Contemporary Hypnosis 121

Contemp. Hypnosis 26(2): 121–125 (2009)

Published online in Wiley InterScience
(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/ch.378

THE SOCIOCOGNITIVE AND CONDITIONING AND INHIBITION

THEORIES OF HYPNOSIS

Steven Jay Lynn and Sean O’Hagen

State University of New York at Binghamton, USA

Alfred Barrios has contributed a useful theory of hypnosis (Barrios, 2001), as well as
a more recent commentary (Barrios, 2007a) that compares and contrasts the ‘socio-
cognitive, dissociation/neo-dissociation, and response expectancy perspectives’ with his
theory of hypnosis based on principles of conditioning and inhibition. All too rarely do
theorists provide an analysis of their approach vis-à-vis competing accounts, so we
applaud Barrios’s efforts in this regard. Our commentary will focus on his recent discus-
sion of the sociocognitive theory of hypnosis, rather than on his observations regarding
biofeedback, placebos, faith healing and other phenomena presented in a second com-
mentary on his theory (Barrios, 2007b).
Sociocognitive theories reject the traditional view that hypnotic experiences require
the presence of an altered state of consciousness. Rather, the same social and cognitive
variables that determine mundane complex social behaviours are said to determine hyp-
notic responses and experiences. Still, sociocognitive theories of hypnosis are not mono-
lithic, as Barrios’s commentary might be taken to imply: they are differently nuanced
and variously emphasize participants’: (a) enactment of the social role of a hypnotized
person (William Coe, Theodore Sarbin); (b) attitudes and beliefs about hypnosis, fantasy
involvements and motivated engagement with imaginative suggestions (T.X. Barber); (c)
cognitive strategies, goal-directed activities and interpretation of suggestions (John
Chaves, Nicholas Spanos, Graham Wagstaff); and (d) expectancies, response sets and
automatic responses in everyday actions (Irving Kirsch, Steven Jay Lynn).
Barrios distinguishes sociocognitive theory from the response set theory and the
response expectancy theory of hypnosis. However, the latter perspectives sit fi rmly in
the camp of sociocognitive theory (Lynn, Kirsch and Hallquist, 2008). Moreover,
response set theory – which emphasizes the automaticity of responses – and response
expectancy theory, are related yet distinct perspectives. Kirsch and Lynn (Kirsch and
Lynn, 1997, 1999; Lynn, 1997) developed response set theory collaboratively as an exten-
sion of Kirsch’s (1991) response expectancy theory and Lynn’s (Lynn and Rhue, 1991)
integrative model. Given that Barrios explicitly acknowledges the important role of
expectancies and beliefs about hypnosis, as well as motivation and imagination, his
theory falls under the broad umbrella of sociocognitive approaches, despite the fact that
Barrios argues that in some circumstances, it is possible to speak of an hypnotic state.
Barrios notes that both his perspective and sociocognitive theory ‘discuss the impor-
tance of the part played by individual differences’ in responding to suggestions. However,
a primary task of any theory of hypnosis is to account for individual differences in
suggestibility. Barrios contends that the age of the subject and the prestige of the hyp-
notist in the eyes of the subject contribute to individual differences, yet are variables
neglected in sociocognitive theories. It is true that participants’ age has not received
much attention in sociocognitive theories; however, as a historical note, four decades

