The effects of contextual information and gender on the prediction of hypnotic susceptibility

Council, Kirsch, and Hafner (1986) obtained empirical support for the hypothesis that significant correlations between questionnaire measures of absorption and hypnotic susceptibility are an artifact of subjects' beliefs about their own hypnotizability. We tested this hypothesis in a two-session experiment. During Session 1, subjects completed questionnaire measures of absorption, mystical experience, daydreaming frequency, and paranormal beliefs. During Session 2, subjects were tested for hypnotic susceptibility. Subjects were also exposed to one of three information manipulations: They were told about hypnotic testing either before or after filling out the questionnaires or were not told about hypnotic testing. The information manipulation moderated the prediction of susceptibility by the questionnaire measures for women, but not for men. For women, scores on the absorption questionnaire predicted susceptibility only when subjects were informed about hypnotic testing. In the told-after condition, this effect generalized to all of the remaining questionnaire measures. For men, none of the questionnaires was a reliable predictor of susceptibility.     

Feasibility of validating survey self-reports of mental health service use

Survey respondents may inaccurately report mental health service utilization for motivational and cognitive reasons. There is little evidence on accuracy of self-reports of mental health service use, and this evidence suggests that respondents tend to underreport inpatient utilization. This study addressed the question of self-report accuracy by comparing survey data from a large probability sample to data from computerized records of publicly funded mental health services. Few inaccuracies in self-reporting were detected. However, despite the use of data bases that were unusually appropriate for verifying self-reports, several problems limited the feasibility of validation. Suggestions are offered for increasing the feasibility of validation in future studies.     

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS

Large community studies of depressive symptomatology provide mixed evidence concerning gender differences. The present paper investigates the effect of the high skewness typically present in distributions of depressive symptom scores on findings of a gender difference in depression. Because of this skewness, a few extreme scores among women (or in any subgroup) can produce a significant between-groups difference in untransformed scores even when the two groups' distributions are otherwise similar. Data from a community survey ( n = 1316) are consistent with this hypothesis. The data also suggest that gender increases depression scores indirectly, rather than directly, for the few women scoring in the extreme upper tail of the distribution. It is concluded that the gender difference in depressive symptoms lacks robustness, and that when it does occur, the effect of gender on depression can be understood as ndirect, i.e., as mediated by gender differences in rate of employment, job status, education, and income.     

Evaluation of a mutual help network for the elderly residents of planned housing

We set up a mutual help network among the elderly residents of a government-subsidized apartment building and evaluated its impact on their social ties, social support satisfaction, and depression. A quasi-experimental design was used, with the residents of a similar building located in the same neighborhood serving as the control group. A total of 230 individual services were exchanged, and 28 group activities were organized during the study period. There was almost no difference between experimental and control groups with respect to the change over the study period in the number of social ties with other residents of the building. Support satisfaction decreased in both groups, but the decrease was larger in the experimental group. The control group had a slight decrease in the frequency of their depressive symptoms, whereas the experimental group had a moderate increase. More research is needed on the ability of social support interventions to produce beneficial effects on mental health among individuals who are not experiencing a particular life stress.     

The association between teacher attitudes, behavioral intentions, and smoking and the prevalence of smoking among seventh-grade students.

Seventh-grade students and teachers from twenty-three middle and junior high schools were surveyed to determine the association between teacher attitudes, behavioral intentions, and smoking behavior and the prevalence of student smoking. Teacher attitudes toward smoking policies were found to be strongly related to the current smoking behavior of the teacher but not consistently related to student smoking. In addition, teacher likelihood of intervening showed a modest association with teacher smoking status, with current smokers generally indicating being the least likely to intervene for student possession or use of cigarettes. Teacher intentions to intervene were strongly associated with the prevalence of smoking among boys but not girls.     

Covariation detection in treated and untreated spider phobics.

Twenty treated and 18 untreated spider phobics were exposed to a series of 72 slides. Three different categories of slides were used: phobia-relevant slides (spiders), alternative fear-relevant slides (weapons), and neutral slides (flowers). Slides were randomly paired with either a shock, a tone, or nothing at all. Despite the absence of a systematic correlation between slides and outcomes, untreated phobics strongly overestimated the covariation between spider slides and shock. Treated phobics did not show a covariation bias, suggesting that such bias can be modulated by behavioral treatment. In addition, untreated subjects were more confident about their contingency estimates than were treated subjects. The present results fit with earlier studies.