Ob. Scholz, THE UNCONSCIOUS AS INFORMATION-PROCESSING AND ITS IMPORTANCE FOR MODERN CLINICAL-PSYCHOLOGY, Zeitschrift fur Psychologie mit Zeitschrift fur angewandte Psychologie, 205(4), 1997, pp. 327-356
Recent research efforts of unconscious (implicit, automatic) processes
have gone largely unnoticed in the German-speaking clinical psycholog
y. It is the aim of this article to give a review of results and probl
ems regarding this research. The focus shall be a commenting collectio
n of available findings on hand for clinical psychology. Methods to ex
amine unconscious information processing are described. Identification
-, interference-, conditioning-and process-dissociation methods are di
fferentiated. Of the numerous factors influencing unconscious processe
s, stimuli characteristics are discussed first. In particular stimulus
modalities, distracter effects and the personal relevance of stimuli
will be looked at in detail. Then the influence of relevant dispositio
nal characteristics of behavior for the unconscious processes are cons
idered. Here, the relevance of mood, stress and anxiety will be emphas
ized. The significance of disorder-specific characteristics on unconsc
ious information processing is discussed. In this context obsessive-co
mpulsive, depressive and anxiety disorders are examined in particular.
An outlook is made considering the research results and the validity
of their underlying design paradigm. Research desiderata and possible
applications are pointed out.