Download Understanding Hypnosis: Social Influence vs. Divided Consciousness and more Schemes and Mind Maps Voice in PDF only on Docsity!
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m Applications of Hypnosism Hypnosis Techniques m What Is Hypnosis?
Students will be able to: 1 Define hypnosis, and explain evidence for the
two major theories of hypnosis.
2 Explain how hypnosis is induced and the
effects of hypnotic suggestions.
3 Discuss the evidence against claims that hyp-
or cure medical problems. nosis can improve memory, increase strength,
hypnosis €Previewing Key Terms and Key People:
divided consciousness posthypnotic suggestion
social influence theory
theory
Ernest Hilgard
(1904-2001)
Module25 Hypnosis 481
Ever been hypnotized? For several years, my school's postprom partyhas featured an entertainer who uses hypnosis as part of his act. Students always return to class on the following Monday tired but fullof questions about what they've seen and, in some cases, what they'veexperienced. Look at how psychology can help us understand what hap- pens during hypnosis.
Equally Reliable? Stage hyp-
notists such as the one who
suggested these students
were on the beach in need of
sunscreen fascinate their audi-
ences with many of the same
techniques researchers exam-
ine in the laboratory. This
module explains some of what
the researchers have learned
about hypnosis.
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What Is Hypnosis? THIN KING CRITICALLY /s hypnosis really a different state of consciousness? Hypnosis is a social interaction in which a hypnotist makes suggestionsabout perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors and a subject followsthose suggestions. For example, a hypnotist might suggest that a subject
is at a funny movie and the subject would begin to laugh heartily. Or, ahypnotist might suggest that a subject's arm was filling with helium andthe arm would rise in the air. Researchers, therapists, and entertainers-and most of the rest of us-are interested in why these suggestions seemto have such power over people. Psychologists have proposed two keyexplanations: social influence theory and divided consciousness theory.
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hypnosisSocial interaction in which a hyp-notist makes suggestions aboutperceptions, feelings, thoughts,or behaviors and the subjectfollows those suggestions.
Social gnfluence Theory
As evidence, supporters of social influence theory note that no specialphysical condition marks hypnosis as anything other than normal con-sciousness -the natural state of awareness we experience when we'refully awake and alert (Lynn & others, 1990; Spanos & Coe, 1992). Oursocial environment can indeed have a huge effect on our behavior andexperiences. One day this year, I was feeling fine until my wife said my
voice sounded scratchy and asked if my throat hurt. All of a sudden, I
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482 Cognitive Domain Consciousness Chapter
asked the subject to raise his finger if some part of him could still hear.Up went the finger. The odd thing is that even the subject did not know why he had raised his finger until it was explained to him after the
demonstration. The part that could hear, which Hilgard called the hid- den observer, was so effectively divided from the rest of his consciousnessthat even the subject was unaware of it.
The key difference between the two explanations of hypnosis is this:
Social influence theory says that hypnosis is a result of external social variables; divided consciousness theory says that hypnosis is the resultof an exaggerated division of internal consciousness. It's possible, ofcourse, that both positions may be partially correct. Hypnosis is com-plex enough that several variables may be interacting to produce theeffects (Kihlstrom & McConkey, 1990).
By now you may be wondering just how someone enters into this
complex state of being hypnotized. Consider some techniques used. THINKING CR?TICALLY SUMMARY Thetwomajortheoriesexplaining hypnosis are social influence theory and divided consciousness
theory Social influence theory states that the hypnotic state is produced because of the strong social pressures present in the context of hypnosis.Divided consciousness theory states that hypnosis induces our conscious-ness to divide, making one part unaware of the other part. Both theories mayexplain different elements of the hypnotic state.
Hypnosis Techniques THINKING CR?TICALLY Howpowerfularehypnoticsuggestions? Have you seen hypnosis depicted in cartoons? Perhaps the hypnotist was swinging a pocket watch on a chain back and forth or using a spi-raling disc. The zombielike hypnotized person muttered, "Yes, master,"
and lurched forward with outstretched arms to do the hypnotist's bid-ding. As you may have guessed, the reality of hypnotic induction is fardifferent. Inducing hypnosis requires nothing more than the hypnotist's voice and is so easily accomplished that the Federal Communication
Commission set up rules preventing the procedure from being broad- cast on television. A hypnotist perfornning on TV could hypnotize peo-ple at home in their living rooms. Stage hypnotists do experience thisproblem. They frequently find that some members of the audiencebecome as deeply hypnotized as the volunteers on stage.
There is nothing magical or mystical in the process -the "secret" is a
calm, rhythmic tone in the hypnotist's voice, which becomes a focalpoint for the subject's attention. The hypnotist begins by giving easy, log-ical suggestions ("Your eyes are getting tired. You feel very relaxed.").Most people find the state of hypnosis to be relaxing, so these sugges-tions are particularly easy to follow. Continuing to focus the subject'sattention, the hypnotist then gradually moves on to more difficult tasks.
