Hypnosis and the relationship between trance, suggestion, expectancy and depth: some semantic and conceptual issues.
The American journal of clinical hypnosis July 1, 2010 Graham F Wagstaff 21 citations
A commentary discusses two papers by Pekala and colleagues that examine relationships among trance or altered state effects, suggestibility, expectancy, hypnosis, and hypnotism. The first paper reviews these concepts and introduces the PCI-HAP assessment instrument. The second empirically tests whether these concepts predict hypnotic depth scores, concluding that multiple processes are involved in hypnotism, while hypnosis itself consists only of altered state or trance effects. The commentary raises methodological, semantic, and conceptual issues, arguing that many problems in defining hypnosis-related terms could be clarified by historical context. It suggests difficulties in identifying origins of hypnotic experiences may stem from insufficient attention to suggestion and expectancies and over-reliance on induction procedures.