Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Mental suggestion'

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2005.
Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 72 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 58-63).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2000.
Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 140 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-70).

People have always been fascinated by the extent to which belief or will may influence

behavior. Proverbs, like “we tend to get what we expect,” and concepts, such as optimistic

thinking or self-fulfilling prophecy, reflect this intuition of an important link between one’s

dispositions and subsequent behavior. In other words, one’s predictions directly or

indirectly cause them to become true. In a similar manner, every culture, country or

religion has their own words for ‘expectation,’ ‘belief,’ ‘disappointment,’ ‘surprise,’ and

generally all have the same meaning: under uncertainty, what one expects or believes is the

most likely to happen. This relation between what caused a reaction in the past will

probably cause it again in the future might not be realistic. If the expected outcome is not

confirmed, it may result in a personal ‘disappointment’, and if the outcome fits no

expectations, it will be a ‘surprise’. Our brain is hardwired with this heuristic capacity of

learning the cause-effect relationship and to project its probability as the basis for much of

our behavior, as well as cognitions. This experience-based expectation is a form of

learning that helps the brain to bypass an exhaustive search in finding a satisfactory

solution. Expectations may thus be considered an innate theory of causality; that is, a set of

factors (causes) generating a given phenomenon (effects) influence the way we treat

incoming information but also the way we retrieve the stored information. These

expectancy templates may well represent one of the basic rules of how the brain processes

information, affecting the way we perceive the world, direct our attention and deal with

conflicting information. In fact, expectations have been shown to influence our judgments

and social interactions, along with our volition to individually decide and commit to a

particular course of action. However, people’s expectations may elicit the anticipation of

their own automatic reactions to various situations and behaviors cues, and can explain that

expecting to feel an increase in alertness after coffee consumption leads to experiencing

the consequent physiologic and behavioral states. We call this behavior-response

expectancy. This non-volitional form of expectation has been shown to influence

cognitions such as memory, pain, visual awareness, implicit learning and attention, through

the mediation of phenomena like placebo effects and hypnotic behaviors. Importantly,when talking about expectations, placebo and hypnosis, it is important to note that we are

also talking about suggestion and its modulating capability. In other words, suggestion has

the power to create response expectancies that activate automatic responses, which will, in

turn, influence cognition and behavior so as to shape them congruently with the expected

outcome. Accordingly, hypnotic inductions are a systematic manipulation of expectancy,

similar to placebo, and therefore they both work in a similar way. Considering such

assumptions, the major question we address in this PhD thesis is to know if these

expectancy-based mechanisms are capable of modulating more high-level information

processing such as cognitive conflict resolution, as is present in the well-known Stroop

task. In fact, in a recent series of studies, reduction or elimination of Stroop congruency

effects was obtained through suggestion and hypnotic induction. In this PhD thesis, it is

asked whether a suggestion reinforced by placebos, operating through response-expectancy

mechanisms, is able to induce a top-down cognitive modulation to overcome cognitive

conflict in the Stroop task, similar to those results found using suggestion and hypnosis

manipulation.
Doctorat en Sciences Psychologiques et de l'éducation
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Six studies were conducted to examine the influence of various cognitive and social factors underlying children's suggestibility. In Study 1, a misinformation paradigm was used to assess if the addition of visual information to verbal reminders increases preschool children's accurate and inaccurate recall of an experienced event. The results showed that the presentation of pictorial information with verbal reminders increased children's susceptibility to misinformation; however, generation of guided visual imagery produced the same misinformation effects as simple verbal reminders. Study 2 examined the influence of guided visual imagery on kindergarten and grade 3 children's reports of an entire event. Children were interviewed three times about a true and false event. Half of the children were given guided imagery instructions the other half were asked to think about the events. The kindergartners were more susceptible to false event creation than the third-graders. Guided imagery did not increase the rate of false reporting, but the kindergartners who formed visual images of the false event included more false details in their false reports. Studies 3a and 3b examined the effects of timing and repetition of suggestive interviewing on kindergarteners' recall. The results showed that repetition of misinformation only increased suggestibility when the misinformation was temporally close to both the event and memory test. The long-term consequences of suggestive interviewing were assessed in both Studies 1 and 3a. The relative misinformation and facilitation effects were unchanged when the children were re-interviewed approximately five months after the initial memory test. Studies 4a and 4b examined the association between psychosocial and cognitive variables and interrogative suggestibility (Study 4a), susceptibility to misinformation (Study 4a), and false event creation (Study 4b). The results of Study 4a showed small but significant correlations between interro

