A Preliminary Report on Research Comparing Self- and Hetero-hypnosis

Abstract

A method is described for the study of the relationship between self- and hetero-hypnosis and initial findings are presented. A new instrument is described, the Inventory of Self-Hypnosis (ISH) which is a self-hypnosis adaptation of the hetero-hypnotic Harvard Group Scale, Form A (HGS). The new scale permits the making of precise item-by-item quantitative comparisons between the effects of these two scales. Preliminary research with 29 non-motivated college student subjects suggests that mean levels of responsiveness to the two scales are about the same, that item difficulty levels have much in common, but that whatever it is that the ISH measures is largely different from what the HGS measures. The findings help to formulate the need to study what it is that contributes to the similarities and differences. Further studies are in progress.