The Assessment of Hypnoidal States: Rationale and Clinical Application

Abstract

We used a self-report questionnaire, the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory (PCI), to generate predicted Harvard Group Scale (pHGS) scores that we can use to estimate the hypnoidal state of a person. Using a case-study approach, we used the PCI to generate pHGS scores with two patients referred to a biofeedback clinic for specific problems. The results suggest that the PCI may present a useful means to assess the hypnoidal state (associated with a given stimulus condition) that a person experiences.

Types of Hypnotically (Un)Susceptible Individuals as a Function of Phenomenological Experience: Towards a Typology of Hypnotic Types

“…Besides using the PCI to generate a pHGS score to give a measure of hypnotic depth (Pekala, 1995a(Pekala, , 1995bPekala & Forbes, 1988;Pekala & Nagler, 1989),using cluster analysis and subsequent discriminant analysis of PCIdimension scoresacross all subjects may generate a means to statistically define a variety of different types of hypnotically susceptible individuals that would be based on subjects' patterns of phenomenological responses to the PCI. That research may find that there are "classic highs" that have HGSHS:A scores not in the highly hypnotizable range, i.e., 10to 12, or "classic lows" not in the bottom of the HGSHS:A range.…”

Reply to Wagstaff: “Hypnosis and the Relationship between Trance, Suggestion, Expectancy, and Depth: Some Semantic and Conceptual Issues”

“…(Pekala & Kumar, 2000, p. 111) Downloaded by [University of Waikato] at 12:36 10 July 2014 Pekala Based on regression analyses using the PCI (sub)dimensions to predict the total scale score from the Harvard, we generated a predicted Harvard Group Scale (pHGS) score (Forbes & Pekala, 1993;Pekala & Kumar, 19841987) which correlated about .60 with the actual total Harvard Group Scale scores. As we wrote 20 years ago (Pekala & Nagler, 1989), we thought it premature to label the state associated with a high pHGS score a "hypnotic" state, because we did not know if experiencing all the phenomenological parameters that would generate a high pHGS score would be associated with hypnotic effects. In other words, although the regression equation allows one to determine the average phenomenological parameters associated with being in a "hypnotic state," it does not follow that experiencing such phenomenological effects would be associated with being able to experience classic hypnotic behavioral and cognitive effects:…”

Hypnosis as a “State of Consciousness”: How Quantifying the Mind Can Help Us Better Understand Hypnosis

“…These instruments respectively quantify consciousness, in general, and attention, in particular. The PCI has been especially useful in mapping the subjective experience of hypnosis and has been shown to have adequate construct, discriminant (Kumar & Pekala, 1988, 1989Kumar, Pekala, & Marcano, 1996;Kumar, Pekala, & McCloskey, 1999;Pekala, 1991b;Pekala & Forbes, 1988;, 1989Pekala, Kumar, Maurer, ElliottCarter, & Moon, 2006;Pekala & Nagler, 1989;Pekala, Steinberg, & Kumar, 1986), and predictive validity (Barnes, Lynn, & Pekala, 2009;Forbes & Pekala, 1993, 1996Hand, Pekala, & Kumar, 1995;Pekala & Kumar, 1984, 1987 for measuring phenomenological experiences associated with hypnosis.…”

“…The methodology to do this has been previously described by myself (Pekala, 1980(Pekala, , 1991b and researched by myself and colleagues (Forbes & Pekala, 1993;, 1989Pekala, 1985aPekala, , 1995aPekala, , 1995bPekala, , 2010Pekala, , 2011Pekala & Forbes, 1988Pekala & Kumar, 1984, 1987, 2007Pekala & Nagler, 1989;Pekala, Kumar, Maurer, Elliott-Carter, Moon, & Mullen, 2010a, 2010bPekala & Wickramasekera, 2007). The methodology involves: an empirical-phenomenological approach for mapping the structures and patterns of consciousness.…”