Resumo: Com base no conceito de implementação de intenções (Gollwitzer, 1993, 1999) e na teoria do contexto de resposta de Kirsch & Lynn (1997), o presente trabalho testou a eficácia de uma intervenção combinada de implementação de intenções com hipnose e sugestão pós-hipnótica na promoção da adesão a uma tarefa simples (avaliação do humor) e uma tarefa difícil (actividade física). Os participantes são estudantes universitários de uma universidade na Nova Jérsia, (N=124, Estudo 1, EUA) e em Lisboa (N=323, Estudo 2, Portugal). Em ambos os estudos os participantes foram seleccionados a partir de uma amostra mais vasta baseado num escrutínio da sua sugestibilidade hipnótica avaliada por meio da Escala de Grupo de Sugestibilidade Hipnótica de Waterloo-Stanford (WSGC): Forma C. O Estudo 1 usou um desenho factorial do tipo 2x2x3 (tipo de intenção formada x hipnose x nível de sugestionabilidade) e o Estudo 2 usou um desenho factorial do tipo 2 x 2x 2 x 4 (tipo de tarefa x tipo de intenção formada x hipnose x nível de sugestionabilidade). No Estudo 1 foi pedido aos participantes que corressem todos os dias e durante três semanas durante 5 minutos, que medissem a sua pulsação antes e depois da actividade física e que mandassem um e-mail ao experimentador, fornecendo assim uma medida comportamental e uma medida de auto-relato. Aos participantes no grupo de intenções de meta foi apenas pedido que corressem todos os dias. Aos participantes no grupo de implementação de intenções foi pedido que especificasses com exactidão quando e onde iriam correr e enviar o e-mail. Para além disso, cerca de metade dos participantes foram hipnotizados e receberam uma sugestão pós-hipnótica em que lhes foi sugerido que o pensamento de correr todos os dias lhes viria à mente sem esforço no momento apropriado. A outra metade dos participantes não recebeu qualquer sugestão hipnótica. No Estudo 2 foi seguido o mesmo procedimento, mas a cerca de metade dos participantes foi atribuída uma tarefa fácil (enviar um Adherence to health-related behaviors ix SMS com a avaliação diária do seu estado de humor naquele momento) e à outra metade da amostra foi atribuída a tarefa de exercício físico atrás descrita (tarefa difícil). Os resultados do estudo 1 mostraram uma interacção significativa entre o nível de sugestionabilidade dos participantes e a sugestão pós-hipnótica (p<.01) indicando que a administração da sugestão pós-hipnótica aumentou a adesão nos participantes muito sugestionáveis, mas baixou a adesão nos participantes pouco sugestionáveis. Não se encontraram diferenças entre os grupos que formaram intenções de meta e os que formaram implementação de intenções. No Estudo 2 os resultados indicaram que os participantes aderiram significativamente mais à tarefa fácil do que à tarefa difícil (p<.001). Os resultados não revelaram diferenças significativas entre as condições implementações de intenções, hipnose e as duas estratégias combinadas, indicando que a implementação de intenções não foi eficaz no aumento da adesão às duas tarefas propostas e não beneficiou da combinação com as sugestões pós-hipnóticas. A utilização da hipnose com sugestão pós-hipnótica significativamente reduziu a adesão a ambas as tarefas. Dado que não existiam instrumentos em Português destinados a avaliar a sugestionabilidade hipnótica, traduziu-se e adaptou-se para Português Escala de Grupo de sugestibilidade hipnótica de Waterloo-Stanford (WSGC): Forma C. A amostra Portuguesa (N=625) apresentou resultados semelhantes aos encontrados nas amostras de referência em termos do formato da distribuição dos padrões da pontuação e do índice de dificuldade dos itens. Contudo, a proporção de estudantes portugueses encontrada que pontuaram na zona superior de sugestionabilidade foi significativamente inferior à proporção de participantes na mesma zona encontrada nas amostras de referência. No sentido de lançar alguma luz sobre as razões para este resultado, inquiriu-se alguns dos participantes acerca das suas atitudes face à hipnose utilizando uma versão portuguesa da Escala de Valência de Atitudes e Crenças face à Hipnose e comparou-se com a opinião de Adherence to health-related behaviors xAbstract: On the basis of Gollwitzer’s (1993, 1999) implementation intentions’ concept, and Kirsch & Lynn’s (1997) response set theory, this dissertation tested the effectiveness of a combined intervention of implementation intentions with hypnosis with posthypnotic suggestions in enhancing adherence to a simple (mood report) and a difficult (physical activity) health-related task. Participants were enrolled in a university in New Jersey (N=124, Study 1, USA) and in two universities in Lisbon (N=323, Study 2, Portugal). In both studies participants were selected from a broader sample based on their suggestibility scores using the Waterloo-Stanford Group C (WSGC) scale of hypnotic susceptibility and then randomly assigned to the experimental groups. Study 1 used a 2x2x3 factorial design (instruction x hypnosis x level of suggestibility) and Study 2 used a 2 x 2x 2 x 4 factorial design (task x instructions x hypnosis x level of suggestibility). In Study 1 participants were asked to run in place for 5 minutes each day for a three-week period, to take their pulse rate before and after the activity, and to send a daily email report to the experimenter, thus providing both a self-report and a behavioral measure of adherence. Participants in the goal intention condition were simply asked to run in place and send the e-mail once a day. Those in the implementation intention condition were further asked to specify the exact place and time they would perform the physical activity and send the e-mail. In addition, half of the participants were given a post-hypnotic suggestion indicating that the thought of running in place would come to mind without effort at the appropriate moment. The other half did not receive a posthypnotic suggestion. Study 2 followed the same procedure, but additionally half of the participants were instructed to send a mood report by SMS (easy task) and half were assigned to the physical activity task described above (difficult task). Adherence to health-related behaviors vii Study 1 result’s showed a significant interaction between participant’s suggestibility level and posthypnotic suggestion (p<.01) indicating that posthypnotic suggestion enhanced adherence among highly suggestible participants, but lowered it among low suggestible individuals. No differences between the goal intention and the implementation intentions groups were found. In Study 2, participants adhered significantly more (p<.001) to the easy task than to the difficult task. Results did not revealed significant differences between the implementation intentions, hypnosis and the two conditions combined, indicating that implementation intentions was not enhanced by hypnosis with posthypnotic suggestion, neither was effective as single intervention in enhancing adherence to any of the tasks. Hypnosis with posthypnotic suggestion alone significantly reduced adherence to both tasks in comparison with participants that did not receive hypnosis. Since there were no instruments in Portuguese language to asses hypnotic suggestibility, the Waterloo-Stanford Group C (WSGC) scale of hypnotic susceptibility was translated and adapted to Portuguese and was used in the screening of a sample of college students from Lisbon (N=625). Results showed that the Portuguese sample has distribution shapes and difficulty patterns of hypnotic suggestibility scores similar to the reference samples, with the exception of the proportion of Portuguese students scoring in the high range of hypnotic suggestibility, that was found lower than the in reference samples. In order to shed some light on the reasons for this finding participant’s attitudes toward hypnosis were inquired using a Portuguese translation and adaptation of the Escala de Valencia de Actitudes y Creencias Hacia la Hipnosis, Versión Cliente, and compared with participants with no prior hypnosis experience (N=444). Significant differences were found between the two groups with participants without hypnosis experience scoring higher in factors indicating misconceptions and negative attitudes about hypnosis.

