Suggestibility
Encyclopedia
Suggestibility is the quality of being inclined to accept and act on the suggestions of others.
A person experiencing intense emotion
s tends to be more receptive to ideas and therefore more suggestible. Generally, suggestibility decreases as age increases. However, psychologist
s have found that individual levels of self-esteem
, assertiveness
, and other qualities can make some people more suggestible than others,which has resulted in the concept of a spectrum of suggestibility.
Most would agree with Wagstaff's view that, because "a true response to [a hypnotic] suggestion is not a response brought about at any stage by volition, but rather a true nonvolitional response, [and] perhaps even brought about despite volition", only category (1) really embodies the true domain of hypnotic suggestibility.
Fortunately, self-report measures of suggestibility recently became available, and they made it possible to isolate and study the global trait.
and its associated phenomena. Most hypnotherapists and academics in this field of research work from the premise that hypnotisability
(or suggestibility) is a factor in inducing useful hypnosis states. That is, the depth of hypnosis a given individual can achieve in a given context with a particular hypnotherapist and particular set of beliefs, expectations and instructions.
Dr John Kappas (1925–2002) identified three different types of suggestibility in his lifetime that have improved hypnosis:
Emotional Suggestibility
A suggestible behavior characterized by a high degree of responsiveness to inferred suggestions that affect emotions and restrict physical body responses; usually associated with hypnoidal depth. Thus the emotional suggestible learns more by inference than by direct, literal suggestions.
Physical Suggestibility
A suggestible behavior characterized by a high degree of responsiveness to literal suggestions affecting the body, and restriction of emotional responses; usually associated with cataleptic stages or deeper.
Intellectual Suggestibility
The type of hypnotic suggestibility in which a subject fears being controlled by the operator and is constantly trying to analyze, reject or rationalize everything the operator says. With this type of subject the operator must give logical explanations for every suggestion and must allow the subject to feel that he is doing the hypnotizing himself.
However, it is not clear or agreed what suggestibility (i.e., the factor on hypnosis) actually is. It is both the indisputable variable and the factor most difficult to measure or control.
What has not been agreed on is whether suggestibility is
Existing research into the phenomena of hypnosis is extensive and randomised controlled trials predominantly support the efficacy and legitimacy of hypnotherapy
, but without a clearly defined concept of the entity or aspect being studied, the level an individual is objectively "suggestible" cannot be measured empirically. It makes exact therapeutic outcomes impossible to forecast.
Moreover, it logically hinders the development of non-bespoke hypnotherapy protocol. On this latter point, it must be pointed out that while some persuasion methods are more universally effective than others, the most reliably effective method with individuals is to personalise the approach by first examining their motivational, learning, behavioural and emotional styles (et al.). Few hypnotherapists do not take a case history, or story so far, from the clients they will be working with.
Hypnosis
is rarely a 'battle of wills'. Predominantly, people instinctively feel more subjectively comfortable when receiving positive suggestions in the understanding-framework we understand most easily. In practise, most people are less likely to resist the ideas for optimism or fresh perspectives if they:
a) Concur with other ideas already held
b) Are consistent with favourite decision-making patterns
c) Flatter our self-identity to a level we accept
d) Contain positive rather than negative enforcement - toward something good rather than away from something bad
e) Are suggested in terms that mirror sensory combinations that person experiences the world through...making it easier for the suggestion to "make sense" - as in Neuro-linguistic programming
(NLP)
had an unconcerned approach...
"The most intelligent minds are those that can entertain an idea without necessarily believing it."
This perhaps is a more accurate echo of the experience of practising hypnotherapists and hypnotists. When anyone is absorbed in rapt attention in someone else's inspiring words as they outline an idea or way of thinking, the subjective attention is held because of the logic, the aesthetic, and the relevance of the words to one's own personal experience and motivations. In these natural trance
states, just like those orchestrated purposefully by a hypnotherapist, your 'critical faculties' are naturally less active when there is less you would naturally be critical of.
It is perhaps the "necessarily believing it" that is problematic, as this conception of suggestibility raises issues of the autonomy of attributing belief to an introduced idea, and how this happens.
" interchangeably, with reference to the extent to which a given individual responds to incoming suggestions from another. The two terms are not synonymous however, as the latter term carries inherent negative bias absent from the neutral psychological factor described by "suggestibility."
