Studies on Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a state of heightened suggestibility, in which certain individuals can experience imagined situations that seem real. There is great interest in hypnosis several therapists use to treat mental illnesses with it. Some Psychology PhD programmes tend to offer courses in hypnosis. Scientists who explore whether hypnosis is a unique state of altered consciousness tend to put the claims about it through several tests.

Hypnotic Behaviour

Hypnotic Induction is the process by which a person (a researcher or a hypnotist) leads another, the subject, into a state of hypnosis. A hypnotist may request the subject to sit down and gaze at an object on the wall, or something like a pendant in his hand. He then may suggest that the subject's eyes are getting heavy. The goal of this test is to relax the subject while increasing their concentration.

Contrary to popular belief, a person can't be hypnotised against their will. Even when people want to be hypnotized, they differ in susceptibility to hypnotic suggestions. Hypnotic susceptibility scales contain a standard series of pass/fail suggestions being read to a subject after hypnotic induction. The subject's score is based on the number of passes. Some subjects tend to be completely non-responsive; some pass all while the rest fall in between.

Does hypnosis alter one's behaviour and psychological function? Some claim it does.

Involuntary Control

Hypnotised individuals subjectively experience their actions as involuntary ones; they believe they're controlled by a mysterious force rather than their conscious control.

If behaviour seems to be involuntary under hypnosis, can it be used to perform harmful acts? According to Martin Orne and Fredrick Evans, hypnotised subjects were able to be made to dip their hands briefly in a solution of foaming liquid, which as made to believe was acid, and throw on another person's face.

This might be an example of the power of hypnosis in getting people to act against their will. However, in another controlled group that Orne and Fredrick tested on, the subjects were asked to simply pretend to be hypnotised. These subjects were just as likely as the earlier group to dip their hands in the solution and throw it at another.

In another experiment, researchers induced hundreds of adults to keep giving what they believed to be hundreds of  painful electric shocks to an innocent man with a heart condition, while he begged them to stop. None of the subjects were hypnotised; they were simply following the researchers' orders. This shows that contrary to popular beliefs, hypnosis does not involve a unique power to get people to behave against their will. A legitimate authority figure can induce people to commit out of character, dangerous acts with or without being hypnotised.

Amazing Feats

Have you seen or heard of stage hypnotists who gets an audience member to perform an amazing physical feat such as the 'human plank'? The subject, usually a male, is hypnotised and lies  outstretched between two chairs. He is told that his body is rigid and then, amazingly, another person stands on his legs and chest.

Similarly, psychology can have striking effects. Consider the classic experiment which involved 13 people allergic to the toxic leaves of a certain tree. Five of the test subjects were hypnotised while being blindfolded and were told that a leaf from a harmless tree they weren't allergic to was touching one of their arms, when, in fact, it was toxic. But four of five hypnotised subjects had no allergic reaction. For the next  step, the other arm of the hypnotised subjects were rubbed with a leaf from a harmless tree and he or she was falsely informed of the leaf being toxic. All five of them reacted to the harmless leaf with an allergic reaction.

Should the human plank, as well as the unusual responses of the allergic subjects, be attributed to the unique powers of hypnosis? Here is why a healthy dose of critical thinking may be of importance.

Pain Tolerance

Scottish surgeon James Esdaile performed more than 300 major operations in the mid-1800s using  hypnosis as the sole anaesthetic. According to experiments, an increase in pain tolerance, which wasn't due to the Placebo Effect, was confirmed.

For patients who experience chronic pain, hypnosis can produce relief lasting for months, or even years. Brain imaging research has revealed that hypnosis modifies a person's neural activity in areas that process painful stimuli, but non-hypnotic techniques such as mental imagery and performing distracting cognitive tasks also alter neural functioning and reduce pain.

We do not know exactly how hypnosis produces painkilling effects. It may influence the release of endorphins, decrease a patient's fear of pain, distract patients of their pain, or somehow help them in separating the pain from the conscious experience.

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Sleepwalking and Consciousness

What is sleepwalking, and how can people do things that are impossible to do while being asleep? Some people sleepwalk to their kitchen to eat food and go back to sleep with no recollection of it in the morning.

Sleepwalking and Crime

There was a case where a man had driven to his mother-in-law's house and killed her and her husband. While driving back home, he had woken up in the car with a bloody knife. Realizing that something had badly gone wrong, he handed himself to the police with the knife, but with no recollection of what had happened—or maybe he did and used sleepwalking as a defence. He was acquitted of murder.