Exekutive Funktionen (EF) sind eine Gruppe von Top-Down-Prozessen, die in neuartigen Situationen eingesetzt werden, um neue Trigger-Response-Assoziationen herzustellen oder vorhandene Handlungsoptionen an neue Situationen anzupassen. Obwohl EF erschöpfend untersucht wurden, bleiben wichtige Fragen offen. Beispiele dafür sind (a) Sind Exekutivfunktionen vollständig trennbar oder beruhen sie auf einem gemeinsamen neurokognitiven System? (b) Was messen verschiedene Versionen der Stroop-Aufgabe, einer der meist-verwendeten Aufgaben zur Prüfung der Inhibitionsfunktion? (c) Muss Inhibition immer Ressourcen-fordernd sein, oder gibt es eine Form der Inhibition, die mühelos implementiert werden kann? Zur Beantwortung dieser Fragen, habe ich neurokognitive Korrelate von EF und ihrer Verbesserung mithilfe posthypnotischer Suggestionen (PHS) und Ereigniskorrelierter Hirnpotentiale (EKP) untersucht. Zusammenfassend ergaben sich folgende Antworten: (a) Psychometrische und EKP-Daten aus den Studien zur Gedächtnisaktualisierung und Inhibition sowie deren Verbesserung anhand PHS zeigten sowohl funktionsspezifische als auch gemeinsame neurokognitive Prozesse der Inhibition und Aktualisierung. (b) Obwohl sowohl die vokale als auch die manuelle Version der Stroop-Aufgabe Inhibitionsfunktionen erfordern, ist die vokale Version Ressourcen-fordernder, da sie mindestens einen zusätzlichen Lokus der Interferenz im Antwort-Produktionsprozess aufweist, der nicht mit PHS beeinflussbar ist und der in der manuellen Version fehlt. (c) Unter Verwendung PHS zur Erhöhung der Präferenzen für kalorienarme Lebensmittel untersuchte ich die Auflösung von Konflikten. Die EKP-Ergebnisse zeigten, dass auch Konflikt-Auflösung, ähnlich wie Inhibition, Ressourcen konsumiert. Insgesamt zeigt dieses Projekt, dass die Verwendung Aufgaben-bezogener PHS in Kombination mit Neuroimaging-Techniken einen fruchtbaren Ansatz für die Untersuchung ungeklärter Fragen über Exekutivfunktionen darstellt.
Executive functions (EF) are a group of top-down processes used in novel situations to develop or adapt existing responses to the task at hand. Even though EFs are studied exhaustively, several important questions remain unanswered: (a) Are EFs entirely separated, or do they rely on a common system? (b) What do different versions of the Stroop task measure? (c) Does inhibition always need to be effortful? To address these questions, I investigated neurocognitive correlates of EFs and their enhancements by means of posthypnotic suggestions (PHS) and event-related potentials (ERP). However, before one can use PHSs, it must be elucidated whether and how they affect EFs. Although PHSs are used repeatedly for improving inhibition, it is unclear whether their effects are mediated by bottom-up or top-down processes. By using an updating task, I showed that effects of PHSs can be attributed to top-down processes. Accordingly, a new theory of hypnosis was proposed and empirically tested by modeling hypnotizability scores with structural equation modeling. In short, the simulation-adaption theory suggests that several top-down processes are employed for responding to suggestions. After elucidating the driving mechanism of PHSs is mentally practicing a novel strategy, PHSs were used for addressing the questions regarding EFs. Summarizing (a) the psychometric and ERP results from several studies indicated that different EFs rely on both function-specific and shared neurocognitive processes. (b) Even though different versions of the Stroop task are tapping into inhibition, the vocal compared to the manual version has at least an extra response-production-related locus of interference. (c) Using PHSs for increasing preferences for low-calorie food items, it is shown that resolve is effortful to implement, as indicated by increased P300 amplitudes. Together, this project shows how PHSs, along with neuroimaging techniques, can provide a novel approach for investigating EFs.

