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Secure Base Priming
My wife and I are enjoying the many
moments with our grandson because we babysit most days while his parents are
working. We think he is the most wonderful event to occur in our lives
since our two sons were born. Seeing posts of him on Facebook gives us joy and
we have arranged our lifestyle around his needs.
Yet, at the same time, there is a
lot to be depressed about as our city is undergoing a murder rate at a level
never achieved in its history. This is a pattern across the nation. All kinds
of horrible assaults are being made visible on television. Bad people are
stealing and hurting ordinary citizens daily. International affairs are
outright calamitous, too, including many geological calamities. I suppose I could
simply avoid the print and broadcast news but that would be like putting
my head in the sand. It is depressing.
However, just seeing our grandson's
picture warms our hearts and makes life worth living. I'm more motivated to
accomplish tasks because of it. Pictures of my late father and relatives on our
walls have a similar effect as well. Coming across artifacts such as letters of
these relatives produces a warm feeling, too. In fact our pet beagle Sparky had
the same affect when he was living.
What is happening here?
Priming
I am being primed. In other words
observing pictures of people (or even pets) that I put trust and found love in
my childhood creates a positive mental state out of a no-mood or even depressed
state. Those images go into my emotional memory bank and elicit a positive
mood. That mood is motivating and helps me take a fresh perspective on life and
motivates to get things accomplished.
I believe this is the oxytocin
effect. Oxytocin, a hormone, is released in association with maternal behavior
such as child birth and breast-feeding but also in both genders in the areas of
commitment, romantic attachment, and calm feelings. Those feel-good memories
essentially trigger the secretion of oxytocin and creates the feel-good
sensation. That is good because it also reduces the activation of the
fear-sensitive amygdala that lessens a person's capacity to be social with
others. [2]
If it works so easily in my home,
will priming do the same thing in the classroom, that is, generate a mood conducive
to learning or any setting for that matter? It can and there have been
scientific studies that verify that priming alters perceptions related to
tolerance and mood.
Research to validate
effects of priming
One was led by Professors of
Psychology Mario Mikulincer and Phillip Shaver. Participants were divided into two groups that were 'primed' with certain words subliminally by reading content on a computer screen.
-One group saw an abundance of 'neutral' words: (office, table, boat, and picture).
-The other group saw an abundance of emotionally secure words: (closeness, love, hug, and support).
-They then read the resumes (gender, age, marital status, and national origin) of two students sitting across from them. [2]
-One group saw an abundance of 'neutral' words: (office, table, boat, and picture).
-The other group saw an abundance of emotionally secure words: (closeness, love, hug, and support).
-They then read the resumes (gender, age, marital status, and national origin) of two students sitting across from them. [2]
The participants were then asked to
evaluate, using a checklist, the two students on characteristics
such as positive (honest, cheerful, reliable, warm, patient) and negative
(argumentative, sleazy, spineless, impulsive, lazy).
The result? The participant that read
the neutral words evaluated the student of similar national origin favorably but
rated the student of different national origin unfavorably.
On the other hand the participant
that read the emotionally secure words evaluated both the students of similar and divergent national origin
favorably.
That simple.
In fact, Mikulincer used
participants of different emotional attachment personalities: secure, avoidant,
and anxious and got similar results throughout. Avoidant and anxious
individuals are particularly prone to demonstrate less tolerance based on
racial and political backgrounds. However, the experiment showed that even
those with avoidant or anxious rearing could be primed to have secure feelings.
Conscious security
prime
To test the priming method further,
they had 120 student volunteers rate their willingness to interact with what they would consider socially
incompatible people. Instead of the subliminal word list the volunteers of
asked to simply visualize themselves “in a problematic situation that you
cannot solve on your own, and to imagine that you are surrounded by people who
are sensitive and responsive to your distress, who want to help you because
they love you, and set aside other activities in order to assist you.” It was
not a subliminal but rather a conscious security prime. [3]
The neutral prime was to imagine
yourself going to a grocery store and buying products you need for your house,
and imagine other persons buying products, talking among themselves about
ordinary issues, examining new brands, and comparing different products.
