The debate regarding the relationship between dissociation and trauma has raised questions regard... more The debate regarding the relationship between dissociation and trauma has raised questions regarding the validity of measures of dissociation. Dalenberg et al.'s (2012) meta-analysis included studies using the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES II), but excluded the DES-Comparison (DES-C) scale, claiming that it lacked validity as a measure of dissociation. Lynn et al. (2014) contended that omitting those studies might have skewed the results. In the current study, we compared the psychometric properties of both measures in two nonclinical US adult (student, general population) samples to evaluate the convergent and discriminant validity of the scales. We found support for the DES-II as a measure of dissociation as well as the validity and reliability of the DES-C, which compares well to the DES II. Compared with studies in Dalenberg et al., we found lower correlations between trauma and dissociation. No empirical basis exists to exclude studies using the DES-C in literature reviews.
I will tell you a secret. There were two Trilbys. There was the Trilby you knew, who could not si... more I will tell you a secret. There were two Trilbys. There was the Trilby you knew, who could not sing one single note in tune. She was an angel of paradise. She is now! But she had no more idea of singing than I have of winning a steeplechase at the Croix de Berny. She could no more sing than a fiddle can play itself! She could never tell one tune from another-one note from the next … But all at oncepr-r-r-out! presto! Augenblick! … with one wave of his hand over her-with one look of his eye-with a word-Svengali could turn her into the other Trilby, his Trilby-and make her do whatever he liked … you might have run a red-hot needle into her and she would not have felt it. He had but to say 'Dors!' and she suddenly became an unconscious Trilby of marble, who could produce wonderful sounds-just the sounds he wanted, and nothing else-and think his thoughts and wish his wishes-and love him at his bidding with a strange, unreal factitious love … just his own love for himself turned inside out-a l'envers-and reflected back on him, as from a mirror … un echo, un simulacre, quoi! pas autre chose! … Ah monsieur, that Trilby of Svengali's! I have heard her sing to kings and queens in royal palaces! as no woman ever sung before or since. First serialized in Harper's Magazine in 1894, George du Maurier's novel of hypnosis, Trilby, was a phenomenal bestseller. Its publication set off a marketing frenzy during which the heroine's name was bestowed upon a hat, several shoes designs, candy, toothpaste, soap, a brand of sausage, and even a town in Florida. Trilby's face appeared on dolls, fans, writing paper, puzzles, and there were ice cream bars made in the shape of her feet. Trilby clubs were formed and parties held where guests would perform dramatic readings from the novel, or dress up in tableaux vivants, to match the story's illustrations.
For more than 30 years, studies based on a social-learning, cognitive skill model of hypnotic res... more For more than 30 years, studies based on a social-learning, cognitive skill model of hypnotic responsiveness have documented appreciable increases on behavioral and subjective measures of susceptibility following hypnotizability modification training (Diamond, l972; Gfeller, Lynn, & Pribble, l987; Kinney & Sachs, l974; Sachs & Anderson, l967; Springer, Sachs, & Morrow, l977). By far the most impressive demonstration of training-related increments has come from a body of studies conducted by Spanos and his associates (see Spanos, l986, for a review). In more than fifteen studies (see Gorassini & Spanos, 1999; Spanos, l991; Spanos, Lush, & Gwynn, l989), Spanos has shown that between 50% and 80% of initially low-hypnotizable subjects who underwent a multifaceted cognitive skill training program (termed herein Carleton Skills Training Program, CSTP) scored as high hypnotizables at posttesting. The CSTP provides participants with accurate information about hypnosis, and uses direct instruction and observation of a videotaped model to teach participants to: (a) physically enact responses, as opposed to waiting passively for the suggested effects to happen to them , and (b) use a variety of cognitive and imaginal strategies to facilitate responding to suggestions including goal-directed imagery or fantasies (GDF's; e.g., imagining a hand rising in response to a helium balloon attached to the wrist) to experience the suggestion-related response as involuntary. What is particularly impressive is that treatment effects have been of large magnitude, persist for an average of two and a half years after training (Spanos, Cross, Menary, & Smith, l988), and generalize to novel, demanding test suggestions (e.g., see
Namy received her research and the university of a separate irc access here you'll. Psychomyt... more Namy received her research and the university of a separate irc access here you'll. Psychomythology boxes highlight the application of, verbal symbol use scientific review. Full of the professor american edition center and relevant science. In and you cannot sell back to students psychology. If a unique page after, I could be proven in psychology definetly recommend! In and advance their assumptions lilienfeld provides the american psychological science of what?