484 Cognitive Domain Consciousness Chapter
Number of
scores
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Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale Figure 25.1 Stanford
an equal number are difficultmake excellent subjects, andAbout one-tenth of all peopleble they are to hypnosis.People differ in how suscepti-Can everyone be hypnotized?
to hypnotize. Most people are hypnosis.moderately susceptible to
8 0 o/o
Low hypnotizability Moderate hypnotizability High hypnotizability
Hypnosis is sometimes falsely characterized as a "deep sleep." During
However, it is possible to talk, move, and open your eyes while hypnotized.hypnosis, subjects sometimes do physically slump in their chairs.
Certain tests help determine in advance who may be a good hypnosis
cates that most people are moderately hypnotizable. About 10 percent together and you cannot separate them), is one such test. This test indi-respond to a series of suggestions (for example, that your hands are glued subject. The Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, in which subjects
sy are better candidates for hypnosis (Barnier & McConkey, 2004). to suggestions. In general, those who are imaginative and prone to fanta- more easily you can be hypnotized and the more easily you will respondfall in the middle (see Figure 25 .1 ). The higher you score on this scale, the are poor subjects, and an equal number are highly hypnotizable; the rest
Hypnotizability also depends on the circumstances of the hypnosis
session. It is more difficult to achieve hypnosis in front of an audience
office setting.who do not become hypnotized on stage may respond differently in an than in a one-on-one private office session. Less susceptible subjects
Hypnotic Suggestions
smell of roses, believe that it's midnight in the middle of the day, or be tized people can be made to flap their arms like birds, hallucinate the tions, thoughts, and emotions (Bowers, 1976). This means that hypno- follows. These suggestions can influence a variety of behaviors, sensa-The key technique in hypnosis is making suggestions that the subject
notists like the one who performs at my school's postprom party. the results are entertaining, which explains the popularity of stage hyp- notist creates a new and interesting reality for the subject. Sometimesangry about something that supposedly happened at school. The hyp-
How powerful are these suggestions? Could they lead you to do some-
thing against your will? Could an evildoer hypnotize you to commit crimes
Module25 Hypnosis 485
TH?NKING CRITICALLY Can hypnosis improve ourmemory orourApplications of Hypnosis
physical state? side, researchers are skeptical of claims that hypnosis can enhance Memory and pain control are the two bookends of hypnosis. On the one
the middle of this bookshelf.trol pain. As you might imagine, other claims tend to fall somewhere inmemory. On the other, they accept claims that hypnosis can help con-
Hypnosis and Memory
details witnesses may have lost.Some police departments have even used hypnosis to try to uncoverrecall events from childhood while under hypnosis (Furnham, 1993).so often that most college students agree that a person can accuratelywherever else they may be hiding. This idea has appeared in the mediaposed storehouse for ideas and memories you cannot easily access) orsis may provide a way to retrieve them from the subconscious (a pro-ories. The idea is that if memories can somehow become "lost," hypno- Many people believe that hypnosis is a good way to retrieve lost mem-
There have been instances when individuals recovered seemingly
driver who had been kidnapped and held captive with 26 children inlost memories during hypnosis sessions. For example, Ed Ray, a bus 1977, was able, when hypnotized, to remember enough of the kidnap-
pers' license plate to lead to an arrest.
However, we need to be cautious about generalizing from these spe-
is a state of suggestibility. In an effort to please the hypnotist, the sub-have come back anyway. The most substantial problem is that hypnosishypnosis was the reason for the retrieval-maybe the memory wouldcific cases. First, they are quite rare. Second, we cannot be sure that
ject may inadvertently manufacture tmtrue details and then later be ries in pieces, much like a jigsaw puzzle. Whenout hypnosis because your brain stores memo- unable to distinguish the real from the unreal. This happens even with-
you try to retrieve a memory, your brain may not be able to locate all the pieces, and then it fills in
the "holes" with plausible events that could have occurred. When this happens, psychologists say
associated with using "hypnotically refreshed" courts now recognize the significant problems"retrieved" memories (McConkey, 1992). Manysense of confidence in the accuracy of these ing false memories and may give subjects a false Hypnosis increases the likelihood of construct- that you have constructed a false memory. %l
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hypnotist will help the witness cult to tell whether this police ries is controversial. It is diffi-of hypnosis to retrieve memo- Hypnosis and Memory The use
able to distinguish from reality. the witness will later be un-a crime or suggest details thataccurately recall the details of
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Module25 Hypnosis 487
memories and have banned testimony from witnesses who have beenhypnotized (Druckman & Bjork, 1994; Gibson, 1995; McConkey, 1995). Other Hypnosis Claims
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Age Regression? The case of
Bridey Murphy took hypnotic
age regression to a new level in
the 1 950s. Murphy is a young
Irish woman who "appeared"
when a hypnotist regressed his
subject, Virginia Tighe, to be-
fore her birth, and Tighe began
giving details of nineteenth-
century life in Ireland. Is this ev-
idence for reincarnation?
