Nicholas Spanos

Hypnosis

Applications
Hypnotherapy Stage hypnosis Self-hypnosis
Origins
Animal magnetism Franz Mesmer History of hypnosis James Braid
Key figures
Marques of Puységur James Esdaile John Elliotson Jean-Martin Charcot Ambroise-Auguste Liébeault Hippolyte Bernheim Pierre Janet Sigmund Freud Émile Coué Morton Prince Clark L. Hull Andrew Salter Theodore R. Sarbin Milton H. Erickson Stephen Brooks Dave Elman Ernest Hilgard Martin Theodore Orne André Muller Weitzenhoffer Theodore Xenophon Barber Nicholas Spanos Irving Kirsch
Related topics
Hypnotic susceptibility Suggestion Post-hypnotic suggestion Age regression in therapy Neuro-linguistic programming Hypnotherapy in the UK
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Nicholas P. Spanos (1942–June 6, 1994), PhD, was Professor of Psychology and Director of the Laboratory for Experimental Hypnosis at Carleton University from 1975 to his death in a single engine plane crash in 1994.^[1]

Biography

He was an American by birth and received his B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Boston University. He practiced at Medfield State Hospital and with Boston Psychological Associates before joining the Department of Psychology at Carleton in 1975. He wrote 183 journal articles and 19 chapters for textbooks during his career there. He also wrote for Skeptical Inquirer.^[1]

Hypnosis

Nonstate position

Nicholas (Nick) Spanos hypothesized that the behaviors and experiences associated with hypnosis are acted out in accordance with the social context and expectations of the hypnotist and the setting by the person undergoing hypnosis even though they may be sometimes experienced as involuntary. He argued persistently and demonstrated in over 250 experimental studies that hypnotic acts are strongly influenced by the definition of the contexts in which they occur as well as by the cognitive interpretation of the person hypnotized. Spanos argued against Hilgard’s (and others') belief that hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness or a "special" or dissociated state of consciousness. Spanos worked for almost thirty years on this theory, first at the Medfield Foundation with Theodore X. Barber, John Chaves and others, and later at Carleton University in Canada.^[1] He argued that many of the actions performed under hypnosis can be simply explained by reference to social psychological and cognitive hypotheses (Spanos, 1996).

Spanos alleged that there are two reasons why people misconstrue their state of consciousness as hypnosis. One being that people believe their behavior is caused by an external source instead of the self. The second is related to the way hypnotic rituals are performed. The hypnotist says certain things which are first interpreted as voluntary and then later on in the procedure as involuntary. An example being “relax the muscles in your legs” and then later “your legs feel limp and heavy.”

Spanos argued that the hypnotist asks each person two connected requests. The first directly asking the subject to do something and the second being for the subject to infer the request as an involuntary one. Some hypnosis participants follow the first request and realize they are performing the task voluntarily while others do not respond at all. Still others follow both requests and therefore deemed great hypnosis subjects.

Using another study, Spanos demonstrates that how people control their hypnotic experience by acting how they believe they are supposed to act during a hypnosis session. The study was performed on two groups of people. One group was given a lecture which included a segment on how arm rigidity was spontaneous during hypnosis and the second group did not. When both groups underwent hypnosis the group who was informed of the arm rigidity demonstrated arm rigidity during the session. A second study used by Spanos involved evaluating the analgesia effect in hypnotic and non-hypnotic individuals. The study performed the experiment on two groups of people and the only difference between the groups is that one group was told they were going to be hypnotized. Each participant was asked to put his or her hand in a bucket of ice and hold it there as long as possible. After removing their arm they were asked to rate their perceived pain. Without hypnosis, those individuals who were expecting hypnosis had a much higher pain rating than those who were not expecting. All participants were 'hypnotized' and then were asked to put their arm in the bucket of ice once more. The people who were not expecting hypnosis had about the same rating of perceived pain as their corresponding non-hypnotic trial. The expecting participants had a much lower rating then their corresponding non-hypnotic trial. Spanos claimed that this was due to the subjects wanting to be viewed as a great hypnotic subject. Spanos’ findings were to contribute to the view that the hypnotic state did not exist at all, and that the behaviors exhibited by those individuals are in fact due to their being “highly motivated”.

Selected Bibliography

• Spanos, N. P. (1996). Multiple Identities & False Memories: A Sociocognitive Perspective. Washington: American Psychological Association.

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Baker, Robert A. (Fall 1994), "In Memoriam: Nick Spanos", Skeptical Inquirer 18 (5): 459 

Hock R. R. (2005). Forty studies that changed psychology: explorations into history of psychological research. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.

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Name	Spanos, Nicholas
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Date of birth	1942
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Date of death	1994
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