In scientific research and academic literature on hypnosis and hypnotherapy, the term describes a neutral psychological and possibly physiological state or phenomena. This is distinct from the culturally biased common parlance of the term "suggestible." Both terms are often bound with undeserved negative social connotations not inherent in the word meanings themselves.
To be suggestible is not to be gullible. The latter pertains to an empirical objective fact that can be shown accurate or inaccurate to any observer. The former term does not. To be open to suggestion, has no bearing on the accuracy of any incoming suggestions: nor whether such an objective accuracy is possible. (As with metaphysical belief.)
Some therapists may examine worries or objections to suggestibility before proceeding with therapy: this is because some believe there is a rational or learned deliberate will to hold a belief, even in the case of more convincing new ideas, when there is a compelling cognitive reason not to 'allow oneself' to be persuaded. Perhaps this can be seen in historical cases of mass hypnosis where also there has been media suppression. In the individual, unexamined actions are sometimes described by hypno- and psycho-therapists based on outgrown belief systems.
The term "susceptible" implies weakness or some increased danger that one is more likely to become victim to and must guard against. This is supported when it is reduced to its Latin etymological origins.
It therefore has a negative effect on expectation and itself is a hypnotic suggestion that suggestions must be noticed and guarded against. Hypnotic suggestions include terms, phrases, or whole concepts where to understand the concept includes making sense of a subjective sensation, or a framework for the appropriate response.... simple one-word forms of this include the word terrorism
where to understand the concept, one must understand the notion of terror and then understand in the sentence that it is meant to refer to "that" given object.
of a phrase must occur before the decision how to act next can occur: because the concepts must exist before the mind. Either they are suggested from the mind itself, or in response to introduced suggestions of concepts from outside - the world and its scenarios and facts, or suggestions from other people.
A suggestion may direct the thoughts to notice a new concept, focus on a specific area within the world, offer new perspectives that later may influence action-choices, offer triggers for automatic behaviour (such as returning a smile), or indicate specific action types. In hypnotherapy the portrayed realistic experience of the client's requested outcome is suggested with flattery or urgency, as well as personalised to the client's own motivations drives and taste.
, or any self-limiting or self-sabotaging beliefs.
Being under the influence of suggestion can be characterised as exhibiting behavioral compliance without private acceptance or belief.
That is, actions being inconsistent with one's own volition and belief system and natural unhindered action-motivations. This could hinder the autonomy, expression or self-determination of an individual. It could equally supersede emotions with rationally chosen, deliberate long-term results.
Many scholars and practitioners use the wider term clinical hypnosis to distinguish clinical hypnosis in as rigorously controlled a trial setting as possible, from clinical hypnotherapy (i.e., a clinical intervention in which therapy is conducted upon a hypnotized subject).
, hypnotic subjects do not actually enter a different psychological or physiological state; but, rather, simply acting on social pressure
— and, therefore, it is easier for them to comply than to disobey. Whilst this view does not dispute that hypnotized individuals truly experience the suggested effects, it asserts that the mechanism this takes place by has, in part, been "socially constructed
" and does not, therefore, require any explanation involving any sort of an "altered state of consciousness".
(DID) are particularly suggestible. While it is true that DID sufferers tend to score to the higher end of the hypnotizability scale, there have not been enough studies done to support the claim of increased suggestibility.
Aspects of crowd dynamics and mob behaviour
, as well as the phenomenon of groupthink
are further examples of suggestibility.
Common examples of suggestible behavior in everyday life include "contagious yawning" (multiple people begin to yawn after observing a person yawning) and the medical student syndrome (a person begins to experience symptoms of an illness after reading or hearing about it). Placebo response is also thought to be based on individual differences in suggestibility, at least in part. Suggestible persons may be more responsive to various forms of alternative health practices that seem to rely upon patient belief in the intervention more than on any known mechanism. Studies of effects of health interventions can be enhanced by controlling for individual differences in suggestibility. A search of the Mental Measurements Yearbook shows no extant psychological test for this personality characteristic. The Gudjonsson suggestibility scale
is questionable for this kind of purpose due to its narrow focus. However, see the http://www.stonybrookmedicalcenter.org/psychiatry/kotov_r (MISS) for a recently developed self-report scale. In addition to health-related implications, persons who are highly suggestible may be prone to making poor judgments because they did not process suggestions critically and falling prey to emotion-based advertising.