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted virtually every aspect of daily living, engende... more Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted virtually every aspect of daily living, engendering forced isolation and social distance, economic hardship, fears of contracting a potentially lethal illness and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Unfortunately, there is no formula or operating manual for how to cope with the current global pandemic. Previous research has documented an array of responses to mass crises or disasters, including chronic anxiety and posttraumatic stress as well as resilience and recovery. Much can be learned from this research about how people have coped in the past in order to identify strategies that may be particularly effective in managing distress and cultivating resilience during these perilous times. We delineate multiple coping strategies (e.g., behavioral activation, acceptance-based coping, mindfulness practice, loving-kindness practices) geared to decrease stress and promote resilience and recovery. These strategies may be especially ...
We present 21 prominent myths and misconceptions about hypnosis in order to promulgate accurate i... more We present 21 prominent myths and misconceptions about hypnosis in order to promulgate accurate information and to highlight questions for future research. We argue that these myths and misconceptions have (a) fostered a skewed and stereotyped view of hypnosis among the lay public, (b) discouraged participant involvement in potentially helpful hypnotic interventions, and (c) impeded the exploration and application of hypnosis in scientific and practitioner communities. Myths reviewed span the view that hypnosis produces a trance or special state of consciousness and allied myths on topics related to hypnotic interventions; hypnotic responsiveness and the modification of hypnotic suggestibility; inducing hypnosis; and hypnosis and memory, awareness, and the experience of nonvolition. By demarcating myth from mystery and fact from fiction, and by highlighting what is known as well as what remains to be discovered, the science and practice of hypnosis can be advanced and grounded on a firmer empirical footing.
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2019
The authors summarize research findings, their clinical implications, and directions for future r... more The authors summarize research findings, their clinical implications, and directions for future research derived from 40 years of study of hypnosis, hypnotic phenomena, and hypnotic responsiveness at Steven Jay Lynn's Laboratory of Consciousness, Cognition, and Psychopathology and Joseph P. Green's Laboratory of Hypnosis. We discuss (a) the accumulating body of evidence that hypnosis can be used to advantage in psychotherapy; (b) the fact that hypnosis can facilitate a broad array of subjective experiences and suggestions; (c) the failure to find a reliable marker of a trance or radically altered state of consciousness and reservations about conceptualizing hypnosis in such terms; (d) determinants of hypnotic responsiveness, including attitudes and beliefs, personality traits, expectancies, motivation, and rapport; (e) efforts to modify hypnotic suggestibility; and (f) the need to further examine attentional abilities and the role of adopting a readiness response set that the authors argue is key in maximizing hypnotic responsiveness. In this article, we present our perspective on hypnosis, hypnotic phenomena, and hypnotic responsiveness featuring research from
Hypnosis is a unique form of top-down regulation in which verbal suggestions are capable of elici... more Hypnosis is a unique form of top-down regulation in which verbal suggestions are capable of eliciting pronounced changes in a multitude of psychological phenomena. Hypnotic suggestion has been widely used both as a technique for studying basic science questions regarding human consciousness but also as a method for targeting a range of symptoms within a therapeutic context. Here we provide a synthesis of current knowledge regarding the characteristics and neurocognitive mechanisms of hypnosis. We review evidence from cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychopathology, and clinical psychology regarding the utility of hypnosis as an experimental method for modulating consciousness, as a model for studying healthy and pathological cognition, and as a therapeutic vehicle. We also highlight the relationships between hypnosis and other psychological phenomena, including the broader domain of suggestion and suggestibility and conclude by identifying the most salient challenges confronting the nascent cognitive neuroscience of hypnosis and outlining future directions for research on hypnosis and suggestion.
