Hypnosis as role enactment: the role demand variable.

Reprint from American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, VIII(3), 189-191. This study is a continuation and extension of an earlier report (1) which examined hypnotic susceptibility in the framework of role theory (2). Three of six variables which contribute to the effectiveness of enacting a role (hypnotic responsiveness in this case) were tested two of them significantly affected the degree of hypnotic susceptibility. This experiment manipulated role demands, one of the other three variables previously controlled, in order to examine its contribution to role enactment when subjects were equated on the variables already found to have a significant effect. The manipulated role demand was whether or not the subject thought he was being observed by a group of students during an hypnotic session.