejsp.665.
It has long been a staple of psychological theory that early life experiences significantly shape the adult's understanding of and reactions to the social world. Here we consider how early concept development along with evolved motives operating early in life can come to exert a passive, unconscious influence on the human adult's higher-order goal pursuits, judgments, and actions. In particular, we focus on concepts and goal structures specialized for interacting with the physical environment (e.g., distance cues, temperature, cleanliness, and self-protection), which emerge early and automatically as a natural part of human development and evolution. It is proposed that via the process of scaffolding, these early sensorimotor experiences serve as the foundation for the later development of more abstract concepts and goals. Experiments using priming methodologies reveal the extent to which these early concepts serve as the analogical basis for more abstract psychological concepts, such that we come easily and naturally to speak of close relationships, warm personalities, moral purity, and psychological pain. Taken together, this research demonstrates the extent to which such foundational concepts are capable of influencing people's information processing, affective judgments, and goal pursuit, oftentimes outside of their intention or awareness.
长期以来，心理学理论的一个主要观点是，早期生活经历会显著塑造成年人对社会世界的理解以及对社会世界的反应。在此，我们探讨早期概念发展以及生命早期起作用的进化动机如何对成年人类的高阶目标追求、判断和行动产生被动的、无意识的影响。具体而言，我们关注专门用于与物理环境相互作用的概念和目标结构（例如距离线索、温度、清洁度和自我保护），这些概念和目标结构作为人类发展和进化的自然组成部分，很早就自动出现。有人提出，通过支架搭建过程，这些早期的感觉运动体验为更抽象概念和目标的后期发展奠定基础。使用启动方法的实验揭示了这些早期概念在多大程度上作为更抽象心理概念的类比基础，以至于我们很容易且自然地会谈到亲密关系、温暖的个性、道德纯洁和心理痛苦。综合来看，这项研究表明了此类基础概念在多大程度上能够影响人们的信息处理、情感判断和目标追求，而且这种影响常常是在他们的意图或意识之外。