A person experiencing intense emotion
Emotion
Emotion is a complex psychophysiological experience of an individual's state of mind as interacting with biochemical and environmental influences. In humans, emotion fundamentally involves "physiological arousal, expressive behaviors, and conscious experience." Emotion is associated with mood,...
s tends to be more receptive to ideas and therefore more suggestible. Generally, suggestibility decreases as age increases. However, psychologist
Psychologist
Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...
s have found that individual levels of self-esteem
Self-esteem
Self-esteem is a term in psychology to reflect a person's overall evaluation or appraisal of his or her own worth. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs and emotions such as triumph, despair, pride and shame: some would distinguish how 'the self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem, the...
, assertiveness
Assertiveness
Assertiveness is a particular mode of communication. Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines assertiveness as:During the second half of the 20th century, assertiveness was increasingly singled out as a behavioral skill taught by many personal development experts, behavior therapists, and cognitive...
, and other qualities can make some people more suggestible than others,which has resulted in the concept of a spectrum of suggestibility.
Definition
According to Wagstaff (1991), attempts to isolate a global trait of "suggestibility" have not been successful, due to an inability of the available testing procedures to distinguish measurable differences between the following distinct types of "suggestibility":- 1. To be affected by a communication or expectation such that certain responses are overtly enacted, or subjectively experienced, without volitionVolition (psychology)Volition or will is the cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action. It is defined as purposive striving, and is one of the primary human psychological functions...
, as in automatismAutomatic behaviorAutomatic behavior, from the Greek automatos or self-acting, is the spontaneous production of often purposeless verbal or motor behavior without conscious self-control or self-censorship...
. - 2. Deliberately to use one's imagination or employ strategies to bring about effects (even if interpreted, eventually, as involuntary) in response to a communication or expectation.
- 3. To accept what people say consciously, but uncritically, and to believe or privately accept what is said.
- 4. To conform overtly to expectations or the views of others, without the appropriate private acceptance or experience; that is, to exhibit behavioral compliance without private acceptance or belief.
Most would agree with Wagstaff's view that, because "a true response to [a hypnotic] suggestion is not a response brought about at any stage by volition, but rather a true nonvolitional response, [and] perhaps even brought about despite volition", only category (1) really embodies the true domain of hypnotic suggestibility.
Fortunately, self-report measures of suggestibility recently became available, and they made it possible to isolate and study the global trait.
Suggestibility and hypnosis
The extent to which a subject may or may not be "suggestible" has significant ramifications in the scientific research of hypnosisHypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
and its associated phenomena. Most hypnotherapists and academics in this field of research work from the premise that hypnotisability
Hypnotic susceptibility
Hypnotic susceptibility measures how easily a person can be hypnotized. Several types of scales are used; however, the most common are the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales....
(or suggestibility) is a factor in inducing useful hypnosis states. That is, the depth of hypnosis a given individual can achieve in a given context with a particular hypnotherapist and particular set of beliefs, expectations and instructions.
Dr John Kappas (1925–2002) identified three different types of suggestibility in his lifetime that have improved hypnosis:
Emotional Suggestibility
A suggestible behavior characterized by a high degree of responsiveness to inferred suggestions that affect emotions and restrict physical body responses; usually associated with hypnoidal depth. Thus the emotional suggestible learns more by inference than by direct, literal suggestions.
Physical Suggestibility
A suggestible behavior characterized by a high degree of responsiveness to literal suggestions affecting the body, and restriction of emotional responses; usually associated with cataleptic stages or deeper.
Intellectual Suggestibility
The type of hypnotic suggestibility in which a subject fears being controlled by the operator and is constantly trying to analyze, reject or rationalize everything the operator says. With this type of subject the operator must give logical explanations for every suggestion and must allow the subject to feel that he is doing the hypnotizing himself.
However, it is not clear or agreed what suggestibility (i.e., the factor on hypnosis) actually is. It is both the indisputable variable and the factor most difficult to measure or control.
What has not been agreed on is whether suggestibility is
- a permanent fixed detail of character or personality:
- a genetic or chemical psychiatric tendency:
- a precursor to or symptom of an activation of such a tendency:
- a learned skill or acquired habit:
- synonymous with the function of learning:
- a neutral, unavoidable consequence of language acquisition and empathy:
- a biased terminology provoking one to resist new externally introduced ideas or perspectives:
- a mutual symbiotic relation to the Other, such as the African conception of uBunthu or Ubuntu:
- related to the capacity of empathy and communication:
- female brain / left-brain characteristics of language-interpretation and garnering negative connotations due to (disputable) gender bias from a male-dominated scientific community:
- a matter of concordant personal taste between speaker / hypnotist and listener and listener's like of / use for speaker's ideas:
- a skill or a flaw or something neutral and universal.
