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Biomedical subjects

Steven Jay Lynn

Publications and source records attributed to Steven Jay Lynn.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Mindfulness, acceptance, and hypnosis: Cognitive and clinical perspectives.

The authors propose that hypnosis and mindfulness-based approaches can be used in tandem to create adaptive response sets and to deautomatize maladaptive response sets. They summarize recent research on the effectiveness of mindfulness-based approaches in clinical and nonclinical contexts and propose that the cognitive underpinnings of mindfulness approaches can be conceptualized in terms of the metacognitive basis of mindful attention, Toneatto's elucidation of the Buddhist perspective on cognition, and Kirsch and Lynn's response-set theory. They also suggest that mindfulness can serve as a template for generating an array of suggestions that provides cognitive strategies to contend with problems in living and to ameliorate stress and negative affect more generally. Many of the ideas the authors advance are speculative and are intended to spur additional research and clinical work.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed2006

A meta-analysis of gender, smoking cessation, and hypnosis:a brief communication.

Results of a meta-analysis showed that males were more likely to report smoking abstinence than female participants following hypnosis-based treatments for smoking. Across 12 studies that used hypnosis in the treatment of smoking and reported outcome statistics by gender, the authors found that the odds of achieving smoking abstinence were 1.37 times greater for male than female participants. The results are consistent with the nonhypnosis literature suggesting that females have a more difficult time achieving smoking abstinence compared to males.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

The role of cognition in classical and operant conditioning.

For the past 35 years, learning theorists have been providing models that depend on mental representations, even in their most simple, deterministic, and mechanistic approaches. Hence, cognitive involvement (typically thought of as expectancy) is assumed for most instances of classical and operant conditioning, with current theoretical differences concerning the level of cognition that is involved (e.g., simple association vs. rule learning), rather than its presence. Nevertheless, many psychologists not in the mainstream of learning theory continue to think of cognitive and conditioning theories as rival families of hypotheses. In this article, the data pertaining to the role of higher-order cognition in conditioning is reviewed, and a theoretical synthesis is proposed that provides a role for both automatic and cognitively mediated processes.

Cognition↗
PubMed2004

The impact of stage hypnosis on audience members and participants.

Before and after a stage-hypnosis performance, 67 audience members and 6 participants completed the Hypnotic Attitudes Questionnaire (HAQ), the Posthypnotic Experience Scale (PES), and several questions related to attitudes about performing in public. Audience members' beliefs about hypnosis (HAQ total and factor scores),experience ratings (PES factor scores: pleasantness, anger/irritability,anxiety), and responses to the performance-related questions changed in a positive direction after the performance. The participants in the show reported no significant pre- to postperformance changes. How-ever, there were indications that the on stage participants exhibited generally favorable attitudes toward hypnosis and performing before they engaged in the actual performance.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Is there touch in the game of Twister? The effects of innocuous touch and suggestive questions on children's eyewitness memory.

Preschool children (ages 48-70 months, N = 48) experienced 2 to-be-remembered events (i.e., the games Twister and Shapes) that included either innocuous bodily touch or no touch. Participants were interviewed 7 days later and asked direct ("Did Amy kiss you?") or suggestive "tag" questions ("Amy kissed you, didn't she?") equated for content. Results indicated that children who were innocuously touched were no more likely to falsely assent to "abuse-related" touch questions (e.g., "Amy touched your bottom, didn't she?") than were children who were not touched. However, children who were asked tag questions responded at chance levels, thereby making high errors of commission in response to abuse-touch questions relative to their no-tag counterparts who responded to "abuse questions" accurately 93% of the time. Children who were asked tag questions assented at a higher rate to general forensic questions ("Amy took your picture, didn't she?") than did children asked direct questions, and children assented at higher rates to "abuse-touch" questions than to general forensic questions. Results are discussed in terms of prior research on interviewing techniques and adult influence on children's testimony.

Child Abuse, Sexual↗
PubMed2003

Hypnosis and performance standards.

Participants received 1 of 3 instructional sets designed to manipulate their performance standards (i.e., criteria used to evaluate hypnotic performance): (a) stringent set (n = 33), these subjects were told that responsive subjects respond immediately to hypnosis and imagine realistically, (b) lenient set (n = 30), these subjects were told that responsive subjects do not necessarily respond immediately or imagine realistically, and (c) control set (n = 34), standard prehypnotic information. As expected, compared to controls, stringent set participants were less responsive to hypnosis, as indexed by measures of actual and estimated suggestibility, subjective involvement, involuntariness, quickness of responding, satisfaction, and imaginative ability. Stringent set participants estimated they passed fewer suggestions, were less satisfied with their performance, and reported less subjective involvement than individuals in the lenient condition.

