States of Consciousness HYPNOSIS

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States of ConsciousnessHYPNOSIS
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Discuss

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vprMvP9ustN0
• What different states of consciousness do you
  think there are?
• Of the time that you are awake , how much time do
  you think you are consciously thinking about the
  world around you?
• What do you think Hypnosis is ?
• What do you think happens to people who are
  hypnotised?

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Controversial Question

• When someone is hypnotised, do they enter a
  different state of consciousness or is there
  another explanation for their behaviour.

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State versus Non-state

• State Theory Hypnosis is a different state from
  waking or sleeping
• Non-state Hypnosis promotes relaxation,
  imagination and compliance. So hypnotised people
  are not in a different state, the just behave
  differently

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Hypnosis is a state of heightened suggestibility
in which people experience imagined situations as
if they were real.
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Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)
Mesmer developed a technique called animal
magnetism (later renamed mesmerism). Mesmer
noticed that patients would often enter a
trance-like state. Apparent miracle cures also
resulted. Eventually Mesmer realised the magnets
were unnecessary .
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Hypnosis

• In 1841 Scottish surgeon James Braid witnessed a
  demonstration of mesmerism and began to develop
  his own technique.
• Braid held a bright object in front of patients
  eyes while also making verbal suggestions.
• He argued mesmerism was a state of nervous
  sleep produced by concentrated attention.
• He renamed it hypnosis after Hypnos, the Greek
  god of sleep.

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Hypnotic Induction Procedures

• Hypnotic induction is the process by which one
  person leads another into hypnosis.
• It is not necessary to swing a watch in front of
  the eyes or say you are feeling sleepy!
• Moss (1965) reported being able to sometimes
  induce a trance simply by saying Please sit in
  that chair and go into hypnosis!

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Sample test items from the Stanford Hypnotic
Susceptibility Scale, Form C
Item Suggested Behaviour Criterion for Passing
Arm lowering Right arm will become heavy Arm lowered by at least 6 inches
Moving hands apart Force is pushing hands apart Hands are 6 or more inches apart
Mosquito hallucination Mosquito is buzzing nearby Any grimace or acknowledgement
Posthypnotic amnesia Will not remember suggestions Three or fewer items recalled
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Hypnotic Susceptibility

• According to Hilgard (1977), in an average
  testing session 10 of subjects will be
  completely nonresponsive, 10 will pass all or
  nearly all items, and the rest will fall in
  between. This is a stable characteristic when
  tested 25 years later people scored the same !
• However susceptibility can be enhanced by
  increasing peoples expectations (Spanos et al.,
  1991 Vickery Kirsch, 1991).

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Behaviour under Hypnosis

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v9djiWIWMaOA
• Hypnotised people are very suggestible and their
  behaviour will conform with what the hypnotist
  tells them. Typical behaviour that can be induced
  include
• Acting out imaginary scenes.
• Pretending to be an animal.
• Believing a limb cannot move or is insensitive to
  pain.
• Positive and negative hallucinations seeing
  things that are not really there, or not seeing
  objects that really are present.
• Enhanced memory or posthypnotic amnesia

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Plenary

• What is hypnosis?
• How can we be sure that hypnosis is real?
• What is a key argument against hypnosis being a
  real phenomenon?
• Why do you think people vary in their
  susceptibility to hypnosis?
• Why is hypnosis useful?

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Test

• Define Hypnosis
• What is the only essential ingredient for
  hypnotic induction?
• What is a key argument against hypnosis being a
  specific state of consciousness?
• According to Hilgard what percentage of people
  are not susceptible to hypnosis?
• What can increase susceptibility?

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Why does hypnosis work?

• There are two main competing explanations for how
  hypnosis works
• Dissociation (state hypothesis) theories.
• Social Cognitive (non-state hypothesis) theories.

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Dissociation theories of hypnosis

• Dissociation theories view hypnosis as an altered
  state of consciousness.
• Best known example is the neo-dissociation theory
  proposed by Ernst Hilgard (1978, 1991).
• Hilgard argued that cognition involves multiple
  systems of control which are not all conscious at
  the same time.
• These systems are controlled and motivated by a
  central executive ego.

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Neo-dissociation Theory
 

• Executive ego distributes cognitive resources to
  different tasks e.g driving and using a mobile
  phone !!! Multi-tasking divides attention.

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• Hilgard argued that during hypnosis the hypnotist
  gains control of the executive ego, and therefore
  has access to the various subsidiary control
  systems.
• Hypnosis creates a division of awareness in which
  a person simultaneously experiences two streams
  of consciousness (primary consciousness and a
  hidden observer)that are cut off from one
  another.
• The primary consciousness responds to the
  hypnotists suggestions, while the hidden
  observer is stuck behind an amnesiac barrier,
  aware of everything going on but unable to
  communicate, until the hypnotist asks it to.

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Hidden Observer Phenomenon

• In one study Hilgard (1977) hypnotised subjects
  and suggested that they would not feel pain.
• Then placed arm in ice-cold water for 45 seconds
  and reported level of pain experienced.
• For another group Hilgard said Perhaps there is
  another part of you that is more aware than your
  hypnotised part. If so, would that part of you
  report the amount of pain.

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Hidden Observer Study (Hilgard, 1977)
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Hypnosis and Involuntary Control

• When under hypnosis people subjectively
  experience their actions to be involuntary.
• Can people be made to perform acts that are
  harmful to themselves or others?
• Evans Orne (1965) told hypnotized subjects that
  a cup of foaming liquid was acid. They were
  told to throw it a persons face (to see if they
  would follow the instructions despite it being
  harmful)

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Evaluation

• However, a control group who were asked to simply
  pretend that they were hypnotised behaved in the
  same way.
• This behaviour can be explained in terms of
  destructive obedience i.e., psychological
  compliance with an authority figure (Milgram,
  1974).