Existing research into the phenomena of hypnosis is extensive and randomised controlled trials predominantly support the efficacy and legitimacy of hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapy is a therapy that is undertaken with a subject in hypnosis.The word "hypnosis" is an abbreviation of James Braid's term "neuro-hypnotism", meaning "sleep of the nervous system"....
, but without a clearly defined concept of the entity or aspect being studied, the level an individual is objectively "suggestible" cannot be measured empirically. It makes exact therapeutic outcomes impossible to forecast.
Moreover, it logically hinders the development of non-bespoke hypnotherapy protocol. On this latter point, it must be pointed out that while some persuasion methods are more universally effective than others, the most reliably effective method with individuals is to personalise the approach by first examining their motivational, learning, behavioural and emotional styles (et al.). Few hypnotherapists do not take a case history, or story so far, from the clients they will be working with.
Hypnosis
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is "a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, relaxation and heightened imagination."It is a mental state or imaginative role-enactment . It is usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction, which is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary...
is rarely a 'battle of wills'. Predominantly, people instinctively feel more subjectively comfortable when receiving positive suggestions in the understanding-framework we understand most easily. In practise, most people are less likely to resist the ideas for optimism or fresh perspectives if they:
a) Concur with other ideas already held
b) Are consistent with favourite decision-making patterns
c) Flatter our self-identity to a level we accept
d) Contain positive rather than negative enforcement - toward something good rather than away from something bad
e) Are suggested in terms that mirror sensory combinations that person experiences the world through...making it easier for the suggestion to "make sense" - as in Neuro-linguistic programming
Neuro-linguistic programming
Neuro-linguistic programming is an approach to psychotherapy, self-help and organizational change. Founders Richard Bandler and John Grinder say that NLP is a model of interpersonal communication and a system of alternative therapy which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective...
(NLP)
Autonomy and suggestibility
The intrigue of differences in individual suggestibility even crops up in the early Greek philosophers. AristotleAristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
had an unconcerned approach...
"The most intelligent minds are those that can entertain an idea without necessarily believing it."
This perhaps is a more accurate echo of the experience of practising hypnotherapists and hypnotists. When anyone is absorbed in rapt attention in someone else's inspiring words as they outline an idea or way of thinking, the subjective attention is held because of the logic, the aesthetic, and the relevance of the words to one's own personal experience and motivations. In these natural trance
Trance
Trance denotes a variety of processes, ecstasy, techniques, modalities and states of mind, awareness and consciousness. Trance states may occur involuntarily and unbidden.The term trance may be associated with meditation, magic, flow, and prayer...
states, just like those orchestrated purposefully by a hypnotherapist, your 'critical faculties' are naturally less active when there is less you would naturally be critical of.
It is perhaps the "necessarily believing it" that is problematic, as this conception of suggestibility raises issues of the autonomy of attributing belief to an introduced idea, and how this happens.
Suggestibility vs. susceptibility
Popular media and layman's articles occasionally use the terms "suggestible" and "susceptibleHypnotic susceptibility
Hypnotic susceptibility measures how easily a person can be hypnotized. Several types of scales are used; however, the most common are the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales....
" interchangeably, with reference to the extent to which a given individual responds to incoming suggestions from another. The two terms are not synonymous however, as the latter term carries inherent negative bias absent from the neutral psychological factor described by "suggestibility."
In scientific research and academic literature on hypnosis and hypnotherapy, the term describes a neutral psychological and possibly physiological state or phenomena. This is distinct from the culturally biased common parlance of the term "suggestible." Both terms are often bound with undeserved negative social connotations not inherent in the word meanings themselves.
To be suggestible is not to be gullible. The latter pertains to an empirical objective fact that can be shown accurate or inaccurate to any observer. The former term does not. To be open to suggestion, has no bearing on the accuracy of any incoming suggestions: nor whether such an objective accuracy is possible. (As with metaphysical belief.)
