U SING THE UNCONSCIOUSNESS ACT World Conference Jacqueline A-Tjak PsyQ Zaandam

S KINNER ON SELF KNOWLEDGE Self-knowledge is of social origin. It is only when a person's private world becomes important to others that it is made important to him. It then enters into the control of the behavior called knowing....self-knowledge has a special value to the individual himself. A person who has been "made aware of himself" is in a better position to predict and control his own behavior (Skinner, 1974, p. 31)

RFT ON SELF KNOWLEDGE three senses of self that pertain to self-knowledge: Self-as-content Self-as-process Self-as-context

SELF-AS-CONTEXT Self-as-Context: without this sense of locus there is no continuity of consciousness itself – there is no psychological perspective from which to view what is known. Self-as-context becomes a context for the verbal knowing (Hayes)

W E ARE ‘S TRANGERS TO OURSELVES ’ ( TIMOTHY W ILSON ) Most of our mental processes occur outside of conscious awareness Many parts of the mind are inaccessible to conscious awareness, possibly because they evolved before consciousness did.

U NCONSCIOUS I NFORMATION PROCESSING Is an efficient but crude, inflexible process. Is about implicit learning Detects patterns

U NCONSCIOUS I NFORMATION PROCESSING ‘The’ unconsciousness serves an adaptive function: it is capable of processing more information than we can consciously. Filters information: detects 11 million pieces per second. Only a small amount reaches our awareness. This helps us focusing attention.

U NCONSCIOUS I NFORMATION PROCESSING Monitors what we are not paying attention to. Makes interpretations of information

U NCONSCIOUS I NFORMATION PROCESSING Evaluates information Sets goals: habitual, automatic

E MOTIONS Three reasons we do not notice our emotions: Repression Not paying attention Theories and confabulations cloud our view

DECISIONS When people are asked for reasons they have for feeling a certain way, their feelings change to match the reasons. This leads to decisions one regrets Intuitive decisions are better. However, if people have much knowledge on the subject (experts), their reasons match their actual feeling, leading to satisfying choices. The more information you have, the better you are at giving the ‘right’ reasons and making the ‘right’ decision.

RULES Unconscious and conscious information processing may lead to different outcomes Explicit rules learned from others about how to behave influence conscious learning processes (we know what we have learned) Implicit rules learned from others about how to behave influence unconscious learning processes (we do not know what we have learned).

MOTIVES We have self-attributed motives (as measured with self-report measures) We have implicit motives, which are needs that we acquire in childhood. Self-attributed motives and implicit motives predict different behaviors. Men have an implicit need for dependency When our unconscious and conscious motives don’t match we experience a decrease in our sense of well being on the long run.

I MPLICATIONS Model what you preach: you’ll teach implicit knowledge Explore values experientially

U SING THE UNCONSCIOUSNESS Trust unconscious direct experience, here-and- now Make information unconscious through (values based) practice: when behavior gets automated it ‘enters’ the unconscious. ACT like the person we want to be.

I MPROVE SELF KNOWLEDGE It is probably more fruitful to deduce the nature of our hidden minds by looking outward at our behavior than by trying to examine the unconsciousness by looking inward.

M AKING THE TRANSFER FROM UNCONSCIOUS TO CONSCIOUS Detailed image-laden descriptions of future situations help people to trigger feelings that correspond with their implicit motives. They can pay attention to and use these feelings to successfully predict how they will feel in a future real situation. If the situation matches their motives, they will recognize the situation as one they might enjoy.

M AKING THE TRANSFER FROM UNCONSCIOUS TO CONSCIOUS Experts can make good decisions by using conscious information So we can make our clients experts on themselves By teaching them what we know from science, theory, our own experience, the experience of others, by giving them feedback (outside in). By teaching them to contact their own experience By teaching them defusion: don’t believe your mind (knows you).

M AKING THE TRANSFER FROM UNCONSCIOUS TO CONSCIOUS And we can train ourselves to be experts Contact our own experience (inside out). Defuse Use what we know from science, theory, the experience of others (outside in). Ask for feedback from our clients, colleagues.

B EHAVING LIKE S CIENTISTS We can learn to observe and monitor our own behavior as scientists: what happened before, how did we respond and what happened after that. How do others respond to us? We can put our experience under the microscope: information that is contacted will influence our behavior even when it was not consciously processed.

T AKE IT SLOW Research tells us that we will see different things (different information processing) when we look for just a moment compared to when we look for a longer period of time. Our theory guides us in deciding what to put under the microscope and what to look for.

M ICROSCOPE E XERCISE Guided imagination: What is it like to be with your patient? Guided imagination part two: What is it like to be your patient? Optional: share your experience in small groups. If you are willing, share your experiences: