Predicting Hypnotic Susceptibility with the PCI

Abstract

One of the most useful aspects of self-report instruments may concern their ability to predict aspects of human behavior and experience. In a review of the clinical use of hypnosis, Wadden and Anderton (1982) indicated that many studies that use hypnosis frequently omit the assessment of hypnotic susceptibility. Reasons for omission usually include fear of poor response to test suggestions (which may then affect the client’s response to treatment), the belief that susceptibility is not important in treatment outcome, or the obtrusiveness of administration and time of administration, when using a scale like the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility (Shor & Orne, 1962) or the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale (Weitzenhoffer & Hilgard, 1962). And yet without adequate assessment of that susceptibility, it becomes uncertain to what extent the hypnotic intervention enacted is causally related to the therapeutic results obtained.