The Effects Of Secure Priming On Adult Creative Problem Solving

Exploration which is human instinct occupies an important position in adults’ life.Learning, working, family are all areas to explore for adults. Exploration could be regarded asthe process of creative problem solving, and creative problem solving is closely related toattachment. With social-cognition research techniques, this study examined the associationsamong subliminal attachment security priming, dispositional attachment insecurities andcreative problem solving, as well as the associations among supraliminal attachment securitypriming, dispositional attachment insecurities and creative problem solving. Besides, thealternative mood explanation for the promotion was also tested. We examined the associationbetween attachment and creative problem solving at the aspect of psychodynamics, thefindings provided cross-culture support in the effect of attachment security priming oncreative problem solving, it had important theoretical significance and practical value.150college students (ranging in age from18to26) participated in the study. With thebenefit of questionnaire, firstly, we measured the participants’ dispositional attachmentinsecurities by “Experiences in Close Relationships Inventory”. Secondly, according to theprinciple of between-group design，90participants accepted subliminal attachment securitypriming or insecurity priming, while60participants accepted supraliminal attachment securitypriming or insecurity priming. Finally, the participants accomplished the “Mood RatingScale” and “Chinese Remote Association Test” sequentially. So that we could explore theassociations among subliminal/supraliminal attachment security priming, dispositionalattachment insecurities and creative problem solving, and examine the function of mood forthe promotion, compare the effect of subliminal attachment security priming with the effect ofsupraliminal attachment security priming.The results show that:(1) Whether subliminal attachment security priming or supraliminal attachment securitypriming can promote the adults’ performance in creative problem solving. The participants inthe attachment security priming conditions get higher scores in “Chinese Remote AssociationTest”.(2) Attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance has no significant relationships with thecreative problem solving after subliminal attachment security priming. Attachment anxiety isinversely related to the creative problem solving after supraliminal attachment securitypriming; while the relationship between attachment avoidance and the creative problemsolving after supraliminal attachment security priming is not significant.(3) The beneficial effect of subliminal attachment security priming on creative problemsolving is observed regardless of dispositional differences in attachment anxiety andavoidance. The beneficial effect of supraliminal attachment security priming on creativeproblem solving depends on the attachment anxiety, it only occurs on the participants scoring high on attachment anxiety.(4) In the condition of subliminal attachment security priming, the attachment figures’pictures can prime the positive component in secure base, and then it will spread to creativeproblem solving. While in the condition of supraliminal attachment security priming, themood is not the explanation for the promotion.