Self-Hypnosis Versus Hetero-Hypnosis: Order Effects and Sex Differences in Behavioral and Experiential Impact

Abstract

Recent studies (Fromm, Brown, Hurt, Oberlander, Boxer, & Pfeifer, 1981; Johnson, 1979, 1981; Johnson & Weight, 1976; Ruch, 1975) of self-hypnosis versus hetero-hypnosis are compared. A study is reported addressing unresolved questions about interactions between order of presentation and sex with the 2 types of hypnosis. 90 male and 149 female volunteer college students were proportionally assigned to 1 of 4 groups, each of which received 1 of the following hypnosis-order combinations on successive days: self-hypnosis, then hetero-hypnosis; hetero-hypnosis, then self-hypnosis; self-hypnosis, then another self-hypnosis; or hetero-hypnosis, then another hetero-hypnosis. Half of each group of Ss had a male hypnotist; half had a female hypnotist. Analysis of variance of total scores for behavioral and experiential impact showed: (a) a general order effect, a decrease from first to second experience; (b) initial self-hypnosis to facilitate either subsequent experience, mitigating the general decrement; (c) switching modes to also reduce the decrement; (d) a clarification of certain order and sex interactions from earlier studies; (e) self-hypnosis to be behaviorally superior to hetero-hypnosis on later presentations; and (f) crossed-sex training to be exper-ientially facilitory. Conclusions are drawn about unresolved issues in self-hypnosis research, including the limits of comparability of self-hypnosis versus hetero-hypnosis, which depend on definitional assumptions of the self-hypnosis state and the allowance for order effects in the design.