A social-cognitive skills approach to the successful modification of hypnotic susceptibility.

120 undergraduates who were low and medium in hypnotic susceptibility were administered cognitive strategy and instructional set information and practiced responding to test suggestions to enhance susceptibility. Those in 1 modification treatment received this information both from the experimenter and by observing a videotaped female who responded successfully to suggestions and reported on the cognitive strategies she used to do so. Those in a 2nd modification treatment received the information and practice but were not exposed to the model. Low and medium susceptibles in a 3rd condition (practice alone) received a hypnotic induction procedure and practice suggestions but neither modification information nor modeling. No-treatment controls performed a filler task. All Ss were posttested on 2 susceptibility scales. Results show that information plus modeling produced significantly greater increments on all objective and subjective indices of susceptibility on both posttests than did practice-alone or control treatments. Susceptibility increments in the information without model treatment always fell between those of the model and practice-alone treatments. In the modeling treatment, over half of the initial low susceptibles and over two-thirds of the initial medium susceptibles scored as high susceptibles on both posttests. Findings provide strong support for a social-cognitive skill formulation of hypnotic susceptibility. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)