The sense of agency is the experience of being the initiator of our intentional actions and their outcomes. According to higher order thought theory, a representation becomes conscious when there is a higher order state about it. Thus conscious experience, including that of intentions, is metacognitive. The experience of involuntariness characteristic of hypnotic responding may be attributable to the formation and maintenance of inaccurate metacognitive higher order states of intending. Conversely, the practice of Buddhist mindfulness meditation may develop accurate metacognition, including higher order states of intending. Highly hypnotisable people and mindfulness meditators may therefore occupy two ends of a spectrum of metacognitive ability with regard to unconscious intentions. The presented research investigated predicted trait differences in cognitive tasks which directly or indirectly reflect metacognition of intentions: the timing of an experience of an intention to move and the compressed time interval between a voluntary action and its outcome, known as intentional binding. As an implicit measure of sense of agency, intentional binding was also employed to investigate the veridicality of reports of the experience of involuntariness in hypnotic responding. Additionally, while hypnosis presents a unique opportunity to investigate reliable changes in agentic experience, existing hypnosis screening instruments are time consuming and present a barrier to wider adoption of hypnosis as an instrument for studying consciousness. Here a revised, time-efficient hypnosis screening procedure (the SWASH) is presented. Consistent with predictions, highly hypnotisable groups reported later awareness of motor intentions than less hypnotisable groups and meditators earlier awareness than non-meditators. In an intentional binding task, high hypnotisables showed less binding of an action-outcome toward an action (outcome binding) than low hypnotisables and meditators more outcome binding than non-meditators. Outcome binding was reduced in post-hypnotic involuntary action compared to voluntary action. It is proposed that intentional binding is driven by a cue combination mechanism and that these differences reflect varying precision of motor intention related information in reported timing judgements. The SWASH was found to be a reliable hypnosis screening instrument.

Two key questions underpin the research presented here. Firstly, how does altered higher order awareness contribute to hypnotic experience? Secondly, how do meditation and hypnosis differ in terms of the role of higher order awareness? These questions are addressed here in the form of four papers. In the first paper I review the literatures of hypnosis and meditation in order to consider the similarities and differences between meditation and hypnosis in terms of the role of attentional skill and the neural underpinnings of each. I then draw conclusions regarding the contrasting role of higher order awareness and metacognition in meditation and hypnosis. Paper two explores higher order awareness in hypnosis by comparing the effects of alcohol, compared to placebo, on hypnotisability and associated frontal lobe executive functioning. Paper three compares meditation and hypnosis by investigating differences in higher order thoughts, mindfulness, absorption and perceptual encoding style as revealed by self-report measures. The final paper takes a broader look at higher order awareness and its relation to the experience of agency and involuntariness in hypnotic suggestion using a Libet type paradigm.

Thesis (MA)-- Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The following thesis aims to contribute to the field of teaching German as a foreign language. It investigates the evolutionary history of Suggestopaedia, an alternative teaching method which originated during the late 1970s. The Bulgarian psychiatrist, Dr. Georgi Lozanov, discovered that relaxation and a stress-free environment promote both accelerated learning and memory retention. Further research proves that the combined elements and techniques of this method play a significant role to positively manipulate brain activity as well as individual perceptions, which could eventually result in the development of the personality. The author of this study analyses both the contributions and shortcomings of Suggestopaedia, reporting from personal experience gathered while teaching at a university in South Africa, and subsequently suggests an altered version of the suggestopaedic teaching ways. Various foreign language teaching methodologies are examined and evaluated while the main focus remains on Suggestopaedia and its principle of holistic learning. By exploiting the eclectic aspects of the suggestopaedic teaching method, this thesis investigates to what extent selected elements of different conventional methods can be integrated into Suggestopaedic teaching. Thereby the author ultimately proposes a holistic, enriched and modernized variant of Lozanovs Suggestopaedia for the teaching of German at schools in South Africa, by demonstrating practical examples executed at a private school.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis poog om ʼn bydrae te lewer tot die gebied in die onderrig van Duits as ʼn vreemdetaal. Dit ondersoek die evolusionêre geskiedenis van Suggestopedie wat as „n onderrigmetode in die laat 1970‟s ontstaan het. Die Bulgaarse psigiater, dr. Georgi Lozanov, het bevind dat „n ontspanne en stresvrye omgewing beide versnelde leer en geheue retensie bevorder. Verdere navorsing toon dat die gekombineerde elemente en tegnieke van hierdie metode „n betekenisvolle rol speel om brein-aktiwiteit positief te manipuleer en individuele persepsies positief te beïnvloed, wat ten slotte ʼn persoonlikheidsontwikkeling tot gevolg kan hê. Die skrywer van hierdie studie analiseer sowel die bydrae asook die tekortkominge van Suggestopedie aan die hand van persoonlike ervaring wat versamel is tydens onderrig aan „n Suid-Afrikaanse universiteit. Hieruit word dan „n gewysigde weergawe van suggestopediese onderrig voorgestel. Verskeie vreemdetaal-onderrigmetodes word ondersoek en geassesseer, terwyl die fokus steeds op Suggestopedie en die beginsel van holistiese leer bly. Deur gebruik te maak van die eklektiese aspek van die suggestopediese leermetode, ondersoek die skrywer tot watter mate geselekteerde elemente van verskillende konvensionele metodes geintegreer kan word met Suggestopedie. Met bogenoemde navorsing inaggeneem, stel die skrywer gevolglik „n holistiese, verrykte en gemoderniseerde weergawe van Lozanov se Suggestopedie voor, aan die hand van praktiese voorbeelde wat by „n privaatskool toegepas is.