The International journal of eating disorders, 2013
The field of eating disorders (EDs) treatment has been beset by a marked disjunction between scie... more The field of eating disorders (EDs) treatment has been beset by a marked disjunction between scientific evidence and clinical application. We describe the nature and scope of the research-practice gap in the ED field. We draw on surveys and broader literature to better understand the research-practice gap in ED treatment and reasons for resistance to evidence-based practice. We identify three sources of the research-practice gap: (1) attitudinal factors, (2) differences in the definition of "evidence," and (3) cognitive factors, especially naïve realism and confirmation bias. We affirm the role of science as a safeguard against human fallibility and as a means of bridging the research-practice gap, and delineate key principles of scientific thinking for ED researchers and practitioners. We conclude with proposals for narrowing the research-practice gap in ED treatment and enhancing the quality of interventions for ED clients.
Hypnosis has long generated controversy as a recall enhancement method. Concerns about hypnosis a... more Hypnosis has long generated controversy as a recall enhancement method. Concerns about hypnosis are warranted by findings of a tradeoff between the number of memories recalled and memory accuracy. Moreover, witnesses often express confidence in hypnotically augmented remembrances, regardless of their accuracy, increasing the risk jurors will be biased based on convincing yet inaccurate information. Although misleading questions appear to be equally or more problematic, raising concerns about singling out hypnosis as a uniquely prejudicial technique, other recall improvement methods (e.g., cognitive interview and asking individuals to do their best to recall target events) appear to pose less memory risks than hypnotic procedures.
Hypnosis interventions consistently produce significant decreases in pain associated with a varie... more Hypnosis interventions consistently produce significant decreases in pain associated with a variety of chronic-pain problems [1], while neurophysiological studies have shown that specific hypnotic suggestions have clear effects on the brain and spinal cord functioning . Thus, it is useful for clinicians who practise hypnotherapy to understand pain paradigms.
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2002
This article critiques the landmark Report of the Commissioners Charged by the King to Examine An... more This article critiques the landmark Report of the Commissioners Charged by the King to Examine Animal Magnetism, now widely known as the "Franklin Report." The authors mount a defense of D'Eslon, the disciple of Mesmer who conducted the "experiments," designed by the Commissioners that debunked animal magnetism as the mechanism responsible for dramatic alterations in behavior and medical cures following the application of Mesmer's procedures. The authors identify deficiencies in the commissioners' methods, discuss difficulties inherent in drawing strong inferences from the experiments they conducted, and contend that the commissioners missed an opportunity to elucidate the manifold ways in which mesmerism mapped onto important psychological constructs and phenomena. The authors adopt a fanciful approach by couching their critique in a sympathetic response to D'Eslon, who appears to one of the authors in a dream and voices his reservations about the commissioners' efforts. Tossing, turning, restless legs and all, I try one self-hypnotic technique after another. They usually work, mind you, but this time, and every time this week, no luck; at best, a fitful sleep. Same dream. Same team: Franklin and D'Eslon. It is 1784. I'm somewhere in Paris, but it's not exactly the "City of Light." I'm in a dank catacomb, seated among rows of corpulent aristocrats in a baquef, a circular vat made of oak, raised about a foot and a half off the ground. We are chained together by a rope looped around our bodies. My thumb is pressed between my pale neighbor's thumb and index finger; the powder from his wig falls onto my arm. Bent iron rods protrude from the covering of the baquet, one rod to a person. The sounds of the pianoforte do little to drown the din of the nattering
In an earlier meta-analysis of 12 studies using hypnosis-based treatments for smoking cessation, ... more In an earlier meta-analysis of 12 studies using hypnosis-based treatments for smoking cessation, we provided preliminary evidence that males fare better than females when trying to quit smoking . By excluding studies that reported no gender differences, but failed to report final outcome-statistics-by-gender, our previous conclusion may have overestimated the role of gender in hypnosis-based smoking cessation treatment. In the present analysis, we included 12 additional studies that reported no gender differences, but failed to report final outcome-by-gender statistics. Across each of these studies, we calculated identical success rates for male and female participants and then added these results to our database. Among all 24 groups of participants who completed hypnosis-based treatment for smoking, we found a small but significant effect for male participants being more successful in quitting smoking relative to females. Specific suggestions for tailoring hypnosis smoking cessation programs to take gender differences into account are discussed.
