Unconsciousness, consciousness, and implicit psychological characteristics

In recent years, an increasing number of studies in the domains of brain science and psychology have been revealing that the roles and functions of unconsciousness are more powerful and extensive than expected. In line with this kind of research, it has also become a hot topic for what consciousness exists and works. This new trend of research strongly suggests the necessity of empirical research to scrutinize the roles of unconsciousness as well as those of consciousness. Thus, as a strategy for entering into the realm of unconsciousness, many recent studies have started to investigate implicit psychological characteristics that are considered to work preconsciously. To assess implicit characteristics, various types of measure have been developed using methods different from the ones for explicit psychological characteristics whose measures include many limitations such as receiving defensiveness. In this paper, after discussing about these recent streams of research around consciousness and unconsciousness, implicit self-esteem and affect were picked up as examples regarding implicit psychological characteristics, and explained in terms of their concepts and assessments while comparing with those of explicit self-esteem and affect. In these descriptions, the current paper emphasized both research for adults and children, showing the paucity of research for children. Finally, future directions are suggested, underscoring the necessity of developing reliable and valid measures, and promoting research of implicit psychological characteristics.departmental bulletin pape