Review of General Psychology1998, Vol. 2, No. 1,81-120Copyright 1998 by the Educational Publishing Foundation1089-2680/98/13.00Transference in Everyday Experience: Implications of ExperimentalResearch for Relevant Clinical PhenomenaSusan M. Andersen and Michele S. BerkNew York UniversityExperimental research examining the clinical concept of transference (S. Freud,1912/1958; H. S. Sullivan, 1953) using a social-cognitive model has demonstrated thatmental representations of significant others are stored in memory and can be activatedand applied in new social encounters, with consequences for cognition, evaluation,affect, motivation, expectancies, and self-evaluations (S. M. Andersen & N. S. Glass-man, 1996; S. M. Andersen, I. Reznik, & S. Chen, 1997). These findings constitute anempirical demonstration of transference in everyday social relations and suggest thattransference is a normal, nonpathological process, occurring both inside and outside ofpsychotherapy, following basic rules of social information processing. In this article,clinical implications of this research are discussed, including how the content versusprocess of transference may contribute to maladaptive transference responses and thepotential value of identifying triggering cues in transference in real life and in therapy,to promote more adaptive responding.Mental representations of significant othersprofoundly influence everyday life. In dailysocial interactions our emotions, motivations,inferences, self-evaluations, and behaviors areall affected to an extent by information inmemory about our past relationships withimportant others. Indeed, interpersonal relation-ships have long been thought to be basic to bothpersonality and psychopathology (e.g., Bowlby,1969,1973,1980; Freud, 1912/1958; Greenberg& Mitchell, 1983; Guidano & Liotti, 1983;Homey, 1939; Horowitz, 1991; Kelly, 1955;Luborsky & Crits-Christoph, 1990; Rogers,1951; Safran & Segal, 1990; Shaver & Ruben-stein, 1980; Sullivan, 1953; Wachtel, 1981). Thecommon assumption across the numerous theo-ries in these areas is that interpersonal-relationship patterns learned earlier in life withsignificant others may provide a framework forlater social relations. Relationship patterns mayinfluence current everyday behavior becauseSusan M. Andersen and Michele S. Berk, Department ofPsychology, New York University.Preparation of this article was supported by GrantR01-MH48789 from the National Institute of Mental Health.We would like to thank Noah Glassman, Dan Hart, MardiHorowitz, and Marlene Moretti for their comments on anearlier draft of this article.Correspondence concerning this article should be ad-dressed to Susan M. Andersen, Department of Psychology,New York University, 6 Washington Place, 4th Floor, NewYork, New York 10003.they are stored in memory and applied to newinterpersonal encounters.In our own work, we have examined thisprocess empirically and have conceptualized itin social-cognitive terms, that is, in terms ofmental representations of significant others thatcan be activated and applied to new people. Weregard careful empirical work on this topic ascrucial in uncovering the precise mechanisms bywhich past relationships may influence presentones and in establishing the validity of this kindof phenomenon. To this end, we have proposed asocial-cognitive model of transference that hasbeen examined in carefully controlled experi-mental research with "normal" samples ofparticipants. (For related conceptual approaches,see Baldwin, 1992; Mayer et al., 1993; Singer,1985, 1988; Singer & Singer, 1994; Wachtel,1981; Westen, 1988.) In this research, it hasbeen shown that mental representations ofsignificant others serve as storehouses ofinformation about given individuals from one'slife, and can be activated (made ready for use)and applied to (used to interpret) other individu-als, and that this is especially likely when thenew individual in some way resembles asignificant other (Andersen & Baum, 1994;Andersen & Cole, 1990; Andersen, Glassman,Chen, & Cole, 1995; Andersen, Reznik, &Manzella, 1996; Baum & Andersen, in press;Hinkley & Andersen, 1996). We argue that this8182ANDERSEN AND BERKis the basic process by which transferenceoccurs in everyday social relations (Andersen &Glassman, 1996). Because this process isconsistent with what is known about basic socialcognition and the operation of social constructs,stereotypes, and exemplar representations(Andersen & Klatzky, 1987; Andersen, Klatzky,& Murray, 1990; Brewer, 1988; Higgins, 1989b;Higgins & King, 1981; Smith & Zarate, 1992),this work suggests that basic social-cognitiveprocesses may be at the root of transference ineveryday social perception.Specifically, we have shown that people usesignificant-other representations to "go beyondthe information given" about a new person(Bruner, 1957) by making representation-consistent inferences about him or her, that is,misremembering him or her in terms of qualitiesthat he or she does not have, but rather are partof the significant-other representation (i.e., thosenot seen in the new person, but consistent withthe significant-other representation; see Andersenet al, 1995; see also Cantor & Mischel, 1977).Perceivers seem to treat what they inferred at thetime of learning about a new person based on thesignificant-other representation as somethingactually learned (see Johnson, Hastroudi, &Lindsay, 1993; Johnson & Raye, 1981). Hence,the new person is remembered as if he or shewere more similar to the significant other than isactually the case (Andersen et al., 1995, 1996;Andersen & Baum, 1994; Andersen & Cole,1990; Hinkley & Andersen, 1996). Moreover,when a given significant-other representation isactivated, representation-consistent evaluative,emotional, motivational, and self-definitionalprocesses stored in memory with the significant-other representation are also set into play(Andersen & Baum, 1994; Andersen et al.,1996; Baum & Andersen, in press; Hinkley &Andersen, 1996). Hence, this body of work hasempirically demonstrated that the transferenceprocess does occur, that it consists of significant-other activation and application, and that it hasmultiple consequences of various kinds ininterpersonal relations.In this article, we describe our program ofexperimental research on transference andconsider its clinical implications. First, webriefly review major theoretical perspectives ontransference and describe the basic tenets of theempirically based social-cognitive
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