In another case, a man killed a prostitute and set fire to a brothel. Later, he was acquitted on grounds of sleepwalking. Sleepwalking may be real in some cases, but it’s the perfect defence for murder. There were other incidences, one where a couple would sleepwalk to the kitchen and eat raw bacon. In another, a woman would consume salted sandwiches, buttered cigarettes, and large quantities of peanut butter, butter, salt, and sugar. Once, she had woken up while trying to open a bottle of cleaning agent to drink. These individuals usually have no recollection of what happened while they were asleep. The empty packages and half-eaten food, though, made it obvious that something was amiss.

According to my mother, two of my brothers used to sleepwalk when they were very young. Once, one of them had even almost walked off the balcony. If my mother hadn't woken up, he would have fallen. My son used to sit on the bed and talk in his sleep, and sometimes even try to walk out. On a few occasions, he spoke of the One Ring (from The Lord of The Rings) and even looked for it under his pillow—though he didn’t really recall anything in the morning. As I was a light sleeper since my son was born, I would always wake up for the slightest sound, preventing him from walking out.

How can a person sleepwalk to the kitchen and prepare food and eat in their sleep, and how can a person drive while they are asleep and then commit murder, too? Why don't you fall off your bed at night as you are unaware of your many postural shifts as you sleep? Maybe it's because part of you knows where the edge of the bed is. Have you ever been engulfed in thought and spaced out while driving and suddenly snapped out with no recollection of the number of miles you have driven? This means that though you were conscious, you were still focused inward, and a part of you without conscious awareness kept track of the road, controlling your hand movements at the wheel.

The Puzzle of Consciousness

According to philosopher David Charmer, consciousness "is, at once, the most familiar and most mysterious thing in the world. These mysteries range from a normal state of awakening, sleep and dreams, drug-induced experiences, and beyond.”

But what exactly is consciousness, and how does it arise in our brain? In the 1800s, when psychology was founded, it’s “great project” was to unravel some of the puzzles of consciousness. This interest waned in the mid 20th century due to the dominance of Behaviourism, but the resurgence of cognitive and biological perspectives has led us to rethink the longstanding conceptions of the mind.

In psychology, consciousness is often defined as a moment-to-moment awareness of ourselves and our environment. Among its characteristics, consciousness is subjective and private: others cannot directly know what reality is for you, nor can you directly enter into their experience.

Dynamic throughout each day, we drift in and out of various states. Moreover, through stimuli, we are aware of constant change; we typically experience consciousness as a continuously flowing stream of mental activity, rather than as disjointed perceptions and thoughts. Self-reflective and central to our sense of self, the mind is aware of its consciousness. Thus, no matter what your awareness is focused on, a lovely sunset or an itch on your back, you can reflect on the fact that you are the one conscious of it.

Finally, consciousness is intimately connected with the selective attention process. It consists of the selection of some details and the suppression of the rest due to the urgency of attention. Selective attention is the process which focuses on the awareness of some stimuli to the exclusion of others. For example, if the mind is a theatre of mental activity, the consciousness reflects what’s illuminated at the moment; such as the bright spot on the stage, and the selective attention in the spotlight, or the mechanism behind it.

States of Consciousness

Scientists studying consciousness must operationally define private inner states in terms of measurable responses. Self-report measures ask people to describe their inner experiences—they offer the most direct insight into a person's subjective experiences, but aren't always variable or possible to obtain. Most of us do not speak while we sleep; nor can we fill our self-report questionnaires. Much of what occurs within our brains is beyond conscious access. You don't consciously perceive the brain process which lulls you to sleep, awakens you, or regulates your body temperature; and, although you are aware of your thoughts, you're unaware of the brain’s process of creating them.

According to Freud's proposal a century ago, the human mind consists of three levels of awareness. The conscious mind contains thoughts and perceptions of current awareness. Preconscious mental events are outside current awareness, but can be easily recalled under certain conditions. For instance, when someone mentions a friend you haven't thought about for years, you become aware of pleasant memories.

Unconscious events cannot be brought into conscious awareness under ordinary circumstances. Freud proposed that some unconscious content, such as unacceptable sexual and aggressive urges, traumatic memories, and threatening emotional conflicts, are repressed—kept out of conscious awareness due to the possibility of it arousing anxiety, guilt, or other negative emotions.

