Relationship aspects of hypnotic susceptibility.

If hypnosis is seen from an interpersonal point of view it could be hypothesized that aspects of the relationship existing between the hypnotist and the subject prior to hypnosis would probably be related to the subject's susceptibility to the hypnosis. A study was conducted to test this hypothesis. 19 volunteer subjects were individually tested for hypnotic susceptibility using the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales, Form A. In each case this was preceded by a short tape-recorded non-directive interview. Four independent raters rated the interviews on 10 behavioral dimensions plus general "hypnotizability," using seven-point scales. Although the coefficients of interrater agreement were generally low, the signs of the correlations between mean ratings and Stanford scores were as predicted in all 11 cases. Three of the correlations were significant. From a principal components analysis on the intercorrelation matrix, three factors emerged of which one was labelled Hypnotic Susceptibility.