Hypnotic Susceptibility and Performance on a Battery of Creativity Measures

Abstract

Descriptions of the personal characteristics of the highly hypnotizable S are often formally similar to conceptualizations of the highly creative individual. The present study sought to investigate the hypothesized relationship between creativity and hypnotic susceptibility using a multidimensional factor analytic approach to creativity assessment. A sample of 61 college Ss completed a battery of 14 creativity tests (yielding 19 measures), a short intelligence test, and were tested for their degree of hypnotic suceptibility by means of SHSS:C. It was predicted that a relationship between creativity and susceptibility would manifest itself as a factor loading both on SHSS:C and on a combination of creativity measures. On six factors extracted by a varimax factor solution, four loaded on both the hypnotic and some creativity variables. Correlations in the initial matrix were moderate however, suggesting the possibility of a spurious outcome. Not withstanding, highly susceptible Ss differed from insusceptible Ss in terms of the consistency of their performance across the creativity measures; their scores fell above the group mean on significantly more creativity measures than the scores of insusceptible Ss. This consistency criterion did not, however, distinguish between high and medium susceptible Ss, though it distinguished both groups from insusceptible Ss. Consonant with the findings of Bowers (1971), the burden of the relationship was carried by female Ss.