1. Hypnosis Altered Consciousness or Role-Playing?

2. States of Consciousness (2-4%)
AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:
• Describe various states of consciousness and their impact on behavior.
• Discuss aspects of sleep and dreaming:
— stages and characteristics of the sleep cycle;
— theories of sleep and dreaming;
— symptoms and treatments of sleep disorders.
• Describe historic and contemporary uses of hypnosis (e.g., pain control,
psychotherapy).
• Explain hypnotic phenomena (e.g., suggestibility, dissociation).
• Identify the major psychoactive drug categories (e.g., depressants, stimulants)
and classify specific drugs, including their psychological and physiological
effects.
• Discuss drug dependence, addiction, tolerance, and withdrawal.
• Identify the major figures in consciousness research (e.g., William James,
Sigmund Freud, Ernest Hilgard).

3. Consciousness Awareness of ourselves and our environments
Dual processing: conscious and unconscious
Some states occur spontaneously
Daydreaming
Drowsiness
Dreaming
Some are physiologically induced
Hallucinations
Orgasm
Food or Oxygen intake
Some are psychologically induced
Sensory Deprivation
Hypnosis
Meditation

4. Hypnosis Hypnotism (coined in 1843) from the Greek word for sleep
James Braid believed it could be used as a form of anesthesia

5. Hypnotic Induction and Susceptibility
Hypnosis: a social interaction in which one person (the subject) responds to another person’s (hypnotist) suggestions that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur
Hypnotic induction- relies on the person’s sggestability

6. Susceptibility People vary in their response to hypnotic induction
Recent studies show about 20% of people are highly succeptable
Typically people who can become deeply absorbed in imaginative activities

7. Memory We do NOT encode everything around us
We permanently store only some of our experiences, and sometimes we can’t retrieve those
Courts (US) have banned the use of testimony provided under hypnosis

8. Hypnotized people have been induced to do apparently dangerous activities
Post-therapeutic suggestions- a suggestion made during ahypnsosi session to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotize; used by some clinicians to help control undersized symptoms and behaviors
Helps with headaches, asthma, and stress-related skin disorders

9. Why? Two general correlations (weak)
Absorption and imaginativeness
People who are more susceptible usually can become more deeply absorbed in an intense experience and a vivid imagination
New research: exceptional sensory and perceptual gating abilities that permit them to block certain stimuli from awareness

10. Hypnotic Phenomena

11. 1) Anesthesia Some people can handle considerable pain
Some physicians and dentists have used hypnosis as a substitute for anesthetic drugs
Drugs are more reliable
Still used for some acute and chronic pain

12. 2) Sensory Distortions and Hallucinations
People can be led to believe auditory and visual hallucinations
Can also work with tastes

13. 3) Disinhibition Can sometimes reduce inhibitions
May occur because individuals may feel that they cannot be held responsible for their actions

14. 4) Posthypnotic Suggestions and Amnesia
Influence on someone’s later behavior
Remember nothing…

15. 5) Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapists try and have their patients harness their own healing powers
Postyhypnotic suggestions have helped alleviate headaches, asthma, and stress-related skin disorders
18 studies
Therapy supplemented with hypnosis shows greater improvement than 70% of the other therapy patients
obesity

16. Theories of Hypnosis

17. It is a popular view that participants are put into a special, altered, state of consciousness called a hypnotic trance
EEG patterns are not irregular
Leads some people to believe that it is a normal state that is simply characterized by dramatic role playing

18. Hypnosis as Role Playing
Social theory of hypnosis
Subjects “role expectations” produce hypnotic effects, rather than a special state of consciousness
1) many of the “fancy” tricks people can do in hypnotized states can be reproduced in people in regular conscious states, or have simply been exaggerated
Hypnosis doesn’t enhance memory either, even though patients feel more confident
2) Hypnotized patients are often simply “acting” out a role
Memory recalls are often incorrect or exaggerated

19. Hypnosis as an altered state of consciousness
Despite these things, some people maintain that hypnotic effects are attributable to special altered states of consciousness
Role play cannot explain all aspects
Sometimes patients continue to display these hypnotic responses even when they are alone and unobserved
Hypnotized subjects experience changes in brain activity that appear consistent with their reports of hypnosis-induced hallucinations

20. Dissociation
Dissociation- is a splitting off of mental processes into two separate, simultaneous streams of awareness
1) one stream is in communication with the hypnotist and the external world
2) one stream is a difficult to detect hidden observer
==== a divided consciousness
Very appealing-> highway hypnosis

21. Meditation

22. Meditation
A family of practices that train attention to heighten awareness and bring mental processes under greater voluntary control
Yoga, Zen and transcendental meditation (TM)
Meditation is practiced throughout history with religious beliefs

23. Most meditation is deceptively simple
Sit in a comfortable position with eyes closed and silently focus attention on mantra- assigned Sanskrit word
Twice daily for 20 minutes

24. Physiological correlates
Alpha and Theta waves become more prominent in EEG recordings
Heart rate, skin conductance, respiration rate, and oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide elimination decline
Potentially beneficial physiological state characterized by suppression of bodily arousal
However, this also comes through with relaxation techniques….

25. Long-term benefits Reduces the effects of stress
Lowers stress hormones
Enhanced immune response
Reduces anxiety and drug abuse
Blood pressure
Sense of control
Increased creativity and intelligence in high school students
Seem too good to be true?
Many mediation studies are not done with rigorous research design
SO- mediation is a potentially worthwhile relaxation strategies but with a healthy amount of skepticism