Though similar to the bias finding
in the previous study, the participants were to instead decide whether or not
they would be willing to invite a socially incompatible individual to their
home and join them when they went out with friends.
The result? The participant would
opt to invite the socially incompatible individual to either their home or go
out with friends if they had been primed with the emotional comforting thoughts
first. Those participants that were primed consciously with the neutral
statements hesitated in their desire to include a socially incompatible person
to their home or go out with friends.
Shaver concluded that even though a
person could have “attenuated derogatory reactions to out-group members or to
targets that threatened the participants' worldview… having a sense of being
loved and surrounded by supporting others seems to allow people to open
themselves to alternative worldviews and be more accepting of people do not
belong to their own group.”
Even with avoidant and anxious
personalities there is a temporary activation of attachment security to become
outwardly accepting and tolerant. It gets interesting with what Mikulincer and
Shaver did next.
Priming and altruism
In another priming procedure,
individuals had the option to substitute for another person that was performing
peculiar actions such as petting a laboratory rat, putting their arm in ice
water, touching a tarantula or a preserved sheep's eye or a snake, or let
cockroaches crawl up their arm. Avoidant and anxious personalities were
reluctant and declined to step in to perform the remaining actions. However,
those individuals that were primed to think about “….someone who wants to help
you because they love you….” expressed compassion and even a willingness to
step and complete the awkward tasks even for the most avoidant and anxious
personalities. [3]
The thought-prime triggered
altruistic compassion within the conscious mind. It made every participant
feel more secure, willing to do something about another's suffering.
What happened here? By priming the
brain with emotionally secure words people with a wide range of personalities
had spontaneous moments of tolerance. It is the oxytocin effect mentioned
earlier. Apparently the subliminal and conscious primes worked in the
prefrontal cortex-amygdala network in individuals and rekindled the feel-good
memories. The prefrontal cortex memory bank experienced a rekindling of
compassion from thoughts in an earlier part of life and quieted the
fear-sensitive amygdala to allow the person to negate prejudice and even create
a state of altruism.
The media is priming
all of us
As parents and educators we have to
be concerned with the 'primes' our children experience every day. Where do they
come from? At home and school of course but a sizable amount from the media.
While some of it is seemingly benign and beneficial like Sesame Street,
many channels are geared for adult eyes, with adult themes, with adult
actors. The Food Channel and Home and Gardens Network provide interesting
programming but there is so much more that is X-rated on cable networks and
accessible to everyone.
Here's a small sample of the
incidents captured between Jan. 11 and Feb. 11, 2013:
-A character on ABC's "Body of
Proof" says he dreams of ripping a woman's brain out while she's still
alive, but he's shot as he's about to stick a hook up her nose. Then he's
pushed off a balcony and killed.
-A prison riot episode of CBS'
"Hawaii Five-O" includes one man trying to kill someone in a laundry
room press, a man snapping someone's neck with his legs and a man injected with
something that causes a violent convulsion.
-A gun fight on ABC's "Last
Resort" is ignited by one man stabbing another in the abdomen with a
screwdriver.
-A man on CBS' "Criminal
Minds" is shot dead by the FBI as he tries to cut the eyelids off a
gallery owner's face.
-Two characters on Fox's
"Bones" wake to find a corpse hanging from the canopy above their
bed, dripping blood onto them.
-An already bloody man is dragged
into a warehouse on CBS' "The Mentalist," choked to death and thrown
in a furnace - all witnessed by a little boy hiding in the building.
-A man writhes in pain on Fox's
"Fringe" before a parasite violently bursts out of his body. He's
surrounded by the bodies of others who had met the same fate.
-A scene in ABC's "Grey's
Anatomy" features a woman's nightmare about sawing her leg, as blood
spurts and she screams in pain.
-A gymnastics coach is stabbed several
times in the groin on NBC's "Law & Order: SVU."