Some therapists may examine worries or objections to suggestibility before proceeding with therapy: this is because some believe there is a rational or learned deliberate will to hold a belief, even in the case of more convincing new ideas, when there is a compelling cognitive reason not to 'allow oneself' to be persuaded. Perhaps this can be seen in historical cases of mass hypnosis where also there has been media suppression. In the individual, unexamined actions are sometimes described by hypno- and psycho-therapists based on outgrown belief systems.
The term "susceptible" implies weakness or some increased danger that one is more likely to become victim to and must guard against. This is supported when it is reduced to its Latin etymological origins.
It therefore has a negative effect on expectation and itself is a hypnotic suggestion that suggestions must be noticed and guarded against. Hypnotic suggestions include terms, phrases, or whole concepts where to understand the concept includes making sense of a subjective sensation, or a framework for the appropriate response.... simple one-word forms of this include the word terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
where to understand the concept, one must understand the notion of terror and then understand in the sentence that it is meant to refer to "that" given object.
Suggestibility and language acquisition
Much of the contention and concern about suggestibility as an Achilles heel in the armour of human autonomy is unfounded. CognitionCognition
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...
of a phrase must occur before the decision how to act next can occur: because the concepts must exist before the mind. Either they are suggested from the mind itself, or in response to introduced suggestions of concepts from outside - the world and its scenarios and facts, or suggestions from other people.
A suggestion may direct the thoughts to notice a new concept, focus on a specific area within the world, offer new perspectives that later may influence action-choices, offer triggers for automatic behaviour (such as returning a smile), or indicate specific action types. In hypnotherapy the portrayed realistic experience of the client's requested outcome is suggested with flattery or urgency, as well as personalised to the client's own motivations drives and taste.
Common experience of suggestions
Suggestions are not necessarily verbal, spoken, or read. A smile, a glare, a wink, a three-piece suit, a scientist's white coat, are all suggestive devices that imply more than the immediate action. A hypnotist uses techniques that use these instinctive "fillings-in of gaps" and changes to how we respond to a scenario or moment. In the therapy setting, a hypnotist or hypnotherapist will likely evaluate these automatic cognitive leaps, or dogmaDogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
, or any self-limiting or self-sabotaging beliefs.
Being under the influence of suggestion can be characterised as exhibiting behavioral compliance without private acceptance or belief.
That is, actions being inconsistent with one's own volition and belief system and natural unhindered action-motivations. This could hinder the autonomy, expression or self-determination of an individual. It could equally supersede emotions with rationally chosen, deliberate long-term results.
Experimental suggestion vs. clinical suggestion
The applications of hypnosis vary widely and investigation of responses to suggestion can be usefully separated into two non-exclusive broad divisions:- Experimental hypnosis: the study of "experimental suggestion", of the form:
-
- "What is it that my group of test subjects actually do when I deliver the precise standard suggestion ABC to each of them in the same experimental context?"
- (i.e., given a fixed suggestion, what is the outcome?)
- Clinical hypnosis: the study of clinical suggestion directed at the question:
-
- "What is it that I can possibly say to this particular subject, in this specific context, to generate my goal of having them do XYZ?" (I.e., given a fixed outcome, what is the suggestion?)
Many scholars and practitioners use the wider term clinical hypnosis to distinguish clinical hypnosis in as rigorously controlled a trial setting as possible, from clinical hypnotherapy (i.e., a clinical intervention in which therapy is conducted upon a hypnotized subject).
Non-state explanations of hypnotic responsiveness
According to some theoretical explanations of hypnotic responses, such as the role-playing theory of Nicholas SpanosNicholas Spanos
Nicholas P. Spanos , PhD, was Professor of Psychology and Director of the Laboratory for Experimental Hypnosis at Carleton University from 1975 to his death in a single engine plane crash in 1994.-Biography:...
, hypnotic subjects do not actually enter a different psychological or physiological state; but, rather, simply acting on social pressure
Peer pressure
Peer pressure refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms. Social groups affected include membership groups, when the individual is "formally" a member , or a social clique...
— and, therefore, it is easier for them to comply than to disobey. Whilst this view does not dispute that hypnotized individuals truly experience the suggested effects, it asserts that the mechanism this takes place by has, in part, been "socially constructed
Social constructionism
Social constructionism and social constructivism are sociological theories of knowledge that consider how social phenomena or objects of consciousness develop in social contexts. A social construction is a concept or practice that is the construct of a particular group...
" and does not, therefore, require any explanation involving any sort of an "altered state of consciousness".
