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 Induction  The 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?