suggests that hypnotic induction affects
behaviours such as relaxation/compliance,
making 'hypnotised' individuals behave
differently from 'waking' ones
Socio-cognitive theory of hypnosis (SCT)
Wagstaff (1986) - hypnotic induction does not
result in a different state, but it changes 2
processes: compliance and belief
Compliance
describes the behaviour of someone
who is conforming/obeying
refers to situations where a person changes
their behaviour to go along with others
in hypnosis the
subject complies with
the expectations of the
hypnotist
EG. a hypnotised subject who is
offered the suggestion that "you can
feel your arm rising on it's own" is likely
to oblige/comply by creating that feeling
motivated to avoid
the embarrassment
of failing, or avoid
appearing
'disobedient
Belief
compliance
is volitional
Annotations:
volitional = deliberate
key point is that a
hypnotised person
believes their responses
are not volitional
this belief that leads them to
regard the hypnotism as 'real'
Valins (1966) did a study with male
PP's and they were required to rate
images of semi-rude women
found that PP's
misinterpreted information
and subsequently tried to
offer rational explanation for
their behaviour
in the case of
hypnosis,
subjects explain
their compliance
in terms of being
hypnotised and
not in control of
their own
behvaiour
The ESC process
Expectation, Strategy, Compliance
hypnotic subjects may
seek experiences
which confirm the
hypnotists suggestion
EG. when a
hypnotist says
"your hand will feel
lighter and float
upwards" they
may interpret a
twitch within this
framework
the 'task' for a hypnotic subject has 3
components: decide what the hypnotist 'wants',
employ cognitive strategies to produce
experiences, and resort to behavioural
compliance (if fails)
EG. in hypnotic amnesia, ESC suggests that the subject judges that
forgetting is a requirement of the situation (expectation), then they
either employ inattention to block memory (strategy), or is unable to
generate the required response and fakes it (compliance)
Evaluation
Compliance
if subjects are merely
compliant then we would
expect at least some of them to
admit that they are pretending
however, Kihlstrom (1980) found even
when appeals are made to their
honesty, they don't admit
however, Spanos (1986) suggests that
hypnotised subjects fail to admit to pretending
because they have invested so heavily in the
role of being hypnotised and this causes them
to reinterpret their experiences
Compliance and susceptibility
highly susceptible
subjects should be
generally more
compliant
this
is not
the
case
Orne (1970) tested PP's' hypnotic
susceptibility and asked them to
return a stack of postcards
more postcards returned,
more compliant
found that highly susceptible subjects
were not more compliant, if anything
low susceptibility subjects were
(perhaps because they felt they had
'failed' by being unhypnotisable)
The ESC process
a key strength -
attempts to explain the
experience of the
subject