Other cases of suggestibility
It is claimed that sufferers of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Dissociative Identity DisorderDissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
(DID) are particularly suggestible. While it is true that DID sufferers tend to score to the higher end of the hypnotizability scale, there have not been enough studies done to support the claim of increased suggestibility.
Aspects of crowd dynamics and mob behaviour
Crowd psychology
Crowd psychology is a branch of social psychology. Ordinary people can typically gain direct power by acting collectively. Historically, because large groups of people have been able to bring about dramatic and sudden social change in a manner that bypasses established due process, they have also...
, as well as the phenomenon of groupthink
Groupthink
Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within groups of people. It is the mode of thinking that happens when the desire for harmony in a decision-making group overrides a realistic appraisal of alternatives. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without...
are further examples of suggestibility.
Common examples of suggestible behavior in everyday life include "contagious yawning" (multiple people begin to yawn after observing a person yawning) and the medical student syndrome (a person begins to experience symptoms of an illness after reading or hearing about it). Placebo response is also thought to be based on individual differences in suggestibility, at least in part. Suggestible persons may be more responsive to various forms of alternative health practices that seem to rely upon patient belief in the intervention more than on any known mechanism. Studies of effects of health interventions can be enhanced by controlling for individual differences in suggestibility. A search of the Mental Measurements Yearbook shows no extant psychological test for this personality characteristic. The Gudjonsson suggestibility scale
Gudjonsson suggestibility scale
The Gudjonsson suggestibility scale is a test that tries to measure how susceptible a person is to coercive interrogation.-History:It was created by Gísli Hannes Guðjónsson. It relies on two different aspects of interrogative suggestibility: It measures how much an interrogated person yields to...
is questionable for this kind of purpose due to its narrow focus. However, see the http://www.stonybrookmedicalcenter.org/psychiatry/kotov_r (MISS) for a recently developed self-report scale. In addition to health-related implications, persons who are highly suggestible may be prone to making poor judgments because they did not process suggestions critically and falling prey to emotion-based advertising.
See also
- Crowd psychologyCrowd psychologyCrowd psychology is a branch of social psychology. Ordinary people can typically gain direct power by acting collectively. Historically, because large groups of people have been able to bring about dramatic and sudden social change in a manner that bypasses established due process, they have also...
- Gudjonsson suggestibility scaleGudjonsson suggestibility scaleThe Gudjonsson suggestibility scale is a test that tries to measure how susceptible a person is to coercive interrogation.-History:It was created by Gísli Hannes Guðjónsson. It relies on two different aspects of interrogative suggestibility: It measures how much an interrogated person yields to...
- Hypnotic susceptibilityHypnotic susceptibilityHypnotic susceptibility measures how easily a person can be hypnotized. Several types of scales are used; however, the most common are the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales....
- The Seven Sins of MemoryThe Seven Sins of MemoryThe Seven Sins of Memory: How the Mind Forgets and Remembers is a book by Daniel Schacter, former chair of Harvard University's Psychology Department and a leading memory researcher....
, whereof suggestibility is one
Further reading
- Aveling, F. & Hargreaves, H.L., "Suggestibility With And Without Prestige In Children", British Journal of Psychology, Vol.12, No.1, (June 1921), pp. 53–75.
- Barber, T.X., "Comparison of Suggestibility during "Light Sleep" and Hypnosis", Science, Vol.124, No.3218, (31 August 1956), p. 405.
- Benton, A.L.Arthur L. BentonArthur Lester Benton was a neuropsychologist and Emeritus Professor of Neurology and Psychology at the University of Iowa.- Biography :...
& Bandura, A.Albert BanduraAlbert Bandura is a psychologist and the David Starr Jordan Professor Emeritus of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University...
, ""Primary" and "Secondary" Suggestibility", Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Vol.48, No.3, (1953), pp. 336–340. - Binet, A., "La Suggestibilité", 1900.
- Bird, C., "Suggestion and Suggestibility: A Bibliography", Psychological Bulletin, Vol.36, No.4, (April 1939), pp. 264–283.
- Braffman, W. & Kirsch, I., "Imaginative Suggestibility and Hypnotizability: An Empirical Analysis", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol.77, No.3, (September 1999), pp. 578–587.
- Brown, W., "Hypnosis, Suggestibility and Progressive Relaxation", British Journal of Psychology, Vol.28, No.4, (April 1938), pp. 396–411.