Copyright © 2009 British Society of Experimental & Clinical Hypnosis Contemp. Hypnosis 26: 121–125 (2009)
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd DOI: 10.1002/ch
122 Lynn and O’Hagen
ago, T.X. Barber (1969: 13) observed that ‘the experimenter’s prestige as a researcher or
as a hypnotist’ is a key ‘experimenter variable’ in determining hypnotic responsiveness.
Still, nowadays, it is widely accepted that the characteristics of the participant – for
instance, imaginative suggestibility, combined with motivation and preparedness to
respond (McConkey, 1991) – are far more influential determinants of responsiveness than
hypnotist prestige and even the quality of the relationship. Indeed, highly suggestible
participants continue to respond even when relationship rapport is seriously compro-
mised, although individuals low in suggestibility are more sensitive to variations in the
relationship (Lynn, Weekes, Brentar, Neufeld, Zivney and Weiss, 1991).
We agree with Barrios that language (and cognitive ability more generally) is a com-
pelling reason why very young children may not respond well to hypnotic suggestions.
After all, if children cannot understand the meaning, implications or intentions of a
particular suggestion, it would not be surprising if their response were lacklustre or
absent. However, we take issue with his claim (Barrios, 2007a: 110) that an explanation
for the ‘gradual decline in suggestibility after the age of eight is that with continued
increasing age the number of competing stimuli competing with a suggestion increases
(that is knowledge increases with age) . . .’. We contend that this cannot be a viable expla-
nation because it implies that as people accumulate more knowledge and life experiences
(i.e. competing stimuli), suggestibility should decrease over the lifespan, which is not
the case. Suggestibility appears to be reasonably stable and perdurable through adult-
hood, unless efforts are made to modify and enhance suggestibility.
Barrios contends that a second similarity between his viewpoint and the sociocogni-
tive perspective centres on ‘goal directed fantasies’ (GDFs), defined as ‘imagined situa-
tions which, if they were to occur, would be expected to lead to the involuntary occurrence
of the motor response called for by the suggestion’ (Spanos, Rivers and Ross, 1977: 211).
According to Barrios, a suggestion produces the desired response by first evoking a
cognitive stimulus which is associated with the response and ‘the more compatible cogni-
tive stimuli associated with the response evoked by the suggestion, the stronger response
to the suggestion’ (Barrios, 2007a: 111). However, Barrios’s position must be qualified
by scientific findings. That is, the frequency and intensity of GDFs are not closely tied
to suggestibility (Lynn and Sivec, 1993), and GDFs may even diminish responding to
suggestions (Hargadon Bowers and Woody, 1995; Comey and Kirsch, 1999). This seems
to be the case because some people adopt a passive response set – that is, they wait for
an imagined event to happen (e.g. arm levitation) on its own – which virtually guarantees
failure. Interestingly, compatible stimuli (i.e. imaginings consistent with suggestions) are
not necessary to produce responses to suggestions: people respond to suggestions even
when they intentionally generate oppositional thoughts and images (Easton and Shor,
1976; Zamansky, 1977; Ansfield and Wegner, 1996).
Barrios challenges the assertion (Kirsch and Lynn, 1995; Lynn and Sherman, 2000)
that hypnotic inductions increase suggestibility to a minor degree, and defends the use
of hypnotic inductions as important and ‘necessary’. Moreover, Barrios claims that some
inductions are more effective than others, and that it is possible to increase the ‘effective-
ness of hypnotic inductions even more’ (Barrios, 2007a: 113). Specifically, he refers to
Corollaries 5 and 6, following Hypothesis III of his theory. According to Corollary 5,
‘the probability of inducing a state of hypnosis will be greater if the suggestions are
given in a gradually increasing order of difficulty than if they are given in a random
order’ (Barrios, 2001: 180). However, this hypothesis has been strongly disconfirmed by
research (Weekes and Lynn, 1990) indicating that hypnotic responsiveness is not affected
by order of suggestions, as determined by difficulty level: people are just as responsive

