Henderikus J. Stam

The Carleton University responsiveness to suggestion scale: normative data and psychometric properties.

A normative sample of 400 subjects was administered the Carleton University Responsiveness to Suggestion Scale (CURSS) in small groups. The Carleton scale yields three suggestibility scores for each subject; objective (CURSS:O) scores reflect overt response to suggestion, subjective (CURSS:S) scores reflect experiential response to suggestion, and objective-involuntariness (CURSS:OI) scores reflect the extent to which objectively “passed” responses were experienced as occurring involuntarily. Guttman scale analyses and factor analyses indicate that each dimension is primarily unidimensional and cumulative. CURSS:O scores had a bell-shaped distribution while CURSS:OI scores were much more strongly skewed toward the low suggestibility end of the distribution. Subjects who “passed” suggestions by objective criteria frequently rated their responses as primarily voluntary rather than involuntary. Implications of these findings for the measurement of hypnotic susceptibility are discussed.

The Carleton University Responsiveness to Suggestion Scale: Relationship with other Measures of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Expectancies, and Absorption

The Carleton University Responsiveness to Suggestion Scale (CURSS) yields scores on three suggestibility dimensions. Objective (CURSS:0) scores and subjective (CURSS:S) scores reflect overt and experiential response to suggestion, respectively. Objective-Involuntariness (CURSS:OI) scores indicate the number of objective responses rated as feeling involuntary. Study 1 indicated that all three suggestibility dimensions correlated significantly with the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, and Study 2 showed the three Catleton suggestibility dimensions correlated significantly with Form C of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale. The majority of subjects who obtained high scores on the Stanford:C also scored high on the Carleton suggestibility dimensions. Like the Harvard:A and Stanford:C the three Carleton suggestibility dimensions also correlated significantly with attitude/expectancy measures, absorption, and Fields (1965) “hypnotic experiences” inventory. CURSS:VC (voluntary-cooperation) scores reflect the number of objective responses rated as feeling primarily voluntary rather than involuntary. CURSS:VC scores did not correlate significantly with attitude/expectancy variables, absorption or “hypnotic experiences.” Theoretical implications are discussed.

The Carleton University Responsiveness to Suggestion Scale: Stability, Reliability, and Relationships with Expectancy and “Hypnotic Experiences”

The Carleton University Responsiveness to Suggestion Scale was administered twice to 152 subjects in small groups. The interval between testings ranged from 2 wk. to 3 mo. The three suggestibility dimensions remained relatively stable across testings. For both testings scores on the Objective dimension (CURSS: O) were substantially higher than those on the Objective-Involuntariness dimension (CURSS: OI). This indicates that many subjects who “passed” suggestions in terms of overt response, rated their responses as primarily voluntary rather than involuntary. All three suggestibility dimensions correlated significantly with expectations for hypnosis and Fields “hypnotic experiences” inventory. However, neither expectancies nor “hypnotic experiences” correlated significantly with the number of “passed” responses rated as primarily voluntary (CURSS: VC, i.e., Voluntary Cooperation scores). Theoretical implications are discussed.

Effects of Suggestion and Distraction on Reported Pain in Subjects High and Low on Hypnotic Susceptibility

Subjects high and low in hypnotic susceptibility immersed an arm in ice water on two separate trials Within susceptibility levels, subjects were randomly assigned to three groups, with an equal number (14 highs, 14 lows) in each group. Between trials those in one group were administered a suggestion to imagine their hand as numb and insensitive, those in a second group practiced a distraction task to be used during the second trial (shadowing words), and those in a third group (controls) received no special instructions The suggestion significantly lowered rated pain in high but not in low susceptibles Contrary to dissociation accounts of hypnotic susceptibility and suggested analgesia, low-susceptible shadowers showed as much reduction m rated pam as high susceptibles given suggestion. Findings are discussed in terms of the social psychology of the experimental pain assessment situation

Magnitude scales for cold pressor pain.

Subjects in two experiments immersed a hand and forearm in ice water (cold pressor test) for 60 sec and gave magnitude estimates of pain every 5 sec. Forty subjects immersed an arm for three trials in Experiment 1, and 60 subjects immersed an arm for two trials in Experiment 2. Linear, power, or additive constant functions fitted the data almost equally well. Exponents of the two-constant power function differed from those of the additive constant function. Individual differences in exponents were marked, but various psychological manipulations aimed at reducing pain failed to affect the exponents. The utility of power functions to describe cold pressor pain has yet to be determined.

When Seeing is Not Believing: The Effects of Contextual Variables on the Reports of Hypnotic Hallucinators

When administered a hallucination suggestion most high susceptible hypnotic and task-motivated subjects reported that they “saw” the suggested object. When asked what they meant by “saw,” however, almost all indicated that they had imagined the object but did not believe that it had actually been present. On the other hand, simulating subjects maintained that the suggested object had been “really there.” Simulators were also more likely than non-simulators to provide “life-like” descriptions of the suggested object (e.g., solid rather than transparent, colored, highly vivid). These findings are consistent with the view that hypnotic hallucinations are context-generated imaginings. They also indicate that unique or unusual psychological processes like “trance logic” need not be posited to account for the descriptions of “hallucinatory” experiences proffered by hypnotic subjects.

Meditation, expectation and performance on indices of nonanalytic attending

Abstract Following pretests on the Eysenck personality inventory (H. J. Eysenck & S. B. Eysenck, 1963) and hypnotic susceptibility as measured by the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (Shor & E. Orne, 1962), 2 groups of Ss attended nonanalytically for 20, 15-minute sessions and were then posttested. Sessions were defined as meditation for 1 group and as a study in attention style for the other. Meditators and attenders did not differ in their rate of signalling intrusions into their attending, and neither treatment affected hypnotic susceptibility or personality dimension scores. The Ss who were defined as motivated to participate in the study, and those Ss who were un-motivated did not differ initially in rate of intrusions. At the end of the study, however, motivated Ss reported fewer intrusions than unmoti-vated ones. Intrusion rate correlated significantly with hypnotic susceptibility.

Lateral eye-movements and indices of nonanalytic attending in right-handed females.

24 right-handed females were assessed on left-moving after participating in a study wherein they were pretested on hypnotic susceptibility and absorption and then attended “nonanalytically” for 20 sessions. Although no significant correlations were found between left-moving and other variables, further analyses indicated a non-linear relationship between left-moving and susceptibility, absorption and self-rated “depth” of attending.

The asclepian dream healings and hypnosis: A critique

Abstract The present paper critically evaluates the popular contention that the dream healings which occurred in antiquity at the Asclepian temples resulted from the unwitting use of hypnosis. This contention is found wanting and it is argued instead that these reported healings can he understood better by considering them in their cultural context.

FURTHER INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HYPNOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY AND CLASSROOM SEATING

Three classrooms of students (n = 98) were tested for hypnotic susceptibility, handedness, and seating preference in an attempt to replicate the relationship between classroom seating and hypnotic susceptibility reported in 1979 by Sackeim, Paulhus, and Weiman. No relationship between these variables emerged for males. For females the relationships were inconsistent across samples. Over-all these results constitute a failure to replicate previously reported findings. Theoretical implications for the relationship between hypnotic susceptibility and “hemisphericity” are briefly discussed.