-A man working on a coffee cart on
"The Following" is doused with gasoline and burned alive. [4]
The media influence has been studied
as Brandon Centerwall, writer and Psychiatrist in Seattle, Washington notes:
“while children have an instinctive desire to imitate, they do not possess an
instinct for determining whether a behavior ought to be imitated. They will
imitate anything, including behavior that most adults regard as destructive and
antisocial. The evidence indicates that if, hypothetically, television
technology had never been developed, there would be 10,000 fewer homicides each
year in the United States, 70,000 fewer rapes, and 700,000 fewer injurious
assaults. Violent crime would be half what it is.” [5]
Also, in a report from The American
Psychological Association Commission on Violence and Youth: “….violence is not
a random, uncontrollable, or inevitable occurrence. There is absolutely no
doubt that higher levels of viewing violence on television are correlated with
increased acceptance of aggressive attitudes and increased aggressive
behavior.” [6]
What can we take from this as parents and educators?
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wikimedia.org |
Why? Because media
culture has inculcated representations of humans as sexualized, angry,
vindictive, manipulative, shallow, disrespectful and violent. Screen writers
are trying to outdo the competition, and the stakes are raised to escalate the
sexualization and violence to grab your attention. Students come into schools,
therefore, with a sufficient amount of negativity and confused adult
role-modeling behavior – all for the sake of the media to entertain the masses
and compete with shows to be more extreme than the next.
That
mindset may not
find you, a normal citizen, to be as captivating as the well-scripted
people on
the television screen. Only with a special effort as a school and
particularly teachers does the education process work, and is derailed
at
times even before the bell rings, in its ability to transmit content to
the level
desired by school and classroom expectations.
Admittedly many
students do not view the adult-themed programs, but there still is an
entertainment industry that wants to win over your children just like MacDonald's
does with Happy Meals, and there is little accountability as these adult themes
are getting PG-13 or even G ratings.
Teachers that role
model compassion and are explicit about their goals are doing a great service to
counteract the ever pervasive and morbid projections of the entertainment and
advertisement industry.
Priming suggestions for schools
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| chicagoriver.org |
What can schools do
to create the 'primes' to minimize the effect of the entertainment culture?
What is needed to elicit the mood to learn and to work cooperatively with the
teachers and peers? I'll list a few here.
1. Make the first
day of school count. Have an opening assembly where the principal or others talks
about values and expectations. Discussion should be explicit about the
significance of education in the life of students, the concern the school has
for the well-being of each and every one of them, and the need to treat
everyone with kindness.
2. Post pictures of
famous role models throughout the building with quotes and captions describing
their success in life, especially the person the school is named.
3. Have at least one
value quote that is central to the school's mission on the building's exterior.
4. Have assemblies
that honor students for their accomplishment and allow student musicians and
vocalists to perform. Have a teacher or principal express gratitude for the
performance in front of the audience.
5. Have back-to-school
nights and coffees for the parents and inform them about school values that are
expressed to the students. Talk about accomplishments. Let them see trophies and the wall hangings
of the role models. State, too, how each student is valued by the faculty and
administration. Try to keep the program moving to minimize personal parent agendas.
Have a few students do instrumental presentations.
6. Promote community
service opportunities.
7. Have honorary
assemblies for the custodians and kitchen staff.
8. Send commendation
letters home when students do something above and beyond.
9. Demonstrate
compassion and acts of altruism in the adult community of the school.
References
[1] Lee HJ, Macbeth AH, Pagani JH, Young WS (June 2009).
"Oxytocin: the great facilitator of life". Prog. Neurobiol. 88 (2):
127–51
[2] Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P., “Attachment Theory and intergroup bias: evidence that priming the secure base schema attenuates negative reactions to out-groups." Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 2001, Jul;81(1):97-115.
[3] Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P., Gillath, O., and Nitzberg, R., "Attachment, Caregiving, and Altruism: Boosting Attachment Security Increases Compassion and Helping", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2005, Vol. 89, No. 5, 817–839
[3] Mikulincer, M., Shaver, P., Gillath, O., and Nitzberg, R., "Attachment, Caregiving, and Altruism: Boosting Attachment Security Increases Compassion and Helping", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2005, Vol. 89, No. 5, 817–839
[4] David Bauder, Litany of Horrors, Seattle Times, 2013
[5] Centerwall, B., “Television and Violent Crime”, The
Public Interest, 1993