Behaviourists criticized Freud's ideas as they sought to explain behaviour without invoking conscious mental processes, much less unconscious ones. Cognitive psychologists and many contemporary psychodynamic psychologists, too, take issue with specific aspects of Freud's theory. According to psychodynamic psychologist Drew Westen, many aspects of Freud's theory are, indeed, out of date, and should be. Freud died in 1939, and he was slow to undertake further revisions. However, research supports Freud's general premise: that unconscious processes can affect behaviour.

The Science of Psychology

Why are some people shy while others are outgoing? What sometimes causes opposites to be attracted to each other and fall in love? Why can we remember a first date which happened long ago while forgetting information necessary for a test which we studied only hours ago? Psychology studies all these and countless other scenarios and subjects alike.

Behaviour and Mind

The definition of psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and of the mind. The term behaviour refers to directly observable actions and responses, while the term mind refers to internal states and processes, such as thoughts and feelings, which cannot be seen directly and need to be inferred from observable, measurable responses.

The complexity of behaviour poses special challenges for scientific studies. As we become familiar with the kind of evidence needed to validate scientific conclusions, we become better informed about the many claims made in the name of psychology. For one thing, this teaches us that many widely-held beliefs are inaccurate, but the most important thing we learn is the habit of critical thinking.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking involves taking an active role in understanding the world around us, rather than merely receiving information. It's important to reflect upon the meaning of the information, how it fits with our experiences, and its implication on our lives and society. Critical thinking also means evaluating something present to us as fact. For example, when someone tells you a new fact, ask yourself the following questions:

Exactly what do you want me to believe?
How do you know this, and what evidence have you got?
Could there be other possible explanations?
What is the most reasonable conclusion?

This helps us understand to be cautious in accepting psychological claims, making us less likely to form simplistic judgement on the behaviours and thoughts of other people. Thus, critical thinking would help serve us in many areas of our lives.

Psychology as an Applied Science

Science involves two types of research: basic research, which requires the quest for knowledge purely for its own sake; and applied science, which is designed to solve specific problems. For psychologists, the most basic of research is centred around the reasons behind people's behaviour, thoughts, and feelings. Basic research can be carried out in laboratories or outdoors, with participants being either human or from other species.

Psychologists studying other species usually do so in an attempt to discover principles which ultimately would shed light on human behaviour, but some study animal behaviour for its own sake. In the field of applied research, psychologists often use basic scientific knowledge in order to design, implement, and assess intervention programmes.

Robbers Cave Study

How do hostility and prejudice develop between groups, and what can be done to reduce it? In the multicultural world we live in today, where clashes erupt between various religious and ethnic groups, there is great importance in this question.

In order to provide an answer, psychologists have conducted research on factors which increase and reduce inter-group hostility. In one experiment, 11-year-old boys were divided into two groups upon arrival at a summer camp in Robbers Cave, Oklahoma. The groups were named the Eagles and the Rattlers and were put in separate cabins, but took part in all the other activities together. Initially, both teams got along well.

In order to test the hypothesis that competition could breed inter-group hostility, the researchers began to pit the two teams against each other in athletic and other contests. As predicted, hostility soon grew between the two groups. Next, the researchers examined if the conflict could be reduced between the teams by having them share enjoyable activities such as watching movies together, but surprisingly, it caused more taunting and fighting among them.

The researchers then created several small emergencies to test a final hypothesis, placing the hostile groups in situations that required cooperation between one another in order to attain common goals, hoping it would reduce their hostility towards each other. In one emergency, the truck transporting food for the hungry boys supposedly stalled, forcing the two groups to pool their strength and tow it with a rope to get it started. This, as well as other cooperative experiences, gradually reduced the hostility among the boys, causing the development of many new friendships.

Since then, the Robbers Cave Study has become a classic, which is an older but widely-known influential study. It represents basic research as its goal was to discover the general principles of inter-group conflicts and not to solve an existing problem. The prejudice between the two groups did not exist from the outset; rather, it was created by the researchers, which showed that hostility could be bred by competition and reduced by making them dependent on each other to reach a common goal.

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Personality and Crime

On the surface, Charles Whitman seemed as solid and as the University of Texas tower from which he rained death on unsuspecting strangers. He was the son of a wealthy family in Florida. Whitman was an outstanding student, an accomplished pianist, one of the youngest eagle scouts in state history, and a former US marine who was awarded the Medal of Good Conduct, as well as the Marine Corps expeditionary medal. He wedded the woman of his dreams, and the couple was even seen as an ideal couple. Whitman became a student of the University of Texas when he was selected for an engineering scholarship by the marines. In his spare time, he served as a scoutmaster in Austin.

