Prediction of Hypnotic Susceptibility from Imaginative Involvement

Abstract

One hundred college students were given an imaginative involvement inventory based on J. Hilgard's case studies. Nine areas of imaginative involvement were tested with two statements representing each area. Sixteen high scorers and sixteen low scorers on the imaginative inventory were hypnotized using the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale-A (Revised). The high imaginative involvement group had significantly higher hypnotic susceptibility scores than the low imaginative involvement group. Six factors emerged from analysis of the entire group of questionnaires. The factor structure supports a partial dissociation-identification theory of hypnosis. Further support of this theory was provided by factor analysis of imaginative inventories of the 32 subjects.