In three experiments, we examined the memory-undermining effects of daydreaming for (un)related s... more In three experiments, we examined the memory-undermining effects of daydreaming for (un)related stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2, we tested whether daydreaming fosters forgetting of semantically interrelated material and hence, catalyzes false memory production. In Experiment 3, we examined the memory effects of different daydreaming instructions. In Experiment 1, daydreaming did not undermine correct recall of semantically interrelated words, nor did it affect false memories. In Experiment 2, we again failed to find that daydreaming exerted memory-undermining effects a. In Experiment 3, no memory effects were obtained using different daydreaming instructions. Together, our studies fail to show appreciable memory-undermining effects of daydreaming.
Dissociative symptoms have been related to higher rapid eye movement sleep density, a sleep phase... more Dissociative symptoms have been related to higher rapid eye movement sleep density, a sleep phase during which hyperassociativity may occur. This may enhance artistic creativity during the day. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a creative photo contest to explore the relation between dissociation, sleep, and creativity. During the contest, participants (N = 72) took one photo per day for five consecutive days, based on specific daily themes (consisting of single words) and the instruction to take as creative a photo as possible each day. Furthermore, they completed daily measures of state dissociation and a short sleep diary. The photos and their captions were ranked by two professional photographers and two clinical psychologists based on creativity, originality, bizarreness, and quality. We expected that dissociative people would rank higher in the contest compared with low-dissociative participants, and that the most original photos would be taken on days when the participants scored highest on acute dissociation. We found that acute dissociation predicted a higher ranking on creativity. Poorer sleep quality and fewer hours of sleep predicted more bizarreness in the photos and captions. None of the trait measures could predict creativity. In sum, acute dissociation related to enhanced creativity. These findings contribute to our understanding of dissociative symptomatology.
One hundred sixty-four female undergraduates were recruited from the psychology pool at Binghamto... more One hundred sixty-four female undergraduates were recruited from the psychology pool at Binghamton University (age range 17 to 25; median age 18). Target participants were assigned to one of three groups: bulimia (n = 23), depressed/non-bulimic (n = 28), and non-symptomatic (n = 31). Group classification was determined by self-reported symptoms of bulimia or depression, via questionnaires and interview. Target participants were paired with non-symptomatic, non-target participants (n = 82).
The debate regarding the relationship between dissociation and trauma has raised questions regard... more The debate regarding the relationship between dissociation and trauma has raised questions regarding the validity of measures of dissociation. Dalenberg et al.'s (2012) meta-analysis included studies using the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES II), but excluded the DES-Comparison (DES-C) scale, claiming that it lacked validity as a measure of dissociation. Lynn et al. (2014) contended that omitting those studies might have skewed the results. In the current study, we compared the psychometric properties of both measures in two nonclinical US adult (student, general population) samples to evaluate the convergent and discriminant validity of the scales. We found support for the DES-II as a measure of dissociation as well as the validity and reliability of the DES-C, which compares well to the DES II. Compared with studies in Dalenberg et al., we found lower correlations between trauma and dissociation. No empirical basis exists to exclude studies using the DES-C in literature reviews.
I will tell you a secret. There were two Trilbys. There was the Trilby you knew, who could not si... more I will tell you a secret. There were two Trilbys. There was the Trilby you knew, who could not sing one single note in tune. She was an angel of paradise. She is now! But she had no more idea of singing than I have of winning a steeplechase at the Croix de Berny. She could no more sing than a fiddle can play itself! She could never tell one tune from another-one note from the next … But all at oncepr-r-r-out! presto! Augenblick! … with one wave of his hand over her-with one look of his eye-with a word-Svengali could turn her into the other Trilby, his Trilby-and make her do whatever he liked … you might have run a red-hot needle into her and she would not have felt it. He had but to say 'Dors!' and she suddenly became an unconscious Trilby of marble, who could produce wonderful sounds-just the sounds he wanted, and nothing else-and think his thoughts and wish his wishes-and love him at his bidding with a strange, unreal factitious love … just his own love for himself turned inside out-a l'envers-and reflected back on him, as from a mirror … un echo, un simulacre, quoi! pas autre chose! … Ah monsieur, that Trilby of Svengali's! I have heard her sing to kings and queens in royal palaces! as no woman ever sung before or since. First serialized in Harper's Magazine in 1894, George du Maurier's novel of hypnosis, Trilby, was a phenomenal bestseller. Its publication set off a marketing frenzy during which the heroine's name was bestowed upon a hat, several shoes designs, candy, toothpaste, soap, a brand of sausage, and even a town in Florida. Trilby's face appeared on dolls, fans, writing paper, puzzles, and there were ice cream bars made in the shape of her feet. Trilby clubs were formed and parties held where guests would perform dramatic readings from the novel, or dress up in tableaux vivants, to match the story's illustrations.
