The present investigation surveyed attitudes and beliefs about hypnosis across 4 samples of students attending college at the University of New South Wales, Australia; Dortman University, Germany; The Ohio State University, United States; and Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran. A total of 280 undergraduate students (70 from each country sampled), ranging in age from 18 to 25 years, completed 3 different questionnaires assessing their opinions and beliefs about hypnosis. Although responses to some items varied by country, there was remarkable similarity across many items suggesting that certain views and attitudes about hypnosis are not culture specific.
This study assessed the relationship of age and hypnotic suggestibility in an effort to partially update the findings of Morgan and Hilgard (1973). A total of 2,660 undergraduates were administered the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A; Shor & Orne, 1962) over a 7 year period. Consistent with Morgan and Hilgard's results, we found a general trend for hypnotic suggestibility scores to decrease from age 17 to 40, and then increase thereafter. We also found that female participants scored higher on the HGSHS: A compared with males across the various age ranges that we sampled.
In the present study we assessed the efficacy of several procedures in minimizing the occurrence of aftereffects of a hypnotic induction. We gave experimental subjects (n = 347) a brief lecture dispelling some myths about hypnosis, told them no psychological treatment would be undertaken, and then administered the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A) in which all references to aftereffects had been removed. We gave the standard version of the HGSHS:A to control subjects (n = 340). Although the treatment condition did not reduce the overall incidence of effects, long-term effects were significantly reduced. Medical and psychosocial histories were obtained from subjects prior to the induction, but they proved to be of limited value in predicting sequelae. Contrary to the results of Coe & Ryken (1979), hypnosis produced more frequent sequelae than a nonhypnotic classroom experience (watching a film followed by an introductory psychology lecture) for subjects in an ad hoc control group.
Two cases of hypnotic sequelae occurring in a research context (with a non-clinical college population) are reported. Case 1 was a male who experienced retroactive amnesia following hypnosis: He was unable to recall familiar telephone numbers later that day. This was not a continuation of an earlier confusion or drowsiness (as is often found) since he indicated he was wide awake following hypnosis. Two parallels exist with previous reports: unpleasant childhood experiences with chemical anesthesia and a conflict involving a wish to experience hypnosis but a reluctance to relinquish control. Case 2 was a female who, while in hypnosis, experienced an apparent epileptic seizure that had characteristics of both petit mal and grand mal seizures. Although having a history of epilepsy, she had not had a seizure in 7 years. We suspect that the seizure was psychogenic and may have been triggered by wording used in the hypnotic scale or other similarities. Possible mechanisms are discussed and preventative recommendations are made.
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