So, what caused such a seemingly exemplary person to commit such horrific acts of violence? On December 18, 2001, the Austin History Centre opened its records on Charles Whitman to public scrutiny. The records provide important insight into the complexities of Whitman's personality and the turmoil which existed within him. Although the Whitman incident had happened decades ago, it has a sad reminiscence to more recent acts of violence in schools, workplaces, and communities across the United States.

Whitman's Confession Letter

On a summer evening in 1966, Whitman wrote the following letter:

I don't understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average, reasonable, and intelligent young man. However, since of late (I am unable to recall the specific day it all started), I have become the victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts. These thoughts tend to recur constantly, and it requires a tremendous mental effort to concentrate on useful and progressive tasks.

In March, when my parents made a physical break, I noticed a great deal of stress. I consulted a doctor, Cochrum, at the university health centre and requested him to recommend someone that I could consult with about some psychiatric disorders that I felt I had. Once I talked with a doctor for about two hours as I tried to convey my fears that I have been feeling overcome by overwhelming violent impulses. After the first session, I never saw that doctor again. And since then, I have been fighting my mental turmoil by myself, and it seems to be to no avail. I wish an autopsy to be done on me when I am dead to find out if there is any visible physical disorder in me. I have had some tremendous headaches in the past and I have consumed two large bottles of Excedrin (Painkiller for migraine headaches) in the past three months.

Later that night, Whitman murdered his wife and mother, both who was loving and supportive of him. The next morning, he carried a high-powered hunting rifle to the top of a 307-foot tower on the busy University of Texas campus in Austin and opened fire on the persons passing below. Within 90 horrifying minutes, he murdered 16 people and wounded 30 others before he was killed by the police.

What is Personality

The concept of personality derives from the fascinating spectrum of human individuality. According to observations, people differ meaningfully according to the ways they customarily think, feel, and act. These distinctive behaviour patterns help in defining one's identity as an individual. According to the noting of one theoretical group, each of us is, in some respects, like all other people, like some others, and like no other person who lived in the past or will exist in the future.

The concept of personality also rests on the observation that any given person seems to behave somewhat consistently over time, and across different situations. From this perceived consistency comes the notion of personality traits that characterizes an individual's customary ways of responding to his or her world. Although only a modest consistency is found from childhood personality to adult personality, consistency becomes greater as we enter adulthood. Nonetheless, even in adulthood, a capacity for meaningful personality change remains.

With the combination of these notions of individuality and consistency, we can define personality as the distinctive and relatively enduring ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that characterize a person's response to life situations.

The thoughts, feelings, and actions that are seen as reflecting an individual's personality typically have three characteristics. First, they are seen as behavioural components of identity that distinguish that person from others; second, the behaviours are viewed as being caused primarily internal rather than environmental factors; and third, the person's behaviour seems to have organization and structure—they seem to fit together in a meaningful fashion, suggesting an inner personality that guides and directs behaviour.

Studies on personality have been guided by psychodynamic, humanistic, biological, behavioural, cognitive, and sociocultural perspectives. These perspectives provide different conceptions of what a personality is and how it functions. Yet this diversity of viewpoints arises from the fact that theorists have their own personalities, which influence their perception and understanding of themselves and the world.

Dementia & Alzheimer's Disease

Dementia is a reference to impaired memory and other cognitive deficits that accompany brain degeneration, as well as interference with normal functioning. There are more than a dozen types and causes of dementia.

Dementia is more prevalent among the elderly. However, it can occur at any point in life. In dementia, cognitive abilities are gradually lost, accompanied by brain degeneration. In people with dementia, there is an occurrence of abnormal progressive degeneration of brain tissue as a result of disease or injury.

Dementia is most common in late adulthood. The term Senile Dementia refers to dementia that begins after the age of 65. Alzheimer's Disease is the most common cause of senile dementia, but Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington Disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease are other common causes. Complications from high blood pressure and strokes may also cause it.

Scientific Studies

A large Canadian study has found an overall rate of senile dementia of around 8 percent, as well as a female-to-male ratio of about 2:1. Whereas 2 percent of 65- to 74-year-olds are estimated to have dementia, there is an increase in rate to 11 for 75- to 84-year-olds, as well as 34 percent for people who are 85 and above.

