Hypnotizability: Harvard and Stanford Scales with African American College Students

Sleep and Hypnosis: A Journal of Clinical Neuroscience and Psychopathology 2017;19(3):61-69

Marty Sapp Ed.D

The purpose of this study was to assess hypnotizability using the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility,Form A (HGSHS:A),and the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale,Form C (SHSS:C)with African American college students.There were 103 African American undergraduate students participating in this study.Like a previous study by Sapp and Hitchcock (2001),the Inner Subjective Experiences method for scoring the HGSHS:A produced more reliable results than the standard scoring system. The SHSS:C and the Inner Subjective Experiences Scale for the SHSS:C both produced reliable results,and point estimates for coefficient alphas for the SHSS:C and Inner Subjective Experiences did not differ from values obtained for European American college students.(Sleep and Hypnosis 2004;6(1):14-18)

Keywords: Hypnotizability, African American college students, cognition, adolescents, cultural differences