The Effects of Hypnosis, Relaxation and Reinforcement on Hypnotic Behaviors and Experiences

Abstract

This study investigated the relative effectiveness of hypnosis and relaxation in obtaining a subject's compliance with suggestions and the effect of verbal reinforcement upon compliance. On the basis of a suggestibility premeasure, 48 female undergraduates were divided into high (H.S.) and low (L.S.) suggestible groups. Equal numbers of H.S. and L.S. subjects were randomly assigned to a hypnosis or relaxation procedure and remeasured on the same suggestibility scale, with or without reinforcement. It was hypothesized that: (a) reinforcement would produce more compliance than would non-reinforcement; (b) that hypnosis would elicit more compliance than relaxation because of its association with behavioral compliance; and (c) that H.S. subjects would rate their experiences as more vivid than L.S. subjects. The latter two hypotheses were supported, and reinforcement's ineffectiveness was discussed in terms of its frequency of occurrence.