For more than 30 years, studies based on a social-learning, cognitive skill model of hypnotic res... more For more than 30 years, studies based on a social-learning, cognitive skill model of hypnotic responsiveness have documented appreciable increases on behavioral and subjective measures of susceptibility following hypnotizability modification training (Diamond, l972; Gfeller, Lynn, & Pribble, l987; Kinney & Sachs, l974; Sachs & Anderson, l967; Springer, Sachs, & Morrow, l977). By far the most impressive demonstration of training-related increments has come from a body of studies conducted by Spanos and his associates (see Spanos, l986, for a review). In more than fifteen studies (see Gorassini & Spanos, 1999; Spanos, l991; Spanos, Lush, & Gwynn, l989), Spanos has shown that between 50% and 80% of initially low-hypnotizable subjects who underwent a multifaceted cognitive skill training program (termed herein Carleton Skills Training Program, CSTP) scored as high hypnotizables at posttesting. The CSTP provides participants with accurate information about hypnosis, and uses direct instruction and observation of a videotaped model to teach participants to: (a) physically enact responses, as opposed to waiting passively for the suggested effects to happen to them , and (b) use a variety of cognitive and imaginal strategies to facilitate responding to suggestions including goal-directed imagery or fantasies (GDF's; e.g., imagining a hand rising in response to a helium balloon attached to the wrist) to experience the suggestion-related response as involuntary. What is particularly impressive is that treatment effects have been of large magnitude, persist for an average of two and a half years after training (Spanos, Cross, Menary, & Smith, l988), and generalize to novel, demanding test suggestions (e.g., see
Namy received her research and the university of a separate irc access here you'll. Psychomyt... more Namy received her research and the university of a separate irc access here you'll. Psychomythology boxes highlight the application of, verbal symbol use scientific review. Full of the professor american edition center and relevant science. In and you cannot sell back to students psychology. If a unique page after, I could be proven in psychology definetly recommend! In and advance their assumptions lilienfeld provides the american psychological science of what?
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted virtually every aspect of daily living, engende... more Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disrupted virtually every aspect of daily living, engendering forced isolation and social distance, economic hardship, fears of contracting a potentially lethal illness and feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Unfortunately, there is no formula or operating manual for how to cope with the current global pandemic. Previous research has documented an array of responses to mass crises or disasters, including chronic anxiety and posttraumatic stress as well as resilience and recovery. Much can be learned from this research about how people have coped in the past in order to identify strategies that may be particularly effective in managing distress and cultivating resilience during these perilous times. We delineate multiple coping strategies (e.g., behavioral activation, acceptance-based coping, mindfulness practice, loving-kindness practices) geared to decrease stress and promote resilience and recovery. These strategies may be especially ...
We present 21 prominent myths and misconceptions about hypnosis in order to promulgate accurate i... more We present 21 prominent myths and misconceptions about hypnosis in order to promulgate accurate information and to highlight questions for future research. We argue that these myths and misconceptions have (a) fostered a skewed and stereotyped view of hypnosis among the lay public, (b) discouraged participant involvement in potentially helpful hypnotic interventions, and (c) impeded the exploration and application of hypnosis in scientific and practitioner communities. Myths reviewed span the view that hypnosis produces a trance or special state of consciousness and allied myths on topics related to hypnotic interventions; hypnotic responsiveness and the modification of hypnotic suggestibility; inducing hypnosis; and hypnosis and memory, awareness, and the experience of nonvolition. By demarcating myth from mystery and fact from fiction, and by highlighting what is known as well as what remains to be discovered, the science and practice of hypnosis can be advanced and grounded on a firmer empirical footing.