Impaired memory, in particular, for very recent events, is typically one of the first symptoms of dementia. Poor judgement, language problems and disorientation may appear gradually or sporadically, and people who develop dementia typically have distress episodes due to confusion. Their behaviour may become uninhibited, they may lose the ability to perform familiar tasks, and they may experience a significant physical decline in addition to cognitive impairments.

Comparing with adults aged 65 and older, those who are more frequently engaged in activities that stimulate cognitive functioning show a lower risk of subsequently developing Alzheimer's disease; but whether this truly reflects a causal relationship remains to be seen. However, one thing is certain: as people live longer lives, the need to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of senile dementia becomes a matter of urgency. Until then, many of us can expect our family members to become Alzheimer’s patients.

Caregiving

Being a caregiver for a spouse or elderly parent with dementia can, unfortunately, be a stressful and psychologically painful experience. Over half of the patients diagnosed with senile dementia show a combination of depression, anxiety, agitation, paranoid reactions, as well as disordered thinking, which may resemble schizophrenia. Ultimately, it could result in the inability to walk, talk, or recognise family members or close friends.

In-depth studies done in Finland, the United States, and Germany, have found that among adults above the age of 65 not suffering from dementia, 20 to 25 percent do have mild cognitive impairment. Combining cases of mild impairment and dementia, some experts have estimated that 79 percent of 65- to 74-year-olds; and 45 percent of people aged 85 and older, remain cognitively normal.

Though these are not pleasant statistics, they make it clear that even well into old age, cognitive impairment isn’t inevitable; and that even with the decrease of some mental abilities with age, more knowledge and wisdom could still be accumulated.        

Alzheimer's Disease (AD)

Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain disorder which is the most common cause of dementia among adults over the age of 65, according to around 50 to 60 percent of such cases. An overall of 2 to 4 percent of the elderly is estimated to have AD.

The early symptoms AD, which worsen gradually over a period of years, include forgetfulness, poor judgement, confusion, and disorientation. Often, memory of recent events and new information is especially impaired. Forgetfulness by itself is not necessarily a sign of a person developing AD; however, memory happens to be the first psychological function that is affected, as AD initially attacks the subcortical temporal lobe regions—areas near the hippocampus, as well as the hippocampus itself—that help in the conversion of short-term memory into long-term memory.

Alzheimer's disease spreads across a person’s temporal lobes and then to the frontal lobes, as well as to other cortical regions. According to a German physician Alois Alzheimer, who first noticed the disease a century ago, patients afflicted with this disease have an abnormal amount of plaques and tangles in their brains. Plaques happen to be clumps of protein fragments which happen to build up on the outside of the neurons, whereas tangles are fibres that get twisted and wound up together within the neurons.

Neurotransmitter Systems

Neurons tend to become damaged and die, brain tissues shrink, and communication between the neurons is impaired as AD disrupts several neurotransmitter systems, especially the acetylcholine system. Acetylcholine plays a key role in synaptic transmission in several brain areas involved in memory, and drugs that help maintain acetylcholine functioning have had some temporary success in improving cognitive functioning in AD patients.

As AD progresses, working memory and long-term memory worsen. For example, if you read a list of just three words to a healthy 80-year-old and test his recall after a brief time delay, they tend to typically remember at least 2 words if not all three. On the other hand, a patient with AD will recall 1 or none.

Anterograde and retrograde amnesia become more severe and procedural, semantic, episodic, and prospective memory can all be affected. Patients may lose the ability to learn new tasks or remembering new information or experiences, as well as forget how to perform familiar tasks and have trouble recognising even close family members.

Genetic Causes

What causes AD and its characteristic plaques and tangles? According to scientific identification, several genes contribute to early-onset AD; an inherited form of the disease which develops before the age of 65 and as early as 30, but only accounts to about 5 to 10 percent of AD cases.

However, the precise cause of the more typical, late-onset AD remains elusive; but researchers have identified one genetic risk factor. This gene helps direct the production of proteins which carry cholesterol in the blood plasma, and high cholesterol and other risk factors for cardiovascular disease may likewise increase the risk of developing AD. A recent study found that even healthy elderly adults who carried this particular gene, as compared to peers that did not, performed more poorly on prospective memory tasks.

If you know anyone with AD, you are aware that it involves much more than memory loss. These patients experience language issues, disorganised thinking, and changes in mood as well as personality. Ultimately, they may lose the ability to speak and walk, and may also lose control over bladder and bowel functioning.