Robert A. Karlin

The effects of causal beliefs and binge eating on the stigmatization of obesity

OBJECTIVE Weight disorders and overeating are increasingly labeled as addictions. It is important to identify the consequences of this label on the stigmatization of obesity. METHOD Participants (N = 374) were assigned randomly to one of six conditions, in which they read a scenario about an obese woman either with or without binge eating, followed by an account of the cause of her obesity as psychological, a biological addiction, or ambiguous. Participants then completed questionnaires designed to assess stigma and prognostic beliefs. RESULTS Participants in the obesity with binge eating condition rated obese persons more negatively and as having a worse prognosis. The causal manipulation check revealed no difference between groups and there were no significant effects of this condition. DISCUSSION Behavior (binge eating) has important implications for understanding the stigmatization of obesity.

Three Into Two Doesn't Go: A Follow-up on the Effects of Overcrowded Dormitory Rooms:

A follow-up study of students who, during their freshman year, were either placed two to a room or three to a room in a room designed for two persons was conducted two years later. In comparison to their performance during their sophomore and junior years, grade point averages of tripled students, but not of doubled students, were significantly depressed during their freshman year. Additionally, tripled students were less satisfied and more unhappy with their living conditions as freshmen than were doubled students. During their later college careers, all students, regardless of their freshman room assignment, were equally well adjusted to college, equally satisfied with college and performed equally well in their courses.

Hypnotic Susceptibility and its Relationship to Outcome in the Behavioral Treatment of Asthma: Some Preliminary Data

12 subjects from an experiment on relaxation therapy for asthma were given the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A. Full scale hypnotic susceptibility scores were positively correlated, at a borderline significance, with improvement in the methacholine challenge test, a measure of asthma severity. Performance on the amnesia item of the Harvard Group Scale was correlated with improvement in self-reported symptoms of asthma.

The use of therapeutic interventions to reduce crowding-related arousal: A preliminary investigation

Studies of mass transportation crowding have universally shown that such crowding is arousing and often anxiety producing. Attempts to intervene to reduce arousal and anxiety have met with mixed results. In this study four therapeutically based interventions were used to reduce the arousal evoked by a laboratory analogue of mass transportation crowding. Subjects in the intervention conditions showed significantly fewer increases in pulse rate during crowding. Two of the intervention conditions showed significant decreases in skin conductance level when compared to subjects in an uninstructed crowded condition. An intervention which increased feelings of control over the environment resulted in a more positive view of the environment but did not decrease physiological arousal any more than interventions which did not increase perceived control.

Strategies for the Investigation of Crowding

A variety of methods for systematically investigating crowding have merged. These include studies of humans and animals in both laboratory and field settings. Each of these approaches is viewed as having unique strengths and limitations. The potential of these varying research strategies is explored and the need for appropriate caution in generalizing from the results obtained is noted. A recent attempt to study real world crowding in a natural experiment is commented on in detail.

Responding and Failing to Respond to Both Hypnosis and a Kinesthetic Illusion, Chevreul's Pendulum

Abstract In this study, participants who failed to exhibit pendulum movement in response to Chevreuls Pendulum (CP) instructions had lower Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form A (SHSS:A) scores and reported experiencing less subjective response to hypnosis than did their counterparts who exhibited CP movement. However, intensity scores on Shors Personal Experiences Questionnaire (PEQ) did not differ between pass- and fail-CP groups. Additionally, pass-CP participants showed positive correlations between PEQ intensity scores and hypnotizability scores, while fail-CP participants showed negative correlations among these measures. These findings are consistent with the notion that CP failure may reflect a situation-specific unwillingness to become imaginatively involved rather than a general inability to do so. Additional analyses revealed that 5 of 10 participants who had failed the CP task scored 0 or 1 on the SHSS:A, while only 3 of 65 pass-CP participants scored 0 or 1.

Normative mediation of reactions to crowding

Previous research on short-term crowding had found that males and females react differently. In general, males respond to spatial restriction more negatively while females react more positively than their noncrowded counter-parts. Epstein and Karlin (1975) suggested that these differences are based on group processes rather than biological differences. The present study manipulated norms governing interaction levels in crowded groups of women. Results indicated that these norms influenced reactions to crowding as predicted. Women reacted most positively when interaction levels were high and most negatively when interaction levels were low.

Illusory safeguards: Legitimizing distortion in recall with guidelines for forensic hypnosis-two case reports

Two amnesic automobile accident victims remembered the information needed for their ongoing lawsuits during hypnosis. Meeting the recording requirements of the Hurd safeguards led to the admission of hypnotically influenced testimony in court in one case, whereas failure to record led to exclusion in the other. In both cases, closed-head trauma almost certainly prevented long-term memory consolidation. Thus adherence to guidelines for forensic hypnosis legitimized distortions in recall instead of preventing them. Hypnosis used to facilitate hypermnesia alters expectations about what can be remembered, makes memory more vulnerable to postevent information, and increases confidence without a corresponding increase in accuracy. Distortion of recall is an inherent problem with the use of hypnosis and hypnotic-like procedures and cannot be adequately prevented by any set of guidelines.

Forensic hypnosis--two case reports: a brief communication.

Abstract Two criminal cases are briefly described. In these cases, hypnosis was used to “refresh the recollection” of the victim. In each case, the victims unsupported identification of a perpetrator, produced through hypnosis, was the sole evidentiary basis of the prosecution. There was considerable evidence that both identifications were based on confabulation.

Hypnosis in the Context of Behavior Therapy

Behavior therapy, while retaining a primary allegiance to principles of scientific rigor, is no longer bound to narrow stimulus-response theories as in the early 1960’s. Its purview now encompasses human responses that stem from internal as well as external sources. No longer is it necessary to reject or play down the significance of “cognitions,” “imagery,” or related covert processes. Hypnosis, which had long been recognized as a useful way of facilitating behavioral change directly, is now also seen as helpful in altering internal events that, in turn, indirectly bring about desired behavioral change. Furthermore, besides affecting cognitive, memory and perceptual processes, hypnosis is presented as a powerful placebo. Given the specific expectancies and various demand characteristics of the hypnotic context, hypnosis can facilitate a wide range of behavioral techniques. The present paper briefly discusses the impact of hypnosis across various modalities — behavior, affect, sensation, imagery, cognition, and interpersonal relationships. There is some discussion of trance-specific effects in terms of graphic imagery, and in the general areas of pain control and amnesia.