Johns, Raymond A
1.65 MB of textual records (PDF)
Audience: Undergraduate. -- Dissertation: Thesis (B. A.). -- Algoma University, 2003. -- Submitted in partial fulfillment of course requirements for PSYC 4105. -- Includes figures. -- Contents: Literature review / Thesis.
This study compared responses to a deafness suggestion amongst subjects administered one of three conditions: hypnosis + suggestion (i.e., reals), simulating instructions (simulators-instructed to fake excellent hypnotic responding) or suggestion-alone (i.e.,cognitives) without hypnosis. Each group contained 12 high and 12 low hypnotizable participants. Reals and simulators were administered a hypnotic induction, followed by a unilateral (i.e., left-ear) deafness suggestion; cognitives were given the unilateral deafness suggestion, without a hypnotic induction. All subjects were administered the stenger Test of Audition test during the deafness-trial and again on a final post deafness trial. The stenger Test is designed to assess the degree and veracity of deafness reports. Reported deafness levels were indistinguishable amongst high-reals, low-cognitives and high-cognitives; all three of these groups reported lower levels of deafness compared to the simulating group. The latter group demonstrated a pattern of response consistent with faking deafness, a response for which the Stenger Test is designed to measure. The findings suggest lend support to the hypothesis that deafness does not uniquely characterize highly suggestible hypnotic subjects; in addition, the differences between reals and simulators reflect contextual demands on real subjects to report their deafness experience accurately.
