Occurrence Schemas, Context Ambiguity, and Hypnotic Responding

• Published in: Imagination, cognition and personality cognition and personality, 1989-03, Vol.8 (3), p.235-247
• Main Authors: Spanos, Nicholas P., Salas, Jesus A., Bertrand, Lorne D., Johnston, Joseph C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Behavior; Hypnosis
• ISSN: 0276-2366; 1541-4477
• DOI: 10.2190/G89V-30DN-EGHF-DWN3

We assessed the extent to which observers classified the behavior of a videotaped model as a goal-directed action or as an involuntary occurrence while varying the social context in which the model's behavior was embedded. Observers watched a model: a) respond to an arm levitation suggestion in a situation explicitly defined as hypnotic, b) respond to the same suggestion in a situation not defined as hypnotic, or c) attempt to swat a bothersome fly. In both open-ended testimony and on questionnaires, observers consistently described the fly-tracking behavior as a goal-directed action and the hypnotic response as an involuntary occurrence. Observers showed more variability when describing the behavior of the model who received the nonhypnotic suggestion. For observers of the fly-tracking and hypnotic videos involuntariness ratings of the model's behavior failed to correlate significantly with observers' own hypnotizability. However, for those shown the nonhypnotic suggestion video the extent to which the model's behavior was rated as involuntary predicted observers' own level of overt and subjective responding to a test of hypnotizability. Theoretical implications are discussed.