Chapter 4-The Effects of Hypnosis

hypnosis can do what 4 things:

1. Create amnesia for whatever happens during the hypnotic session 2. relieve pain by allowing a person to remove conscious attention from the pain 3. alter sensory perceptions 4. help people relax in situations that would cause them stress

hypnosis cannot:

1. give people superhuman strength 2.reliably enhance memory 3. regress people back to childhood 4. regress people to some "past life". There is no scientific evidence for past-life regression

8 items that would appear on a hypnotic susceptibility scale

1. movement of the body back and forth 2. closing eyes and unable to open them 3. fingers locked together 4. one arm locked into position 5. responding to posthypnotic suggestion 6. loss of memory for events during the session 7. unable to state one's own name 8. seeing or hearing nonexistent stimuli

The steps in inducing hypnosis

1. the hypnotist tells the person to focus on what is being said 2. the person is told to relax and feel tired 3. the hypnotist tells the person to"let go" and accept suggestions easily 4. the person is told to use vivid imagination

What percent of all people can be hypnotized?

80 percent and 40 percent are good hypnotic subjects

What does it mean by the hypnotic susceptibility

A test of hypnotic susceptibility or the degree to which a person is a good hypnotic subject, often makes use of a series of ordered suggestions The more suggestions in the ordered list the person responds to, the more susceptible that person is

Hypnosis as dissociation: the hidden observer

Hilgard believed that hypnosis worked only on the immediate conscious mind of a person, while a part of that person's mind ( a "hidden observer") remained aware of all that was going on

Fact or myth about hypnosis?

The hypnotist may only be a guide into a more relaxed state, while the subject actually hypnotizes himself or herself people cant be hypnotized against their will

what is dissociation?

There are two views on why hypnosis works one emphasizes the role of dissociation or a splitting of conscious awareness, whereas the other involves a kind of social role-playing

What is the key to hypnosis?

a heightened state of suggestibility people can be hypnotized when active and alert but only if they are willing to be hypnotized

What is hypnosis?

a state of consciousness in which a person is especially susceptible to suggestion

what is the social-cognitive theory

assumes that people who are hypnotized are not in an altered state but are merely playing the role expected of them in the situation

what is the tendency to act as though their behavior is automatic and out of their control?

basic suggestion effect it gives people an excuse to do things they might not otherwise do bc the burden of responsibility for their actions falls on the hypnotist

what are the two areas of the brain of highly hypnotizable people

decision making and attention

Hypnosis as social role-playing: the social-cognitive explanation

the researchers found that the participants who were not familiar with hypnosis and had no idea what the "role" of a hypnotic subject was supposed to be, could not be hypnotized

Hypnosis is also a controversial tool when used what?

therapy to help people "recover" what are thought to be repressed memories