Ce travail de thèse vise à étudier, dans une perspective développementale, deux formes de suggestibilité: l‟Acceptation Immédiate de l‟Information Erronée (i. E. , la suggestibilité immédiate) et l‟Effet de Désinformation (i. E. , les faux souvenirs). Pour ce faire, une première étude a été conduite afin de construire, sur la base notamment du paradigme de désinformation initialement développé par Loftus, Miller & Burns (1978), un outil combinant la mesure de l‟AIIE et de l‟ED chez l‟enfant. Par ailleurs, le format des suggestions et la centralité des éléments suggérés ont été pris en compte. Ce nouveau matériel francophone a ensuite été utilisé dans une expérience menée auprès de 166 enfants et adolescents âgés de 6, 10 et 14 ans. Cette expérience est déclinée en trois études. D‟après nos résultats principaux, seuls les enfants de 6 ans sont sensibles à l‟AIIE, mais, en revanche, tous les enfants, quel que soit leur âge, créent des faux souvenirs. Ainsi, les adolescents produisent plus de faux souvenirs que les enfants de 6 ans. De plus, le format des suggestions module la création de faux souvenirs uniquement chez les enfants les plus jeunes. Enfin, si la suggestibilité immédiate est bien impliquée dans la création de faux souvenirs chez les enfants les plus jeunes, d‟autres mécanismes nous paraissent être à l‟origine de ces distorsions mnésiques pour les plus âgés. Ces résultats sont discutés au regard de la littérature
This thesis aims to study in a developmental perspective both forms of suggestibility: the Immediate Misinformation Acceptance (i. E. , immediate suggestibility) and the Misinformation Effect (i. E. , false memories). Thus, a preliminary study was conducted to elaborate, particularly on the basis of the misinformation paradigm originally developed by Loftus, Miller and Burns (1978) a tool that combines the measurement of IMA and ME in children. In addition, the format of the suggestions and the centrality of the suggested items were taken into account. This new francophone material was then used in an experiment involving 166 children and teenagers aged 6, 10 and 14 years. This experience is divided into three studies. According to our main results, only 6-year-old children are vulnerable to IMA but, in contrast, all children, whatever their age, create false memories. Furthermore, teenagers produce more false memories than children of 6 year-olds. In addition, the format of suggestions modulates the creation of false memories only in younger children. Finally, while the immediate suggestibility is involved in the creation of false memories in younger children, other mechanisms seem to be responsible of these memory distortions for the older. These results are discussed regarding to literature

The aim of the present study was to generate a set of therapy suggestions specifically for use in the treatment of creative individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder. In order to achieve this end, the author collected information from bodies of literature that focused on three general research areas: (a) the relationship between bipolar illness and creativity, (b) the treatment of bipolar individuals, and (c) psychotherapy treatment of creative individuals. The information gleaned from these three areas was synthesized and used to inform the general treatment suggestions. This study examined several of the existing approaches to the treatment of bipolar disorder and provided suggestions for ways in which those treatments could be tailored for use with creative clients who are diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Effective psychiatric and psychological (i.e., psychotherapeutic) interventions have been developed for the treatment of individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder, though additional research can be conducted to better understand how these interventions can be adapted to improve outcomes with certain clinical subgroups. Creative individuals with bipolar disorder reflect one such subgroup, and it is hoped that the suggestions for therapeutic adaptations contained within this dissertation begin to draw more attention to an under-researched group.