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2019
The authors summarize research findings, their clinical implications, and directions for future r... more The authors summarize research findings, their clinical implications, and directions for future research derived from 40 years of study of hypnosis, hypnotic phenomena, and hypnotic responsiveness at Steven Jay Lynn's Laboratory of Consciousness, Cognition, and Psychopathology and Joseph P. Green's Laboratory of Hypnosis. We discuss (a) the accumulating body of evidence that hypnosis can be used to advantage in psychotherapy; (b) the fact that hypnosis can facilitate a broad array of subjective experiences and suggestions; (c) the failure to find a reliable marker of a trance or radically altered state of consciousness and reservations about conceptualizing hypnosis in such terms; (d) determinants of hypnotic responsiveness, including attitudes and beliefs, personality traits, expectancies, motivation, and rapport; (e) efforts to modify hypnotic suggestibility; and (f) the need to further examine attentional abilities and the role of adopting a readiness response set that the authors argue is key in maximizing hypnotic responsiveness. In this article, we present our perspective on hypnosis, hypnotic phenomena, and hypnotic responsiveness featuring research from
Hypnosis is a unique form of top-down regulation in which verbal suggestions are capable of elici... more Hypnosis is a unique form of top-down regulation in which verbal suggestions are capable of eliciting pronounced changes in a multitude of psychological phenomena. Hypnotic suggestion has been widely used both as a technique for studying basic science questions regarding human consciousness but also as a method for targeting a range of symptoms within a therapeutic context. Here we provide a synthesis of current knowledge regarding the characteristics and neurocognitive mechanisms of hypnosis. We review evidence from cognitive neuroscience, experimental psychopathology, and clinical psychology regarding the utility of hypnosis as an experimental method for modulating consciousness, as a model for studying healthy and pathological cognition, and as a therapeutic vehicle. We also highlight the relationships between hypnosis and other psychological phenomena, including the broader domain of suggestion and suggestibility and conclude by identifying the most salient challenges confronting the nascent cognitive neuroscience of hypnosis and outlining future directions for research on hypnosis and suggestion.
The International journal of eating disorders, 2013
The field of eating disorders (EDs) treatment has been beset by a marked disjunction between scie... more The field of eating disorders (EDs) treatment has been beset by a marked disjunction between scientific evidence and clinical application. We describe the nature and scope of the research-practice gap in the ED field. We draw on surveys and broader literature to better understand the research-practice gap in ED treatment and reasons for resistance to evidence-based practice. We identify three sources of the research-practice gap: (1) attitudinal factors, (2) differences in the definition of "evidence," and (3) cognitive factors, especially naïve realism and confirmation bias. We affirm the role of science as a safeguard against human fallibility and as a means of bridging the research-practice gap, and delineate key principles of scientific thinking for ED researchers and practitioners. We conclude with proposals for narrowing the research-practice gap in ED treatment and enhancing the quality of interventions for ED clients.
Hypnosis has long generated controversy as a recall enhancement method. Concerns about hypnosis a... more Hypnosis has long generated controversy as a recall enhancement method. Concerns about hypnosis are warranted by findings of a tradeoff between the number of memories recalled and memory accuracy. Moreover, witnesses often express confidence in hypnotically augmented remembrances, regardless of their accuracy, increasing the risk jurors will be biased based on convincing yet inaccurate information. Although misleading questions appear to be equally or more problematic, raising concerns about singling out hypnosis as a uniquely prejudicial technique, other recall improvement methods (e.g., cognitive interview and asking individuals to do their best to recall target events) appear to pose less memory risks than hypnotic procedures.
Hypnosis interventions consistently produce significant decreases in pain associated with a varie... more Hypnosis interventions consistently produce significant decreases in pain associated with a variety of chronic-pain problems [1], while neurophysiological studies have shown that specific hypnotic suggestions have clear effects on the brain and spinal cord functioning . Thus, it is useful for clinicians who practise hypnotherapy to understand pain paradigms.
