Part 2: Altered States

States of Consciousness

For over 200 years, psychologists have puzzled over what hypnosis really is.

Some believe it is a special state of consciousness in which individuals experience hallucinations (like seeing an imaginary bug), carry out suggestions (quacking like a duck), or reporting decreased after receiving a painful stimulus

Recently this idea has come under question

Hypnosis- What is it?

Late 1700’s claimed to cure a variety of symptoms by passing a force called “animal magnetism” into a patient’s body.

So many people found this successful that French Academy of Science investigated

Found many patients were indeed cured but but banned future use as they could not identify or verify the force

Franz Mesmer

Hypnosis (APA) Is a procedure in which a researcher, clinician, or hypnotist suggests that a person will experience changes in sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, or behaviors

Hypnosis Defined

Who Can be Hypnotized?

Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale Step 1: Hypnotize Step 2: Ask subject to carry out a series of simple suggestions

Step 3: Ask subject to carry out a series of complex suggestions

Repeat for up to 12 activities

The higher the score, the easier the person is to hypnotize

Determining Susceptibility

Hypnotic InductionThe process that refers to inducing hypnosis by first asking a person to either stare at an object or close his or her eyes and then suggesting that the person is becoming very relaxed

How is Someone Hypnotized?

1. Hypnotist creates a sense of trust, so that the individual feels comfortable

2. The hypnotist suggests that the subject concentrate on something, such as the sound of the hypnotist’s voice, an object, or an image

3. The hypnotist suggests what the subject will experience during hypnosis- relaxed, sleepy, floating feeling

Common Method of Hypnotic Induction

Subjects are not asleep

Keep ability to control their behaviors

Are aware of their surroundings

Adhere to usual moral standards

Are capable of saying no or of stopping hypnosis

During Hypnosis

Early on, believed to be a trancelike state

Trancelike state dropped in late 1900s due to lack of evidence

Some believe it is an altered state of consciousness

Others believe it is a personal ability to respond to imaginative suggestions

What Happens during Hypnosis?

Hypnosis puts a person into an altered state of consciousness, during which the person is disconnected from reality and so is able to experience and respond to various suggestions

Altered State theory

Hypnosis disconnects an individual from reality so that the individual does things without conscious intent.

Through hypnosis, scientists can temporarily create hallucinations, compulsions, certain types of memory loss, false memories, and delusions.

With this theory…

Step 1: Hypnotic Induction Hypnotist used hypnotic induction followed

by slowly repeating a list of suggestions

Step 2: Susceptibility Without conscious intent subject follows

suggestions Subject is one of the 10-15% who are

easily hypnotized

Step 3: Hypnosis Hypnosis disconnects subject from reality Automatically, and without conscious

intent, follows a wide rage of suggestions

Altered or Disconnected State- Explained

Behaviors observed during hypnosis result not from being hypnotized, but rather from having the special ability of responding to imaginative suggestions and social pressures

Sociocognitive Theory

All phenomena produced during hypnosis have also occurred in non-hypnotized subjects

Utilizes imaginative suggestibility Special ability to alter one’s experiences and produce hallucinations, experience partial paralysis, have selective amnesia, and reduce pain

With this theory…

NO Hypnotic Induction Individuals do not have to by hypnotized 30% or more possess imaginative

suggestibility

Step 1: Imaginative Suggestibility Subject is part of the 30% with

imaginative suggestibility Can perform unusual behaviors that are

suggested without going through hypnotic induction

Step 2: Imaginative suggestions without hypnosis Those that carry out suggestions have

the special ability to respond in a totally focused way to imaginative suggestions

Sociocognitive theory explained

Recent research reports that hypnosis occurs mostly as a result of people’s expectations about hypnosis rather than an altered hypnotic state

COnclusion

Hypnotic Analgesia  Refers to a reduction in pain reported by clients after

they had undergone hypnosis and received suggestions that reduced their anxiety and promoted relaxation

Posthypnotic Suggestion  Given to the subject during hypnosis about performing

a particular behavior to a specific cue when the subject comes out of hypnosis

Posthypnotic Amnesia Not remembering what happened during hypnosis if the

hypnotist suggested that, upon awakening, the person would forget what took place during hypnosis

 

Behavior Definitions

Age Regression Refers to subjects under hypnosis being asked to

regress, or return in time, to an earlier age, such as childhood

Imagined Perception   Experiencing sensations, perceiving stimuli, or

performing behaviors that come from one’s imagination

Behavior Definitions

Researchers agree that subjects are not faking or acting out responses

Are actually experiencing such behaviors as hypnotic analgesia, imagined perception, age regression, and posthypnotic suggestion and amnesia

Some believe that this is because hypnosis causes an altered or disconnected state

Others believe it is due to imaginative suggestion

Hypnotic Behaviors COnclusion

Using the knowledge that you have gained about hypnosis from our previous classes, brainstorm possible serious and legitimate uses of hypnosis.

Applications Brainstorm

In both medical and dental settings, hypnosis can be used to reduce pain through hypnotic analgesia

Those that are susceptible to hypnosis are better able to respond to suggestions for pain reduction than those with low susceptibility

Hypnotized patients undergoing surgery require less pain medication and recover sooner than those not receiving hypnosis (Spiegal, 2007)

Hypnosis can also be helpful in preparing people for anxiety provoking procedures.

Medical and Dental Uses

Researchers used PET scans to measure activity in different parts of the brain

Suggestions to think of pain as more unpleasant resulted in decreased brain activity in the frontal lobe

Suggestions to think of pain as less unpleasant resulted in increased brain activity in the frontal lobe

Instructions that pain was more or less unpleasant did not increase or decrease in the parietal lobe (somatosensory cortex)

Brain Activity during Hypnotic Analgesia

Why might his be important or what might this tell us?

This is the area that indicates reception of pain sensations

During hypnotic analgesia subjects feel pain, but how much it bothers them depends on whether hypnotic suggestions are to think of pain as being more or less unpleasant.

The patients thoughts or expectations actually change their perception of pain (Ploghaus et al., 2003)

So what?

Research indicates that hypnosis can be a powerful tool that leads to successful outcomes when used in therapeutic settings

Has been successfully used to reduce pain, decrease asthma attacks, remove warts, and relieve tension

Not as successful with problems of self-control, such as helping patients quit smoking, stop overeating, stop excessive drinking, or overcome other habits that interfere with optimal functioning

Therapeutic and Behavioral Uses

Subjects smoking at 3-week follow-up

Clinicians generally conclude that hypnosis by itself is not a miracle treatment but can be a useful technique when combined with other procedures

So What?