Copyright © 2009 British Society of Experimental & Clinical Hypnosis Contemp. Hypnosis 26: 121–125 (2009)
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd DOI: 10.1002/ch
 Sociocognitive and conditioning and inhibition theories of hypnosis 123
when suggestions are ordered in terms of least to most difficult as when they are ordered
in terms of most to least difficult. We suspect that people’s perceptions of their success
in relation to their personal standards for being ‘good hypnotic subjects’ are more crucial
to establishing response expectancies (see Lynn, Green, Jaquith and Gasior, 2003) and
determining suggestibility than the order of difficulty of suggestions administered.
Barrios further claims (Corollary 6) that ‘an hypnotic state can be facilitated if, along
with each of the first few suggestions given in hypnotic induction, the actual sensory
stimuli which would ordinarily evoke these suggested responses accompany the sugges-
tions without the subject’s knowledge’ (Barrios, 2001: 180). This assertion finds support
in research (Wilson, 1967; Wickless and Kirsch, 1989) showing that such surreptitious
experimental manipulations, which alter the environment to make it seem that partici-
pants respond to suggestions (e.g. a diffuse red light appears when participants receive
a suggestion to see a red light), increase hypnotic suggestibility. However, Barrios con-
flates what most workers in the field regard as an hypnotic induction with a manipulation
of the environment that confirms participants’ expectancies that they are highly respon-
sive to suggestion. The increase in suggestibility that occurs in such situations appears
to be a product of heightened expectancies rather than the induction of an ‘hypnotic state’.
That said, it would be worthwhile to test Barrios’s concentration spiral technique induc-
tion and others, which are quite ingenious, and take advantage of naturally occurring
phenomena without dramatic environmental manipulations, and evaluate his methods
for using self-hypnosis and posthypnotic suggestions. However, research to date has
consistently failed to demonstrate the superiority of one induction method over another
(Lynn, Neufeld and Mare, 1993; Lynn and Kirsch, 2006).
This state of affairs should come as good news to clinicians: inductions that require
special training or equipment, or that are complex and esoteric in nature are not neces-
sary to produce clinically significant outcomes (Lynn and Kirsch, 2006). It is also true
– and Barrios seems to concur – that hypnotic suggestibility can be meaningfully
increased by procedures that increase people’s motivation to respond to suggestion,
demystify hypnosis, encourage imagination and correct interpretation of suggestions,
and foster an active, rather than a passive response set to suggestions (see Gfeller and
Gorassini, in press). Accordingly, while we concur with Barrios that ‘there may be ways
of increasing the effectiveness of hypnotic inductions even more’, we do not agree that
‘if . . . certain hypnotic inductions can produce significantly higher levels of suggestibil-
ity’ it makes sense to talk ‘in terms of a hypnotic and nonhypnotic state’.
According to Barrios, ‘A hypnotic state could be defined as the heightened state of
suggestibility . . . produced by the hypnotic induction’ (Barrios, 2007a: 109). Not only is
it not parsimonious to invoke a ‘hypnotic state’ (with no referents other than suggest-
ibility) to account for enhanced suggestibility, but it is also circular reasoning to defi ne
a hypnotic state in terms of suggestibility per se, as Barber has pointed out: ‘the presumed
hypnotic state is directly or indirectly inferred from responses to suggestions and is then
used circularly to account for responses to suggestions’ (Barber, 1969: 221–2).
Differences aside, we agree with Barrios that many hypnotic and nonhypnotic behav-
iours are automatized, that hypnotic suggestions can change the focus of attention (e.g.
rearrange the hierarchies of automatic and deliberate behaviours) in line with therapeutic
goals, and that an individual’s learning history plays an important role in determining
how they respond to suggestions. We would add that in addition to Barrios’s emphasis
on responses coming to be attached to suggestions by way of classical conditioning,
vicarious or observational learning and instructions (and suggestions) can influence what
is ‘learned’ in hypnotic and nonhypnotic contexts.

Copyright © 2009 British Society of Experimental & Clinical Hypnosis Contemp. Hypnosis 26: 121–125 (2009)
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd DOI: 10.1002/ch
124 Lynn and O’Hagen
Barrios’s theory rests on the assumption that the hypnotic induction has the power to
engender an inhibitory set that inhibits stimuli that compete with suggested events. In
future studies, it would be worthwhile to specify how to measure an inhibitory set, apart
from responsiveness to suggestions, to examine how suggestions affect responses that
vary in terms of conditioning history (e.g. ‘habit strength’), and to further explore the
role of cognitive inhibition and other attentional variables in relation to hypnotic
suggestibility and the use of different inductions (David and Brown, 2002; Laurence,
Beaulieu-Prevost and du Chene, 2008). In conclusion, we welcome Barrios’s theory, and
we look forward to empirical tests of its hypotheses and corollaries.

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Address for correspondence:

Steven Jay Lynn, PhD, ABPP
Psychology Department
Binghamton University
Binghamton, NY 13905
Email: slynn@binghamton.edu

Copyright © 2009 British Society of Experimental & Clinical Hypnosis Contemp. Hypnosis 26: 121–125 (2009)
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd DOI: 10.1002/ch