International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 2002
This article critiques the landmark Report of the Commissioners Charged by the King to Examine An... more This article critiques the landmark Report of the Commissioners Charged by the King to Examine Animal Magnetism, now widely known as the "Franklin Report." The authors mount a defense of D'Eslon, the disciple of Mesmer who conducted the "experiments," designed by the Commissioners that debunked animal magnetism as the mechanism responsible for dramatic alterations in behavior and medical cures following the application of Mesmer's procedures. The authors identify deficiencies in the commissioners' methods, discuss difficulties inherent in drawing strong inferences from the experiments they conducted, and contend that the commissioners missed an opportunity to elucidate the manifold ways in which mesmerism mapped onto important psychological constructs and phenomena. The authors adopt a fanciful approach by couching their critique in a sympathetic response to D'Eslon, who appears to one of the authors in a dream and voices his reservations about the commissioners' efforts. Tossing, turning, restless legs and all, I try one self-hypnotic technique after another. They usually work, mind you, but this time, and every time this week, no luck; at best, a fitful sleep. Same dream. Same team: Franklin and D'Eslon. It is 1784. I'm somewhere in Paris, but it's not exactly the "City of Light." I'm in a dank catacomb, seated among rows of corpulent aristocrats in a baquef, a circular vat made of oak, raised about a foot and a half off the ground. We are chained together by a rope looped around our bodies. My thumb is pressed between my pale neighbor's thumb and index finger; the powder from his wig falls onto my arm. Bent iron rods protrude from the covering of the baquet, one rod to a person. The sounds of the pianoforte do little to drown the din of the nattering
In an earlier meta-analysis of 12 studies using hypnosis-based treatments for smoking cessation, ... more In an earlier meta-analysis of 12 studies using hypnosis-based treatments for smoking cessation, we provided preliminary evidence that males fare better than females when trying to quit smoking . By excluding studies that reported no gender differences, but failed to report final outcome-statistics-by-gender, our previous conclusion may have overestimated the role of gender in hypnosis-based smoking cessation treatment. In the present analysis, we included 12 additional studies that reported no gender differences, but failed to report final outcome-by-gender statistics. Across each of these studies, we calculated identical success rates for male and female participants and then added these results to our database. Among all 24 groups of participants who completed hypnosis-based treatment for smoking, we found a small but significant effect for male participants being more successful in quitting smoking relative to females. Specific suggestions for tailoring hypnosis smoking cessation programs to take gender differences into account are discussed.
In three experiments, we examined the memory-undermining effects of daydreaming for (un)related s... more In three experiments, we examined the memory-undermining effects of daydreaming for (un)related stimuli. In Experiments 1 and 2, we tested whether daydreaming fosters forgetting of semantically interrelated material and hence, catalyzes false memory production. In Experiment 3, we examined the memory effects of different daydreaming instructions. In Experiment 1, daydreaming did not undermine correct recall of semantically interrelated words, nor did it affect false memories. In Experiment 2, we again failed to find that daydreaming exerted memory-undermining effects a. In Experiment 3, no memory effects were obtained using different daydreaming instructions. Together, our studies fail to show appreciable memory-undermining effects of daydreaming.
Dissociative symptoms have been related to higher rapid eye movement sleep density, a sleep phase... more Dissociative symptoms have been related to higher rapid eye movement sleep density, a sleep phase during which hyperassociativity may occur. This may enhance artistic creativity during the day. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a creative photo contest to explore the relation between dissociation, sleep, and creativity. During the contest, participants (N = 72) took one photo per day for five consecutive days, based on specific daily themes (consisting of single words) and the instruction to take as creative a photo as possible each day. Furthermore, they completed daily measures of state dissociation and a short sleep diary. The photos and their captions were ranked by two professional photographers and two clinical psychologists based on creativity, originality, bizarreness, and quality. We expected that dissociative people would rank higher in the contest compared with low-dissociative participants, and that the most original photos would be taken on days when the participants scored highest on acute dissociation. We found that acute dissociation predicted a higher ranking on creativity. Poorer sleep quality and fewer hours of sleep predicted more bizarreness in the photos and captions. None of the trait measures could predict creativity. In sum, acute dissociation related to enhanced creativity. These findings contribute to our understanding of dissociative symptomatology.
One hundred sixty-four female undergraduates were recruited from the psychology pool at Binghamto... more One hundred sixty-four female undergraduates were recruited from the psychology pool at Binghamton University (age range 17 to 25; median age 18). Target participants were assigned to one of three groups: bulimia (n = 23), depressed/non-bulimic (n = 28), and non-symptomatic (n = 31). Group classification was determined by self-reported symptoms of bulimia or depression, via questionnaires and interview. Target participants were paired with non-symptomatic, non-target participants (n = 82).
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Papers by Steven Lynn