Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to D R Gorassini.
Subjects who pretested high or low in hypnotic suggestibility took a creativity test either under hypnosis or in a waking state. All subjects made a global estimate of their general degree of creativity. Greater figural-spatial creativity was exhibited in the hypnosis condition than in the waking condition by both high and low suggestibles. Creativity self-reports were not corroborated by actual creative performance.
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Subjects low and medium in hypnotic susceptibility were administered cognitive strategy and instructional set information and also practiced responding to test suggestions in order to enhance susceptibility. Those in one modification treatment received this information both from the experimenter and by observing a videotaped female model who responded successfully to suggestions and reported on the cognitive strategies she used to do so. Those in a second modification treatment received the information and practice but were not exposed to the model. Low and medium susceptibles in a third condition (practice alone) received a hypnotic induction procedure and practice suggestions but neither modification information nor modeling. No-treatment controls performed a filler task. All subjects were posttested on two different susceptibility scales. Information plus modeling produced significantly greater increments on all objective and subjective indices of susceptibility on both posttests than did practice-alone or control treatments. Susceptibility increments in the information without model treatment always fell between those of the model and practice-alone treatments. In the modeling treatment, over half of the initial low susceptibles and over two thirds of the initial medium susceptibles scored as high susceptibles on both posttests. These findings provide strong support for a social-cognitive skill formulation of hypnotic susceptibility.
Traditionally, hypnosis has been associated with the idea that highly hypnotizable subjects lose voluntary control over their responses and become incapable of resisting suggestions. We contend instead that even excellent hypnotic subjects retain control over their responses. These subjects are invested in presenting themselves as "deeply hypnotized," and to this end employ relevant contextual information to guide their hypnotic enactments. Contextual demands in the hypnotic test situation usually reinforce the idea that hypnotic behavior is involuntary. Therefore, the enactments of highly hypnotizable subjects are typically designed to convey the impression that responses to suggestions are involuntary happenings that cannot be successfully resisted. This formulation implies that highly hypnotizable subjects will present themselves as unable to resist suggestions or, alternatively, as able to easily resist suggestions, depending upon which of these self-presentations they associate with "deep hypnosis." We tested this and related hypotheses by varying the demands associated with "deep hypnosis" and noting the effects on the tendencies of highly hypnotizable subjects to resist suggestions and to describe their responses as involuntary happenings over which they had lost control.
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