Goal-directed fantasy, hypnotic susceptibility, and expectancies

We conducted an initial screening session in which hypnosis was presented as a "test of imagination" and administered with other imagination measures. In a second session, we instructed high- and low-hypnotizable subjects to imagine along with suggestions but to resist responding to motoric suggestions. Subjects received either instructions to use goal-directed fantasies (GDFs) or no facilitative instructions. Sizable individual difference effects were secured. Hypnotizable subjects exhibited more suggestion-related movements and reported greater involuntariness than did low-hypnotizable subjects. With GDF instructions, low- and high-hypnotizable subjects reported equivalent GDF absorption and frequencies. However, hypnotizable subjects exhibited greater responsiveness and reported greater involuntariness than did those low in hypnotizability, even when their GDFs were equivalent. Thus, no support was generated for the hypotheses that sustained, elaborated suggestion-related imagery mediates response to suggestion (Arnold, 1946) or that absorption in suggestions is of particular importance for low-hypnotizable subjects (Zamansky & Clark, 1986). Our finding that measures of response expectancy paralelled responding and reports of nonvolition support the hypothesis that expectancies mediate the relation between imagination, involuntariness, and responding (Kirsch, 1985; Spanos, 1982). Hypnotizable imagining subjects in the study discussed here exhibited greater responsiveness than a comparable sample of subjects did in a previous countersuggestion study (Lynn, Nash, Rhue, Frauman, & Stanley, 1983) in which no attempt was made to foster an association between imagining and involuntary responding in the initial screening session.     

Enhancing hypnotic susceptibility: interpersonal and rapport factors

This research supported the hypothesis that hypnosis can be thought of as a set of potentially modifiable social-cognitive skills and attitudes. A low-interpersonal-training treatment devised by Gorassini and Spanos (1986) was compared with a treatment designed to modify not only cognitive factors but also to augment rapport with the trainer and diminish resistance to responding (high-interpersonal training). Fifty percent of the initially unhypnotizable subjects in the high-interpersonal condition tested as being highly susceptible to hypnosis (high susceptibles) at posttest on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (Shor & Orne, 1962); 25% of the unhypnotizable subjects in the low-interpersonal condition responded comparably. Eighty-three percent of the medium-susceptibility (medium susceptibles) subjects tested as being highly susceptible at posttest in both conditions. Practice-alone control subjects' performance was stable across testings. The study was the first to demonstrate that treatment gains generalize to a battery of novel, demanding suggestions (generalization index) that have been found to differentiate highly susceptible subjects from unhypnotizable simulating subjects. The importance of rapport was evidenced by the finding that rapport ratings paralleled group differences in hypnotic responding and that rapport correlated substantially with susceptibility scores at posttest and with the generalization index. Whereas initial hypnotizability scores correlated significantly with retest susceptibility scores, initial hypnotizability failed to correlate significantly with the generalization index.     

Standard posture,postural mirroring and client-perceived rapport

The relationship between client-perceived rapport (as measured from a standardized client) and physical mirroring and the standard counsellor posture was investigated with interviews performed by 59 post-graduate students in counselling psychology. Videotaped recordings were used to code counsellor posture in the categories of: total postural mirroring, mirroring of the hands and arms, mirroring of the legs, mirroring of the torso, and the frequency of the standard counsellor posture across each minute of the interviews. These minutes were classified as 'high' in rapport or 'low' in rapport as measured by the standardized client. Results indicated that there was significantly more postural mirroring of the torso during high versus low minutes, but that the counsellor standard posture occurred significantly more frequently during low rapport minutes than in high rapport minutes. However, when examined over the entire length of the interviews, these data were able to be understood in terms of counsellor 'flexibility' of response rather than simply whether these postural behaviours were present or not. Implications for counsellor training are discussed.     

Impulsivity,self-control,and hypnotic suggestibility

Hypnotic responding might be due to attenuated frontal lobe functioning after the hypnotic induction. Little is known about whether personality traits linked with frontal functioning are associated with responsiveness to hypnotic suggestions. We assessed whether hypnotic suggestibility is related to the traits of self-control and impulsivity in 154 participants who completed the Brief Self-Control Scale, the Self-Regulation Scale, the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11), and the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (HGSHS:A). BIS-11 non-planning impulsivity correlated positively with HGSHS:A (Bonferroni-corrected). Furthermore, in the best model emerging from a stepwise multiple regression, both non-planning impulsivity and self-control positively predicted hypnotic suggestibility, and there was an interaction of BIS-11 motor impulsivity with gender. For men only, motor impulsivity tended to predict hypnotic suggestibility. Hypnotic suggestibility is associated with personality traits linked with frontal functioning, and hypnotic responding in men and women might differ.     

Overt expression of experimenter expectancies,interaction with subject expectancies,and performance on a psychomotor task

Subsequent to success or failure experience, 48 subjects attempted a psychomotor task in order to escape or avoid an aversive stimulus (tone). Their attempts at solving the task over 24 trials were made in the presence of subject-experimenters each of whom had expectancies instilled regarding the solution to the task. The job of the subject-experimenters was to “offer information” on every third trials as the subjects attempted to solve the task. It was hypothesized that the expectancies of the subject-experimenters would be communicated to the subjects via periodic comments, that these expectancies would differentially affect the subjects' performance on the task, and that prior experience on a similar task would differentially affect subjects' performances on the task. The results demonstrated that the expectancies instilled in the subject-experimenters were communicated and influenced the performances of subjects as predicted. It appears that consistency with respect to the expectancies communicated played a major role in producing significant effects. Prior experience failed to produce significant differences on task performance, a finding conflicting with that of D.S. Hiroto (Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1974, 102, 187–193). The results are discussed from the perspective of using the overt, explicit communication of expectancies as a means for exploring the illusive phenomenon of the experimenter expectancy effect.     

