Expect the unexpected: Ability, attitude, and responsiveness to hypnosis.

Abstract

Participants' expectancies and hypnotic performance throughout the course of a standardized, individually administered hypnotic protocol were analyzed with a structural equation model that integrated underlying ability, expectancy, and hypnotic response. The model examined expectancies and ability as simultaneous predictors of hypnotic responses as well as hypnotic responses as an influence on subsequent expectancies. Results of the proposed model, which fit very well, supported each of the 4 major hypothesized effects: Expectancies showed significant stability across the course of the hypnosis protocol; expectancies influenced subsequent hypnotic responses, controlling for latent ability; hypnotic responses, in turn, affected subsequent expectancies; and a latent trait underlay hypnotic responses, controlling for expectancies. Although expectancies had a significant effect on hypnotic responsiveness, there was an abundance of variance in hypnotic performance unexplained by the direct or indirect influence of expectation and compatible with the presence of an underlying cognitive ability.

Efficacy of Hypnosis in the Treatment of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) in Women:Rural and Urban Samples

“…Our findings regarding expectancies, at both the quantitative and qualitative levels, are consistent with the most recent experimentally controlled research, which used 90 participants (Benham, Woody, Wilson, & Nash, 2006;see Barabasz & Perez, 2007 for a review of the significance of this finding). Thus, the effects of hypnosis on HPV lesions reflect a trait-like ability that determines how much an individual benefits from hypnosis apparently independent of attitudes and expectations.…”

Hypnosis and top-down regulation of consciousness

“…This experiential set may be primed by suggested experiences, positive attitudes, beliefs, motivation, and expectancies regarding hypnosis (Lynn, Snodgrass, Rhue, Nash, & Frauman, 1987). Indeed, motivation and response expectancies are robust and stable predictors of hypnotic responsiveness, although the magnitude of these effects is not yet fully clear (Benham, Woody, Wilson, & Nash, 2006;Braffman & Kirsch, 1999).…”

Propuesta del uso de la hipnosis como método diagnóstico en procedimientos forenses: A propósito de un caso con trastorno de conversión

“…Así, en los dos primeros casos se predice el desarrollo del proceso hipnó-tico en un grado moderado según la Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale Form C, mientras que en el tercero lo hace en un grado elevado [11,16,26].…”