An investigation of Taiwanese norms for the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C (Mandarin Chinese Translation)

Hypnotizability and Disordered Personality Styles in Cluster A Personality Disorders

AIM

Interpersonal sensitivity and mistrust are the main characteristics of cluster A personality disorders (CAPD) which might be due to the high accessibility to negative suggestions from environments. Yet the exact associations between hypnotic suggestibility and their personality disorder functioning styles remain unclear.

METHODS

We invited 36 patients with CAPD and 115 healthy volunteers to undergo the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C (SHSS:C) and Parker Personality Measure (PERM).

RESULTS

Compared to controls; patients scored higher on PERM paranoid; schizoid; schizotypal; borderline; avoidant; and dependent styles; on the SHSS:C total and "challenge suggestions", and the passing rates of "hand lowering", "arm rigidity", "dream", and "arm immobilization". In patients, "dream" negatively predicted the schizoid; "hallucinated voice" negatively the schizotypal; "mosquito hallucination" positively the histrionic and dependent; and "arm immobilization" negatively the avoidant style.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results suggested that the insusceptibility to perceptual suggestions from others and the high control over body contribute to the paranoid attitude and interpersonal avoidance in CAPD. These findings help to understand the cause of interpersonal problems in these patients and suggest the trial of hypnotherapy for them.

Hypnotizability Norms may not be Representative of the General Population: Potential Sample and Self-Selection Bias Considerations

The analysis of the methods sections of 66 normalization tests of hypnotizability scales reveals that out of 33,338 subjects, 58.57% were college and university students, and the majority of these were students of psychology. Of all subjects, 7.45% were younger school children, 27.63% were patients treated with hypnosis, and out of these, 85.26% were patients of 1 single therapist. Only 0.51% were trainees of dental or nursing schools, 0.13% were prisoners, and 5.71% were other adults. These figures suggest a sample-selection bias. As 83.08% of these subjects were told beforehand that they were to undergo a hypnosis study, a self-selection bias is also implied in the data. It can be presumed that those interested in hypnosis participated, whereas others who had no interest in hypnosis may have refrained. It is concluded that some of the published norms of hypnotizability tests may not be adequately representative of the general population. Many hypnosis studies, whether clinical or experimental, which are based on hypnotizability, may be afflicted by these biases.

Semantic Adaptation and Validation of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C, in the Chilean Population

One of the difficulties of evaluating hypnotizability in Chile is the limited existence of validated instruments. In this study, the Mexican version of Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C, was semantically adapted and validated. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in 102 Chilean university students. The content validation was performed by 3 experts; the internal consistency was evaluated with KR-20. The difficulty of the items was measured with a difficulty index. The majority of the students were classified with high hypnotizability. The mean score obtained was 7.41 (SD = 1.84). The internal consistency was acceptable (KR-20 = 0.73). The item with the least difficulty was arm lowering, whereas the auditory hallucination was the item with the greatest difficulty. The survey showed metric properties to be considered as a valid and reliable instrument to measure the level of hypnotizability in the Chilean population.

Persian Norms for The Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSS:C)

The Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSS:C), is the most commonly used measure of hypnotizability. In Persian (Farsi), there was a lack of a valid test for hypnotizability. The norms for different language versions of the SHSS:C are important for evaluating the cross-language validity of the measure and determining the ability to compare research findings using the SHSS:C samples of different languages. In this study, a Persian translation of SHSS:C was administered to 321 Farsi-speaking individuals from the cities Tehran and Mashhad. Then, different parameters of the measure, including the distribution, normality, internal consistency, difficulty, and comparison with other SHSS:C norms, have been evaluated and presented. The results indicated that the Persian SHSS:C has good reliability, which is in line with the other language versions of the scale, and the scores from the Persian SHSS:C are comparable to those of the other language versions.

TAIWANESE NORMS FOR THE HARVARD GROUP SCALE OF HYPNOTIC SUSCEPTIBILITY, FORM A

Hypnotic susceptibility is a fundamental individual characteristic to consider in studies examining hypnosis. Although there is no existing normative data of group hypnotic susceptibility tests for the Mandarin-speaking Chinese population, the current study administered the Mandarin Chinese translation of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A) to 242 subjects (137 females and 105 males). The results indicate that the normative properties-including the score distribution, item pass rates, and reliability-are comparable to 15 reference samples. In general, the Mandarin Chinese version of the HGSHS:A can be used as a viable and reliable instrument for prescreening subjects' hypnotizability in the Mandarin Chinese-speaking population in Taiwan.

Hypnotic susceptibility and affective states in bipolar I and II disorders

BACKGROUND

Highly hypnotizable individuals have impaired executive function, elevated motor impulsivity and increased emotional sensitivity, which are sometimes found in bipolar disorder patients. It is then reasonable to assume that certain aspects of hypnotic susceptibility differ with the types of bipolar disorder.

METHODS

The Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C (SHSS:C) test, the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), the Hypomanic Checklist-32 (HCL-32) and the Plutchick-van Praag Depression Inventory (PVP) were applied to 62 patients with bipolar I disorder, 33 bipolar II disorder, and 120 healthy volunteers.

RESULTS

The passing rate of the SHSS:C 'Moving hands apart' item was higher in bipolar I patients than in controls, whereas for 'Mosquito hallucination' the rate was lower. Bipolar I and II patients scored significantly higher on MDQ, HCL-32 and PVP scales than controls. The passing rates of 'Mosquito hallucination' in controls, 'Arm rigidity' in bipolar I, and 'Age regression' in bipolar II predicted the respective MDQ scores.

CONCLUSION

In contrast to cognitive suggestions, bipolar I patients followed motor suggestions more often under hypnosis. Furthermore, both bipolar disorder patients and healthy volunteers demonstrated associations between mania levels and certain hypnotic susceptibility features. Our study aids in better understanding the altered conscious states in bipolar disorders, and encourages the use of related psychotherapy for these patients.

Transcultural Factors in Hypnotizability Scales: Limits and Prospects

Hypnotic suggestibility--loosely termed hypnotizability--is difficult to assess across cultures. Investigators often use translated research instruments to guide their inquiry in disparate geographic locations. Present-day hypnosis researchers rely heavily on two primary scales that are more than half a century old: the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C (SHSS:C) (Weitzenhoffer & Hilgard, 1959) and the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility: Form A (HGSHS:A) (Shor & Orne, 1962). Scholars typically translate these scales to measure hypnotizability transculturally. This approach, however, operates under the specious assumption that the concept of hypnotizability is largely monolithic or universal across cultures. Whereas translations likely conserve the linguistic content, they may arguably imply different cultural meanings and historical subtexts. Whereas social scientists acknowledge the importance of qualitative and phenomenological accounts in the study of altered consciousness, including suggestibility, researchers interested in hypnotizability consider the impact of findings from anthropology and ethnography too little. Clinicians and scholars of hypnosis would stand to benefit from incorporating the insights afforded by transcultural research in the overarching investigation of a concept as nuanced as hypnotizability.