- Coffin, T.E., "Some Conditions of Suggestion and Suggestibility: A Study of Certain Attitudinal and Situational Factors Influencing the Process of Suggestion", Psychological Monographs, Vol.53, No.4, (1941).
- Davis, S.L., "Social and Scientific Influences on the Study of Children's Suggestibility: A Historical Perspective", Child Maltreatment, Vol.3, No.2, (May 1998), pp. 186–194
- De Pascalis, V., Ray, W.J., Tranquillo, I. & D'Amico, D., "EEG Activity and Heart Rate During Recall of Emotional Events in Hypnosis: Relationships with Hypnotizability and Suggestibility", International Journal of Psychophysiology, Vol.29, No.3, (1 August 1998), pp. 255–275.
- Eisen, M.L., "The Relationship Between Memory, Suggestibility and Hypnotic Responsivity", American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol.39, No.2, (October 1996), pp. 126–137.
- Evans, F.J., "Suggestibility in the Normal Waking State", Psychological Bulletin, Vol.67, No.2, (February 1967), pp. 114–129.
- Gheorghiu, V.A., Netter, P., Eysenck, H.J.Hans EysenckHans Jürgen Eysenck was a German-British psychologist who spent most of his career in Britain, best remembered for his work on intelligence and personality, though he worked in a wide range of areas...
, Rosenthal, R.Robert Rosenthal (psychologist)Robert Rosenthal is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside. His interests include self-fulfilling prophecies, which he explored in a well-known study of the Pygmalion Effect: the effect of teachers' expectations on students.Rosenthal was born in Giessen,...
, Fiedler, K., Edmonston, W.E., Lundy, R.M. & Sheehan, P.W. (eds.), Suggestion and Suggestibility: Theory and Research: Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Suggestion and Suggestibility, held at the University of Giessen, 1987, Springer-Verlag, (Berlin), 1989. - Hergovich, A., "Field Dependence, Suggestibility and Belief in Paranormal Phenomena", Personality and Individual Differences, Vol.34, No.2, (February 2003), pp. 195–209.
- Hergovich, A., "The Effect of Pseudo-Psychic Demonstrations as Dependent on Belief in Paranormal Phenomena and Suggestibility", Personality and Individual Differences, Vol.36, No.2, (January 2004), pp. 365–380.
- Hilgard, E.R.Ernest HilgardErnest Ropiequet "Jack" Hilgard was an American psychologist, professor at Stanford university, who became famous in the 1950s for his research on hypnosis, especially with regard to pain control...
& Hilgard, J.R., Hypnotic Susceptibility, Harcourt, Brace & World, (New York), 1965. - Hull, C.L.Clark L. HullClark Leonard Hull was an influential American psychologist who sought to explain learning and motivation by scientific laws of behavior. Born in Akron, New York, Hull obtained bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Michigan, and in 1918 a PhD from the University of...
, Hypnosis and Suggestibility: An Experimental Approach, Appleton-Century-Crofts, (New York), 1933. - Janet, P.Pierre JanetPierre Marie Félix Janet was a pioneering French psychologist, philosopher and psychotherapist in the field of dissociation and traumatic memory....
, "The Hysterical Stigmata — Suggestibility", pp. 270–292 in Janet, P., The Major Symptoms of Hysteria, Macmillan Publishing, (New York), 1907. - Janet, P.Pierre JanetPierre Marie Félix Janet was a pioneering French psychologist, philosopher and psychotherapist in the field of dissociation and traumatic memory....
, "The Hysterical Stigmata — The Contraction of the Field of Consciousness — The Common Stigmata", pp. 293–316 in Janet, P., The Major Symptoms of Hysteria, Macmillan Publishing, (New York), 1907. - Janis, I.Irving JanisIrving Lester Janis was a research psychologist at Yale University and a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley most famous for his theory of "groupthink" which described the systematic errors made by groups when taking collective decisions...
, "Personality Correlates of Susceptibility To Persuasion", Journal of Personality, Vol.22, No.4, (June 1954), pp. 504–518. - Kirsch, I., "Changing Expectations: A Key to Effective Psychotherapy", Brookes/Cole, (California), 1990.
- Kirsch, I. & Braffman, W., "Imaginative Suggestibility and Hypnotizability", Current Directions in Psychological Science, Vol.10, No.2, (April 2001), pp. 57–61.
- Lynn, S.J., "Enhancing Suggestibility: The Effects of Compliance vs. Imagery", American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol.47, No.2, (October 2004), pp. 117–128.
