Daydreaming, Absorption and Hypnotizability

Abstract

The revised form of the Absorption Scale extracted from Tellegen's Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (Tellegen, 1981; Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974) and the Short Imaginal Processes Inventory (Huba, Aneshensel, & Singer, 1981), a self-report questionnaire concerned with daydreaming activity, were administered to 2 samples of Ss (N = 479, N = 476), who also received the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (Shor & E. Orne, 1962). In both samples, hypnotizability was significantly correlated with absorption (average r = .24) and with a subscale measuring positive-constructive daydreaming (average r = .13). Absorption and positive-constructive daydreaming were also highly correlated (average r = .57). Of the subscales of the positive-constructive daydreaming scale, only those relating to positive reactions to daydreaming, and problem solving in daydreaming, consistently correlated with hypnotizability. Daydreaming and absorption each share some features in common with hypnosis, but they appear to have more in common with each other.

The Relation of Waking Fantasy to Dreaming

“…Thus, our correlations between fantasyproneness and absorption (r = .68) and fantasy proneness and PCDD (r = .49) were identical to that reported by Council and Huff [41] while the obtained correlation between absorption and PCDD (r = .57) was also identical to that reported by Hoyt et al [51]. In addition, our data are consistent with recent evidence that individuals with thin boundaries demonstrate greater overlap between their waking and dreaming mentation than do individuals with thick boundaries [20].…”

“…A shortened version of the IPI (SIPI) was developed by Huba, Aneshensel, and Singer [49]. This daydreaming style taps positive responses and attitudes toward daydreaming and correlates with self-awareness, waking sexual and nonsexual fantasies, imagery vividness, fantasy-proneness, absorption, and various facets of personality [41,46,[50][51][52].…”

Hypnotic Susceptibility: Multidimensional Relationships With Cloninger?s Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, COMT Polymorphisms, Absorption, and Attentional Characteristics

“…The construct is generally measured using the TAS and is a fairly reliable correlate (e.g., Hoyt et al, 1989;Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974;Zachariae, Jørgensen, & Christensen, 2000; for a review, see Roche & McConkey, 1990) and predictor (Dixon, LaBelle, & Laurence, 1996) of hypnotizability. Related to absorption, but without the altered state of consciousness component as is found in the TAS, the DAPI's subscale of extremely focused attention (Crawford, Brown, et al, 1993;Lyons & Crawford, 1997) or total score (Kallio, Revonsuo, Hämäläinen, Markela, & Gruzelier, 2001) correlates with hypnotizability.…”

A reappraisal of medieval mysticism & hysteria

“…Absorption and positive-construction daydreaming activity (as opposed to guilty-dysphoric daydreaming) are also highly correlated (Hoyt et al, 1989). Interestingly, women scored slightly, but consistently thinner (in terms of boundaries) than men on Hartmann's questionnaire (Hartmann, 1991, p. 66) and higher in spiritual acceptance (Cloninger, 1993).…”

“…They are more open than thick-boundaried persons to daydreaming and reverietype activities, which Hoyt et al (1989) de ned as task-irrelevant cognitive activity in which internally-generated fantasy material intrudes on an individual's primary task of dealing with external events. Although daydreaming, like many other mental activities not tightly linked to solving problems in the physical day-to-day world, is often judged pejoratively, meditating and contemplating upon the nature of the oneness of the universe must fall under this category of internally-driven thinking.…”