Time estimation and expectancies

The purpose of this research was to examine the influence of different types of expectancies on time estimation behavior. In Experiment 1, subjects were led to expect that a given number of trials would occur in a music perception task. In Experiment 2, expectancies concerning the duration of a given waiting period were varied. Results of both experiments indicated that the confirmation/violation of expectancies exerted a significant im acton4urationjudgments. When subjects received more/fewer trials than expected or waited for a duration-that-waslonger/shorter than expected, the total duration of these time spans was over- and underestimated, respectively. Conversely, time estimates were relatively accurate whensubjects' expectancies were confirmed. The results of Experiment 1 further revealedthat reaction time responses within-the-music perception task were also systematically influenced by the expected amount of activity. Results are discussed in terms of a framework that emphasizes the role of anticipatory attending on time estimation behavior.     

Patterns of hypnotic response,revisited

It has long been speculated that there are discrete patterns of responsiveness to hypnotic suggestions, perhaps paralleling the factor structure of hypnotizability. An earlier study by Brenneman and Kihlstrom (1986), employing cluster analysis, found evidence for 12 such profiles. A new study by Terhune (2015), employing latent profile analysis, found evidence for three such patterns among highly hypnotizable subjects, and a fourth comprising subjects of medium hypnotizability. Some differences between the two studies are described. Convincing identification of discrete “types” of high hypnotizability, such as dissociative and nondissociative, may require a larger dataset than is currently available, but also data pertaining directly to divisions in conscious awareness and experienced involuntariness.     

Counsellor facial expression and client-perceived rapport

The effects of counsellors’ facial expressions upon the degree of rapport experienced by a Standardized Client (STC) was assessed via examination of 59 counselling interviews conducted by graduate students in counselling. Izard's (1971 Izard, CE. 1971. The face of emotion, New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.  [Google Scholar]) Affex system of classifying facial expressions was used to operationalize the independent variable of facial expression, with STC ratings of rapport on a five-point scale each minute of the interviews constituting the dependent variable. Data indicated that there was significant more (in seconds/minute) counsellor facial expression of the categories “Interest-excitement” and “Enjoyment-joy” during minutes rated as high in rapport than in minutes rated as low in rapport, but that there was significantly less of the counsellor facial expression “Hypothesized Interest” in high rapport minutes. Implications for the development of effective training procedures for counsellors, plus the need to emphasize the building of emotional engagement between counsellor and client are discussed.     

Counsellor communicative control and client-perceived rapport

The relationship between counsellor verbal control and client-perceived rapport during 12 initial interviews conducted by counsellor trainees was investigated. Minute-by-minute client ratings of rapport were collected and used as the dependent variable. Counsellor verbal behaviour was coded into Topic-Initiation, -Following, and -Reintroduction responses and these were analyzed for their relationship with rapport. Data indicated that there were significantly more Topic-Following responses during minutes rated low in rapport than in minutes rated high in rapport. Examination of the relationship between counsellor verbal control and rapport during interviews suggested that the effective use of communicative control by counsellors may be time-relevant to the stage of the interview.     

Danger expectancies, self-efficacy and insight in spider phobia

In the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, (1994) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed.) Washington, DC: author) phobic adults and adolescents are said to "recognize that the phobia is excessive or unreasonable" given the actual danger posed by the feared situation. The present study examined perceptions of danger in 15 spider phobic subjects and a matched set of controls before, during and after a spider-avoidance test. When detached from the phobic stimulus, phobic subjects: (1) gave higher estimates of the probability of being bitten than controls did; (2) gave higher estimates of the injuries that would result from being bitten and (3) in line with these first two findings, believed their high levels of anticipated anxiety were more reasonable and appropriate to the demands of the situation than controls did. These findings are inconsistent with the prevailing notion that when detached from the phobic situation patients can accurately evaluate the danger of potential phobic encounters. Instead, the findings suggest that phobic individuals, whether detached or in the presence of the feared object, have relatively limited insight into the irrationality of their fears. In examining the mediation of phobic phenomena, both self-efficacy and danger estimates remained significantly related to the anxiety and avoidance experienced in the spider-avoidance task. Further research designed to experimentally establish the likely causal roles of these two constructs is warranted.     

Trait expectancies and stereotype expectancies have the same effect on person memory

Two studies examined whether trait expectancies and stereotype expectancies similarly affected memory for expectancy-relevant behaviors. The results of both studies showed that, when activated in identical ways, trait expectancies and stereotype expectancies had similar effects on recall. Better recall was obtained for expectancy-incongruent items when expectancies were activated in relatively overt ways, while better recall for expectancy-congruent items was obtained when expectancies were activated in less overt ways. Additional analyses examining the order of events that emerged in the recall protocols provided little evidence that participants attempted to reconcile the items, as would be predicted by some earlier models of person memory (e.g., Srull, 1981). The implications of these findings for how social expectancies guide social information processing are discussed.