- Lynn, S.J., Shindler, K. & Meyer, E., "Hypnotic Suggestibility, Psychopathology, and Treatment Outcome", Sleep and Hypnosis, Vol.5, No.1, (2003), pp. 2–10.
- Matheus, J.M., "Effects on Suggestibility of Experimenter Prestige Under Hypnotic Induction Conditions", American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Vol.15, No.3, (January 1973), pp. 199–208.
- Meares, A.Ainslie MearesAinslie Dixon Meares was an Australian psychiatrist, scholar of hypnotism, psychotherapist, authority on stress and a prolific author who lived and practised in Melbourne.-Early life:...
, "On The Nature Of Suggestibility", British Journal of Medical HypnotismBritish Journal of Medical HypnotismThe British Journal of Medical Hypnotism was a peer-reviewed medical journal and an official journal of the British Society of Medical Hypnotists. It was established in 1949 and ceased publication in 1966. It was indexed in PubMed/MEDLINE....
, (Summer 1956), pp. 3–8. - Meares, A., "The Clinical Estimation of Suggestibility", Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, Vol. II, No.2, (April 1954), pp. 106–108.
- Neal, E.V. & Clark, C.S. (eds), Hypnotism and Hypnotic Suggestion: A Scientific Treatise on the Uses and Possibilities of Hypnotism, Suggestion and Allied Phenomena by Thirty Authors, New York State Publishing Co., (Rochester), 1900.
- Poulsen, B.C. & Matthews, W.J., "Correlates of Imaginative and Hypnotic Suggestibility in Children", Contemporary Hypnosis, Vol.20, No.4, (2003), pp. 198–208.
- Powell, M.B. & Roberts, K.P., "The Effect of Repeated Experience on Children's Suggestibility Across Two Question Types", Applied Cognitive Psychology, Vol.16, No.4, (May 2002), pp. 367–386.
- Prideaux, E., "Suggestion and Suggestibility", Brain, Vol.42, (January 1920), pp. 291–304.
- Scheier, M.F., Carver, C.S. & Gibbons, F.X., "Self-Directed Attention, Awareness of Bodily States, and Suggestibility", Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol.37, No.9, (1979), pp. 1576–1588.
- Shumaker, J.F. (ed), Human Suggestibility: Advances in Theory, Research, and Application, Routledge, (New York), 1991.
- Sidis, B.Boris SidisBoris Sidis, Ph.D., M.D. was a Ukrainian Jewish psychologist, physician, psychiatrist, and philosopher of education. Sidis founded the New York State Psychopathic Institute and the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. He was the father of the child prodigy William James Sidis...
, The Psychology of Suggestion: A Research into the Subconscious Nature of Man and Society, D. Appleton & Company, (New York), 1898. - Solomon, J., "Hypnotism, Suggestibility and the Law", Nebraska Law Review, Vol.31, No.4, (May 1952), pp. 575–596.
- Spanos, N.P.Nicholas SpanosNicholas P. Spanos , PhD, was Professor of Psychology and Director of the Laboratory for Experimental Hypnosis at Carleton University from 1975 to his death in a single engine plane crash in 1994.-Biography:...
& Barber, T.X., "Cognitive activity during "hypnotic" suggestibility: Goal-directed fantasy and the experience of non-volition", Journal of Personality, Vol.40, No.4, (December 1972), pp. 510–524. - Wagstaff, G.F., "Suggestibility: A Social Psychological Approach", pp. 132–145 in Schumaker, J.F. (ed), Human Suggestibility: Advances in Theory, Research, and Application, Routledge, (New York), 1991.
- Wegrocki, H.J., "The Effect of Prestige Suggestibility on Emotional Attitudes", Journal of Social Psychology, Vol.5, (1934), pp. 384–394.
- Weitzenhoffer, A.M., Hypnotism: An Objective Study in Suggestibility, John Wiley & Sons, (New York), 1953.
- White, R., "Influence of Suggestibility on Responses in Ink Spot Test", Child Development, Vol.2, No.1, (March 1931), pp. 76–79.
- Wilson, I.Ian Wilson (Christianity)Ian Wilson is the prolific author of religious and scientific books. He often mixes the two while examining such topics as the Shroud of Turin or life after death.-Life:...
, The Bleeding Mind: An Investigation into the Mysterious Phenomenon of Stigmata, Paladin, (London), 1991.