Suggestion and Suggestibility - Theory and Research (Paperback, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1989)

This book demonstrates that the phenomenon of suggestibility relates to far more psychological processes than just to hypnosis. Several well-known scientists investigate the psychological and psychophysiological characteristics of the perceptual and response processes involved in suggestibility. They try to establish a common theoetical basis for experimental and applied research; this is the first attempt to bring the theory, methodology, and results of different approaches together into a single volume. The contributions deal with definitions, biological and social mechanisms, causes and effects, and the process of suggestion. The authors - present new techniques for assessing sensory, motor, interrogative and hypnotic suggestibility; - describe psychophysiological correlates and susceptibility to hypnosis; - discuss types of "suggestive cues" inherent in social communication and - present data on the relationship of suggestion to attribution and expectation. It is shown that suggestibility, apart from its relationship to hypnosis, is a multifactorial phenomenon comprised of different partly uncorrelated facets. This volume gives easy access to the complex matter which up to now has been scattered across single publications in specialized subdisciplines of psychology.