Behavioral predictions from hypnotic responsiveness scores when obtained with and without prior induction procedures.

Administered the Barber Suggestibility Scale (BSS) and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form A (SHSS) to 80 high school students, half with imagination instructions and half with hypnotic induction instructions. The Stanford Profile Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form I (SPS), was subsequently administered to test the predictive effectiveness of the scales. The SPS has both different induction procedures and different item content from the BSS and the SHSS, which are very similar in their test-suggestion topics. Correlations with the SPS were much higher following prior testing under induction rather than imagination conditions, and induction conditions raised both objective and subjective scores above imagination conditions. Although both the BSS and the SHSS yielded similar results, some differences were noted. The subjective correction makes a greater difference for BSS than for SHSS scores, so that the subjective correction is to be recommended especially when the BSS is used. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)