Achievement↗
PubMed2003

An evaluation of Woodard's theory of perceptually oriented hypnosis.

This article evaluates Woodard's theory of Perceptually Oriented Hypnosis, a welcome addition to theories of hypnosis that emphasize the centrality of subjective experiences in understanding and studying hypnosis. With a focus on subjective experience. Woodard's account of perceptually oriented hypnosis is based on elements of humanistic, client-centered, and perceptual psychology. However, we contend that improvements in the operational clarity and coverage of the theory are necessary to optimize its utility and heuristic value. We also argue that it is important for Perceptually Oriented Hypnosis to address hypnotic phenomena, e.g., individual differences in suggestibility, involuntary responding to suggestions, stability of responding over time, widely recognized as essential to understanding hypnotic experience and responding. With these refinements, we believe that Woodard's theory would have a greater potential to enrich our understanding of both the unique experiences of individuals who undergo hypnosis and of hypnosis in general.

Humans↗
PubMed2002

Cultural scripts, memories of childhood abuse, and multiple identities: a study of role-played enactments.

This study compared the reports of satanic, sexual, and physical abuse of persons instructed to role-play either dissociative identity disorder (DID) (n = 33), major depression (n = 33), or a college student who experienced minor adjustment problems ("normal") (n = 33) across a number of trials that included role-played hypnosis. As hypothesized, more of the participants who were asked to role-play DID reported at least one instance of satanic ritual abuse and sexual abuse compared with those who role-played depression or a college student with minor adjustment problems. DID role-players reported more incidents of sexual abuse and more severe physical and sexual abuse than did the major depression role-players. Further, the DID role-players differed from the normal role-players on all the measures of frequency and severity of physical and sexual abuse. Participants in all groups reported more frequent and severe incidents of physical abuse after role-played hypnosis than they did prior to it.

Adjustment Disorders↗
PubMed2002

A critique of the Franklin Commission Report: hypnosis, belief, and suggestion.

This article critiques the landmark Report of the Commissioners Charged by the King to Examine Animal Magnetism, now widely known as the "Franklin Report." The authors mount a defense of D'Eslon, the disciple of Mesmer who conducted the "experiments," designed by the Commissioners that debunked animal magnetism as the mechanism responsible for dramatic alterations in behavior and medical cures following the application of Mesmer's procedures. The authors identify deficiencies in the commissioners' methods, discuss difficulties inherent in drawing strong inferences from the experiments they conducted, and contend that the commissioners missed an opportunity to elucidate the manifold ways in which mesmerism mapped onto important psychological constructs and phenomena. The authors adopt a fanciful approach by couching their critique in a sympathetic response to D'Eslon, who appears to one of the authors in a dream and voices his reservations about the commissioners' efforts.

Advisory Committees↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The role of hypnotizability assessment in treatment.

Disparate opinions about the importance of the assessment of hypnotizability reflect very different ideas about what hypnosis is, the relevance of hypnotizability to psychotherapy and treatment outcome, and the importance of gathering scientific data to document treatment effectiveness and the presence of hypnotic effects. In this article, we argue that in recent years important developments have occurred in the conceptualization, assessment, and technical aspects of hypnotic intervention that imply that clinicians who eschew the use of hypnotizability assessment ought to reconsider their position. In making this argument, we will discuss reasons for assessing hypnotizability, the relation between hypnotizability and treatment outcome, and practical considerations in the assessment of hypnotizability.

Humans↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Defining hypnosis as a trance vs. cooperation: hypnotic inductions, suggestibility, and performance standards.

We compared participants' responsiveness to a standard administration of a hypnotic suggestibility scale (CURSS; Spanos, Radtke, Hodgins, Bertrand, Stam, & Moretti, 1983) that defined the ability to experience hypnosis in terms of cooperation (SI; standard induction, N = 27) with a version of the same scale administered with all references to cooperation removed (CR; cooperation removed, N = 34) and with a version of the scale with the "induction" removed (NI; no induction, N = 35). In a fourth condition, participants were informed that the ability to experience hypnosis depended on their ability to achieve an altered state of consciousness or "trance" (AS; altered state, N = 33). Removing instructions for cooperation had an effect on objective (CR < SI) but not on subjective hypnotic responding. Removing the hypnotic induction had no appreciable effect on any dimension of hypnotic responsivity. Consistent with predictions derived from performance standards theory (Lynn & Rhue, 1991), participants who received the altered state set responded to fewer suggestions than did participants who received the standard induction (SI). Estimates of suggestions passed that were assessed before and after test suggestions were administered were, respectively, weakly to moderately correlated with objective and subjective measures of hypnotic suggestibility.

Adult↗