L’utilisation de la suggestion hypnotique présente un intérêt considérable pour l’étude des processus cognitifs et de leurs modulations. Depuis plusieurs décennies, un nombre croissant d’études a mis en évidence que des suggestions verbales directes, induites chez des personnes hautement suggestibles, peuvent conduire à des modifications drastiques, transitoires et authentiques de l’expérience consciente et de la cognition. Si ces influences ont été établies pour divers processus, l’impact de la suggestion hypnotique reste cependant à étayer pour les processus cognitifs liés au traitement émotionnel. L’objectif de cette thèse était de caractériser l’influence de la suggestion hypnotique sur les processus émotionnels, en étudiant la modulation du biais attentionnel et des processus d’activation et d’inhibition lexico-émotionnels. Plus précisément, nos travaux visaient à déterminer (1) dans quelle mesure la suggestion hypnotique peut intervenir de façon opposée sur les processus émotionnels, (2) quelle composante hypnotique sous-tend ces modulations, (3) comment les effets de dimensions émotionnelles sont affectés par les suggestions verbales et (4) dans quelle mesure la suggestion hypnotique facilite l’inhibition de réponses prépotentes lors du traitement de stimuli émotionnels. Dans cette perspective, nous avons combiné des suggestions hypnotiques visant à augmenter ou diminuer la réactivité émotionnelle, avec des tâches cognitives utilisant des mots émotionnels. Nous avons ainsi réalisé quatre études expérimentales avec des suggestions, combinées à des tâches de Stroop émotionnel (Etudes 1 et 3), de décision lexicale (Etude 4) et de complétion de phrases (Etude 6), accompagnées par la validation d’une échelle de suggestibilité (Etude 2) utilisée pour le recrutement de participants, et par un corpus de phrases (Etude 5) pour la construction d’un matériel expérimental (Etude 6). Les données ont mis en évidence que la suggestion hypnotique (Etudes 1 et 3), ainsi que l’induction hypnotique par relaxation (Etude 3), conduisent à des modulations effectives du biais attentionnel dans la tâche de Stroop émotionnel. En outre, nous avons montré que la suggestion hypnotique peut spécifiquement influencer l’effet de la dimension d’arousal des mots émotionnels présentés dans la tâche de décision lexicale (Etude 4), et faciliter l’inhibition de mots émotionnels dans la tâche de Hayling émotionnelle (Etude 6). Dans l’ensemble, les résultats permettent de préciser l’influence de la suggestion hypnotique sur les processus émotionnels dans des tâches cognitives utilisant des mots émotionnels. Ils suggèrent que le mode de modulation de l’hypnose est pluriel, pouvant influencer les processus émotionnels de façon opposée, agir sur l’effet de dimensions émotionnelles spécifiques, et impliquer plusieurs composantes de la procédure d’hypnose. Nous proposons des pistes d’approfondissement pouvant conduire à une nouvelle compréhension de l’interaction entre hypnose et émotions, et à des perspectives d’application clinique dans le domaine de la régulation émotionnelle
The use of hypnotic suggestion is of considerable interest for the study of cognitive processes and their modulations. Over the last few decades, a growing number of studies have demonstrated that direct verbal suggestions, induced in highly suggestible individuals, can lead to drastic, transient and authentic changes in conscious experience and cognition. While these influences have been established for various processes, the impact of hypnotic suggestion has yet to be determined for cognitive processes linked to emotional processing. The aim of this thesis was to characterise the influence of hypnotic suggestion on emotional processes, by studying the modulation of attentional bias and lexico-emotional activation and inhibition processes. More specifically, our work aimed to determine (1) to what extent hypnotic suggestion can intervene in opposing ways on emotional processes, (2) which hypnotic component underlies these modulations, (3) how the effects of emotional dimensions are affected by hypnotic suggestion (4) how hypnotic suggestion can facilitate the inhibition of prepotent responses when processing emotional stimuli. To this end, we combined hypnotic suggestions aimed at increasing or decreasing emotional reactivity with cognitive tasks using emotional words. We carried out four experimental studies using suggestions, combined with emotional Stroop (Studies 1 and 3), lexical decision (Study 4) and sentence completion (Study 6) tasks, accompanied by the validation of a suggestibility scale (Study 2) used to recruit participants, and a corpus of sentences (Study 5) used to construct experimental materials (Study 6). The data highlighted that hypnotic suggestion (Studies 1 and 3), as well as hypnotic induction by relaxation (Study 3), lead to effective modulations of attentional bias in the emotional Stroop task. Furthermore, we have shown that hypnotic suggestion can specifically influence the effect of the arousal dimension of emotional words presented in the lexical decision task (Study 4), and facilitate the inhibition of emotional words in the emotional Hayling task (Study 6). Overall, the results help to clarify the influence of hypnotic suggestion on emotional processes in cognitive tasks using emotional words. They suggest that the modulation mode of hypnosis is plural, being able to influence emotional processes in opposite ways, act on the effect of specific emotional dimensions, and involve several components of the hypnotic procedure. We propose avenues for further research that could lead to a new understanding of the interaction between hypnosis and emotions, and to prospects for clinical application in the field of emotional regulation

