Abstract

We investigated the implicit representations of success/failure associated with mother in male and female college students. In study 1, participants were presented 'mother' or 'basket' as a context prime and 'success' or 'failure' related words as second primes for 100ms, and were asked to make lexical decisions about 'accept' or 'reject' related words and non-words after 150 ms (SOA 250ms). Results revealed that lexical decision times on the mother condition were more rapid than the ones on the basket condition, and lexical decision times on the acceptance condition were more rapid than the ones on the rejection condition, and female participants showed shorter times than male students did. In study 2, we divided participants into four groups by gender and attachment style, Results showed that the interaction between success/failure and acceptance/rejection was statistically significant, that is, quickest lexical decision times on the success-acceptance condition, and slowed times on failure-acceptance, failure-rejection, and success-rejection condition in order. On the other hand, no significant differences between high and low attachment group were found in males, but significant three-way interactions were found in females. In highly attached females, lexical decision times in success-acceptance condition were not differed from ones in success-rejection condition, and slowed times in failure-rejection condition. Low attached females showed very rapid times in success-acceptance condition, but very slow times in success-rejection condition. The results were discussed in terms of self-positivity and success/failure scheme depending on gender and attachment styles.