TRANSFERENCE IN INTERPERSONAL-RELATIONS - INFERENCES AND AFFECT BASEDON SIGNIFICANT-OTHER REPRESENTATIONS

Based on an information-processing model of transference and a recent experimental demonstration of transference, defined in terms of ''bias ed inference and memory'' (Andersen and Cole, 1990), the present resea rch examined the transfer of affective responses to a new individual, as in schema-triggered affect (Fiske, 1982). Using idiographic stimulu s-generation procedures and a nomothetic experimental design, we expos ed subjects to a description of a new, unknown person, allegedly seate d next door. The description resembled either a positively or negative ly toned significant other from the subject's own life or from another subject's life. As predicted, and replicating previous work, subjects misremembered the target person as having more representation-consist ent features when the target resembled their own significant other rat her than someone else's. Moreover, and also as predicted, subjects tra nsferred more representation-consistent affect to this same target per son. The data are discussed in terms of conceptions of transference an d basic aspects of social cognition.