Le désir initial d'étudier la sophrologie, technique utilisée de façon croissante dans la préparation mentale des sportifs, nous a confronté au domaine de l'anthropologie culturelle à travers les états regroupés sous le terme générique d'"états modifiés de la conscience". En fait, la définition que la sophrologie donne elle-même et des techniques auxquelles elle se réfère n'est pas satisfaisante. En conséquence, notre étude a suivi une double démarche : d'une part théorique et conceptuelle, afin de mettre en évidence l'origine de ces pratiques et donc un type de fonctionnement à travers cinq domaines de l'histoire des religions et des thérapies ; cette recherche a abouti à la construction d'un modèle de compréhension de s EMC en quatre niveaux : symbolique et social, individuel, technique, et enfin biologique ; démarche monographique et expérimentale, d'autre part, pour savoir si ces techniques entrainent des réponses physiologiques objectivement décelables. Nous avons ainsi été amené à mettre en évidence la variabilité des réponses individuelles provoquées par les techniques qui font appel à l'imagerie et à la concentration. A la lumière de ces connaissances, la sophrologie apparaît comme un "concept-façade" qui recouvre différentes idéologies et de multiples pratiques. Ils convient donc de débarasser les processus utilisés du fond philosophique et religieux qui encombre la sophrologie, et depréciser leurs conditions d'application dans la préparation mentale du sportif. Certains points fodamentaux, négligés par la sophrologie, doivent notamment être soulignés : l'individualisation de cette préparation et la maturation nécessaire à son efficacité.

Dans le présent travail, nous proposons qu'un aperçu plus clair de l'interaction entre la suggestion hypnotique et l'attention aiderait à établir le point précis du chronogramme perceptif auquel les effets de l'hypnose interviennent, comment modulent-ils exactement le contrôle cognitif et dans quelle mesure la réponse hypnotique dépend-elle des ressources attentionnelles. Afin de répondre à ces questions expérimentales, nous avons développé trois projets de recherche: (1) les données normatives sur notre traduction en français pour l'Échelle de Susceptibilité Hypnotique de Groupe Harvard, (2) une évaluation des effets de la suggestion posthypnotique sur l'attention visuo-spatiale et (3) une évaluation sur la capacité de la suggestion hypnotique de moduler l'allocation automatique de l'attention accordée par le Anger Superiority Effect. Les résultats de notre première étude nous ont permis de noter avec fiabilité la susceptibilité hypnotique de plus de 500 participants pour les études qui ont suivi. Les résultats de notre deuxième étude indiquent que, pour les participants hautement susceptibles, la suggestion posthypnotique a perturbé avec succès les mécanismes d'attention précoce nécessaires à la stimulation de l'amorçage, ainsi que des jugements de visibilité subjectifs tardifs. Notre troisième étude a révélé que, grâce à une suggestion hypnotique, les participants hautement hypnotizables ont pu empêcher l'allocation automatique de l'attention vers des expressions de colère par un découplage stratégique du contrôle cognitif, mais seulement lorsque les ressources attentionnelles n'avaient pas été cooptées par des processus concurrents. Ensemble, nos résultats appuient les idées selon lesquelles l'hypnose émet ses effets grâce au contrôle cognitif, qui peut perturber les mécanismes attentionnels précoces et tardifs de manières distinctes et que la disponibilité des ressources attentionnelles détermine l'éventail d'action de l'induction et de la suggestion hypnotiques
In the present work, we posit that a clearer outline of the interaction between hypnotic suggestion and attention would help establishing the precise point in the perceptual timeline at which hypnosis effects intervene, how exactly do they modulate cognitive control, and to what extent is hypnotic responding dependent on attentional resources. In order to tend to these experimental questions, we developed three research projects: (1) the normative data on our French translation for the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, (2) an evaluation of the effects of posthypnotic suggestion on visuospatial attention, and (3) an evaluation on the capability of hypnotic suggestion to modulate the automatic attention allocation granted by the anger-saliency effect. The results from our first study allowed us to reliably score the hypnotic susceptibility of over 500 participants for the studies that ensued. Results from our second study indicated that for highly susceptible participants, posthypnotic suggestion successfully disrupted the early attentional mechanisms necessary for the fostering of priming, as well as late subjective visual awareness judgments. Our third study revealed that, through hypnotic suggestion, highly susceptible participants were able to deflect automatic attention allocation towards targets’ task-irrelevant angry features through strategic decoupling of cognitive control, but only when attentional resources were not coopted by competing processes. Pooled together, our findings support the ideas that hypnosis enacts its effects through cognitive control, that these can disrupt both early and late attentional mechanisms in distinct manners, and that the availability of attentional resources determines the range of action of hypnotic induction and suggestion