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Evidence in favour of hypnosis being a separate
state of consciousness

• For some time now hypnosis has been successful
  when anaesthetics cannot be used and in the
  treatment of chronic pain (Hilgard and Le Baron
  1984).
• People can imitate clinical depression
  successfully but that is not to say clinical
  depression does not exist. The crucial point is
  that the hypnotised person believes they are in a
  different state, whilst the imitator does not.
  (McIlveen 1995).
• An important feature of the Hilgard model is the
  hidden observer. Hilgard (1973) induced
  hypnotic deafness in a participant but also
  suggested that he should raise a finger when
  asked if there was any part of him that could
  still hear. Deafness was convincingly established
  but a finger was still raised when the question
  was asked. In Hilgards view this is the hidden
  observer monitoring the situation and replying to
  the question without the participants awareness.
• Some researchers feel that hypnosis is associated
  with specific changes in brain electrical
  activity (Crawford and Gruzlier 1992)
• It is possible we are looking at the wrong
  measures or the wrong part of the brain for
  hypnotic phenomena.
• Although Kosslyn et al (2000) found that when pps
  were asked to visualise adding colour to a grey
  image there was increased brain activity in the
  left hemisphere when they were hypnotised but not
  when they werent.

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Plenary

• Can you describe Hilgards theory?
• What is the hidden observer?
• Use handout to identify criticisms of State
  theories of hypnosis.
• Discuss

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Test

• What is the proper name of Hilgards theory of
  hypnosis?
• Briefly describe Hilgards evidence for the
  hidden observer.
• What is Hilgards name for the part of
  consciousness which is in control of the multiple
  cognitive control structures?
• Why does hypnosis appear to produce involuntary
  actions?

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Social Cognitive theories of hypnosis

• Social cognitive theories deny that hypnosis
  produces an altered state of consciousness.
• Instead argue that hypnotic experiences result
  from expectations of people motivated to take on
  the role of being hypnotised.
• Subjects develop a perceptual set a readiness
  to respond to suggestions and to perceive
  hypnotic experiences as real and involuntary.

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Stanley Milgram (1933-1984)Do we need to be
hypnotised to do things against our will?
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I observed a mature and initially poised
businessman enter the laboratory smiling and
confident. Within 20 minutes he was reduced to a
twitching, stuttering wreck, who was rapidly
approaching nervous collapse. He constantly
pulled on his ear lobe, and twisted his hands. At
one point he pushed his fist into his forehead
and muttered Oh God lets stop it. And yet he
continued to respond to every word of the
experimenter, and obeyed to the end. Milgram,
Behavioral Study of Obedience
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• In a study by Orne (1959) subjects were told
  prior to being hypnotised that a common feature
  of a trance is stiffening of the muscles in the
  dominant hand.
• This information was fictitious.
• When the subjects were hypnotised, 55
  spontaneously displayed hand stiffening.
• No subjects in a control group showed this
  behaviour.
• Social Cognitive theories do not claim that
  hypnotised people are pretending. Expectations
  can influence behaviour without conscious
  awareness (e.g., placebo effects etc.)

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Alternative explanations of hypnosis Non-state
theories

• Barber (1969) suggests that hypnosis is simply
  the result of experimental demand
  characteristics i.e. the participant pleases the
  experimenter and tries not to ruin the show.
• All hypnotic phenomena can be imitated by non
  hypnotised people, indistinguishably from the
  hypnotised (Barber 1979)
• In a study by Orne (1959) subjects were told
  prior to being hypnotised that a common feature
  of a trance is stiffening of the muscles in the
  dominant hand.
• This information was fictitious.
• When the subjects were hypnotised, 55
  spontaneously displayed hand stiffening.
• No subjects in a control group showed this
  behaviour.
• No measure of brain activity successfully
  distinguishes between hypnotised and non
  hypnotised states consistently. (Sarbin and
  Slagle 1972).
• Council and Kenny (1992) showed that expert
  ratings also failed to distinguish between self
  reports of subjects experiencing hypnotic
  induction from those experiencing relaxation
  training and they conclude that the state of
  consciousness produced by the two procedures is
  indistinguishable.
• Wagstaff (1995) indicates that research and
  debate in hypnosis flourishes but we do not seem
  to be any further forward in deciding whether
  there is an altered state of consciousness we can
  call hypnosis.

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Summary

• Hypnosis produces an increased receptiveness to
  suggestions.
• Hypnotised people subjectively experience their
  actions to be involuntary.
• Dissociation theories attribute this to divided
  streams of consciousness.
• Social Cognitive theories attribute this to
  subjects expectation as to what effect hypnosis
  will have on them.

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Test

• What did Spanos et al find about susceptability
  in hypnosis?
• What were the specific findings of Ornes study
  with the hand stiffening?
• What is a major weakness of state theories?
• Explain a problem with the argument that hypnosis
  can be faked.

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Evaluation and Analysis

• Evaluation However, Although, On the other hand
• Look for alternative explanations for findings of
  research or theoretical conclusions
• Criticise the research methods and validity of
  findings
• Analysis
• This suggests
• This implies that..
• This shows us that.

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Essay plan

• Describe what hypnosis is and how it affects
  behaviour. Controversial question is whether it
  produces an altered state of consciousness or
  not.
• Outline and evaluate state theory including 3
  pieces of research evidence
• Outline and evaluate non-state theory including 3
  pieces of research evidence
• Conclusion should discuss the usefulness of
  hypnosis despite the inability of science to
  explain the phenomenon completely.