Acting As If You Are Hypnotized By: Lindsey Peck and Colleen Ahearn

Background Common belief that hypnotized was a separate/unique state of awareness Mesmerize acquired from Mesmer created first example of hypnosis Used by Freud in psychoanalytic techniques Ernest Hilgard – 6 descriptions of hypnosis Nicholas Spanos – does NOT involve alternate state of consciousness

Method Findings taken from 16 studies Involved in all experiments Purpose to contradict Hilgard and popular belief that hypnosis is a unique state of consciousness

Findings and Conclusions Behavior is involuntary Suggestion vs. instruction Raising arm vs. lowering arm People become absorbed in these imaginary strategies and convince themselves behavior is involuntary

Findings and Conclusions Creation of expectations 3 main studies 1. Difference in lectures 2. Comparing experiences with vivid imagery 3. Altering amount of information given about experiment

Significance Not denying the actual existence of hypnosis Hypnosis not an altered state of consciousness but result of motivated, goal-directed, social behavior Hypnosis still exists because people need to believe in a last resort problem solver Changed psychology with an alternative experimentally based explanation for hypnosis behavior

Recent Applications and Alternative Theories Article in 1997, mirroring Spanos theory and supporting it In 2003, Lynn completed a study of hypnosis as a therapeutic practice to recover repressed memories from childhood is faulty Although he dies in a plane crash in 1994 his research has carried on Many articles later (1993, 1998, 1999, 2000) on refuting Spanos’ theory and supporting Hilgard’s

Now It’s Your Turn