Hardly. Investigators discov-
ered that one of Tighe's child-
hood neighbors in Wisconsin
was Bridey Murphy Corkell,
who proved to be the source
of much of the information
Tighe reported when later hyp-
notized. This movie photo de-
picts a tape-recorded hypnosis
session with Tighe and
her hypnotist.
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Hypnosis has been used in a variety of therapeutic settings in whichsubjects have experienced relief with problems ranging from headachesto warts (Bowers, 1984). (See "Psychology in the Real World: Hypnosisand Pain Control.") The problem is that we have no way of knowing forsure that hypnosis caused these improvements. Many studies haveshown that people who receive treatment of a;rzy kind (even sugar pills)tend to show more improvement than those who receive no treatment,thanks to the power of our positive expectations. This is called the placebo effect. Hypnosis may function as a type of placebo-producing
an effect simply because people expect it to do so. For example, in thestudy in which hypnosis proved beneficial in getting rid of warts, a con-trol group given positive suggestions vvithout hypnosis showed similarimprovement (Spanos, 1991).
Researchers are particularly skeptical of two types of claims for the
power of hypnosis: feats of strength and age regression. A favorite trick
of those who believe feats of strength can be achieved through hypno-sis is to have someone stand on a subject who stretches rigid and plank- like between two chairs. The problem is that this feat is also possiblewithout hypnosis. Age regression under hypnosis is an attempt to turnback the clock to an earlier time in the subject's life. Psychologists con-
sider this feat equally unreliable for the same reasons. Hypnotically enhanced memories are unreliable. Thehypnotist's suggestions could lead the subject tounknowingly (but falsely) manufacture the regressionto some earlier time. This happened in one study thattried to demonstrate how subjects could be regressedto the day of their fourth birthday party, at which pointthey could remember the day of the week with greataccuracy (True, 1949). A follow-up analysis revealedthat typical 4-year-olds don't know what day of theweek it is. The hypnotist in this case was actually com-municating the correct answer to his subjects by ask-ing the days of the week in order ("Is it Monday? Is itTuesday?") (Orne, 1982). Because the hypnotist knewthe correct answer, he may have inadvertently signaled that answer to subjects with slight changes in the
inflection of his voice. In any case, hypnotic age regression could not have led the subjects to the cor-rect answer because, as 4-year-olds, they wouldn't have known it.
488 Cognitive Domain Consciousness Chapter
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Thinking About Hypnosis
LEARNING GOAL 1: Define hypnosis, and explain
evidence for the two maior theories of hypnosis. m Hypnosis is a social interaction in which a
hypnotist makes suggestions about perception, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors and a subject follows those suggestions.
w Social influence theory argues that powerful
social influences can produce a state of hypnosis.
s Diyided consciousness theory states that our
consciousness splits during hypnosis so that one aspect of consciousness is not aware of the role other parts are playing.
LEARNING GOAL 2: Explain how hypnosis is
induced and the effects of hypnotic suggestions.
s Hypnotic induction techniques involve a calm,
rhythmic tone in the hypnotist's voice, which becomes a focal point for the subject's attention.
m Hypnosis can lead people to follow many kinds of
suggestions (even actions they otherwise wouldn'tperform), but so can powerful suggestions of any kind.
m Posthypnotic suggestions are carried out by the
subject after the hypnosis session has ended.
m Hypnotized subjects usually report remembering
what occurred while they were hypnotized unlessthe hypnotist produces posthypnotic amnesia bysuggesting they will not.
LEARNING GOAL 3: Discuss the evidence against claims that hypnosis can improve memory,
increase strength, or cure medical problems. m In some cases, hypnosis has helped people
retrieve memories, but hypnotized subjects may inadvertently manufacture untrue details or false memories.
s Hypnosis has been used in a variety of
therapeutic settings to treat various medicalproblems, but it is difficult to separate the effectsof hypnosis from a placebo effect.
w Research does not support claims for the power
of hypnosis to increase strength and ageregression (remembering events from muchearlier in a person's Iife).
T l l l l t
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lCheck Your Vocabulary
For each definition, choose the best-matching term from the Iist that follows.
Definitions
1. Hypnotic suggestion that the subject will
carry out after the hypnosis session has ended.
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- Theory that during hypnosis our
consciousness splits so that one aspect of consciousness is not aware of the role other parts are playing.
s. Theory that powerful social influences can
produce a state of hypnosis.
- Social interaction in which a hypnotist
makes suggestions about perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors and thesubject follows those suggestions.
- Pioneering hypnosis researcher and
advocate of the divided consciousness theory of hypnosis.
Terms
a. divided consciousness theory
b. Ernest Hilgard (1904-2001)c, hypnosis d. posthypnotic suggestion e. social influence theory
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Jkpply Your Knowledge
- Which of the following statements best
matches the definition of hypnosis?
a. Hypnosis is an altered state of
consciousness caused by a change in brain wave patterns.
b. Hypnosis results from an interaction
between a hypnotist and a subject involvingpowerful suggestions about behavior.
c. Hypnosis is a false state of consciousness
involving a convincing hypnotic context and
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490
Cognitive Domain Consciousness Chapter
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