La recherche porte sur les collectifs sectaires contemporains et la participation psychique singulière de l'adepte au sein du collectif. Après avoir déconstruit l'idée de manipulation mentale et d'une emprise transitive du gourou à l'égard de l'adepte, nous interrogeons, par la rencontre clinique (d'adeptes et d'ex-adeptes) et le paradigme du transfert qui s'en déduit, les enjeux psychiques du lien sectaire de l'adepte. Nous soutenons que la notion d'adepte, empruntée à la sociologie des religions, est impropre à indexer avec justesse une spécificité psychique du vécu d'emprise. En réponse aux approches psycho-victimologiques, les conditions de possibilité d'un discours non traumatique sont également explorées dans les rapports du sujet de l'individu avec le sujet du collectif. La thèse vise in fine l'écriture logique de la (ou des) discursivité(s) sectaire(s).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2003.
Advisor: Dr. Colleen M. Kelley, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Mar. 2, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Suggestopedia (also sometimes referred to as "Accelerated Learning") is a teaching methodology that claims to remove barriers to learning rather than teach students how to learn. Developed by Bulgarian psychotherapist and medical doctor Georgi Lozanov (1926- ), it utilizes a detailed, three-phase cycle of teaching in which about 75% of teaching time is devoted to "Activations", games and activities in which students rehearse material previously presented in unique "Concert Sessions" (which make up the other 25% of contact time). Suggestopedia highlights factors often forgotten in the classroom: the design of an "optimum" learning environment, high expectations of success from the teacher, the use of music and art, the importance of enjoying the learning process, and the fostering of an atmosphere of "relaxed alertness". The method has been used with some success, particularly in the teaching of foreign languages. Ostensibly based on the way we learn naturally, Suggestopedia has developed a number of incarnations, in some cases because Lozanov's work was not freely available in the West during the Cold War. This dissertation outlines the salient features of both Suggestopedia and some of its incarnations. Additionally, it suggests ways in which the method may be utilized in the high school English classroom in South Africa. In particular, it describes an intervention in which elements of Suggestopedia were used to teach creative writing in a multilingual environment. In short, this intervention involved the creation of a traditional two page creative "essay" inspired by, inter alia, the teacher's high expectations, the meditative atmosphere created by music, and the posters in the students' peripheral vision. A total of 158 Grade 9 and Grade 11 (mainly isiZulu speaking) students in an "ex-model C" school wrote, edited, and submitted such essays, the main criterion of success being whether each essay was deemed by the teacher to be of a sufficiently high standard to be reproduced here. The project, based on a qualitative research design using the process approach to writing and a Suggestopedicbased pedagogy, elicited many engaging pieces of writing from students. The spirit of their writing as well as the writers' own comments about the process will hopefully suggest the genius and versatility of the Lozanov methodology.
Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2007.

碩士
東吳大學
法律學系
107
What is “mental illness”? Is mental illness has any different meaning in medical, legal or insurance area? Furthermore, when mental illness and commercial health insurance come across, what kind of issue will show up and be commented? After that, how to balance the insurance company’s and the policyholder’s ground to deal with these difficult and complicated interpretation problems. This is the core of this study; commercial health insurance dispute claims on mental illness. Commercial health insurance was introduced to the market more than 50 years ago. It becomes far more important than before as the people have longer life expectancy and the population is ageing. The development of society and economy, the growth of national income, the pursuit of better quality of life, and the popularization of higher education, all raise demands of commercial health insurance. With rising awareness of consumer protection and the advancement of medical technology, the disputes concerning contractual interpretation of mental illness in commercial health insurance contracts are worthy to be explored. Thus, this study is based on the definition of the exclusion “mental illness” of the health insurance contract, and the change in the hospitalization treatment of mental illness, which will extend to the scope of claims, and may even evolve into litigation cases. Therefore, this study believes that it should define the terms such as mental illness listed in the exclusion, as well as the treatment methods, and determine the scope of claims covered to solve the disputes. In addition, this study explores the judgments of various courts and various trials on the disputes mentioned above, and summarize the similarities and differences between courts, then proposes to solve the disputes. All in all, the root cause for the major disputes arising with the mental illness in the commercial health insurance contract is that the contract clause lacks definition of mental illness. Therefore, the obvious solution should center on defining the term with enough clarity to reduce or prevent recurring disputes. In addition to, based on the recommendations in this study, I strongly hope to offer as a reference for insurance companies to draw up or revise the terms of the health insurance contract in the future; even moreover, I sincerely expect to provide for the official authorities (such as Insurance Bureau, The life Insurance Association) and other relevant government organizations (such as the Legislative Yuan, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, etc.) as reference materials, when there is any chance going to legislate or modify the law. To sum up, because of the unclear terms of the health insurance contract, there is a huge gap between the insurance companies and the policyholders; each party has its own cognition to understand the terms, that’s the main point why these disputes occurred. In order to avoid the disputes about the mental illness claims occurring continually, this study intended to find out the causes of the disputes, and summarized the conclusions and possible suggestions which are expected to smoothly reduce or even solve these disputes in the future.

Historically, African Americans consistently underutilize mental health services. This trend is also seen in the African American college population, despite easier access to mental health resources. This report examines the central barriers experienced by African Americans in seeking out mental health services, which are most often seen in the literature. Barriers explored include stigma, the foundations of counseling, cultural mistrust, and attitudes and beliefs about mental health services. The barriers are then used as a framework to discuss preventive, developmental, and community interventions. Further suggestions are made as to how to best utilize interventions to reduce the barriers experienced by African American students in seeking mental health services.
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