When guided visualization procedures may backfire: Imagination inflation and predicting individual differences in suggestibility

Recent research in cognitive science has demonstrated that when people vivi dly imagine or visualize personal childhood events, their subjective confid ence increases in the probability that these visualized incidents actually occurred. This study seeks not only to replicate what has been called the i magination inflation effect in a sample of undergraduates and middle-aged f actory workers but also to identify individual difference variables that co uld predict susceptibility to suggestibility. Drawing from Rotter's (1982) social learning theory and Benjamin's (1974) structural analysis of social behaviour (SASB) model for interpersonal behaviour, the two experiments rep orted test the extent to which locus of control for reinforcement, dissocia bility, and a hostile/self-controlling introject (self-concept) could predi ct the imagination inflation effect. Results indicate that: imagination inf lation is a robust and replicable phenomenon with young adults, but did not occur in a non-college population; with undergraduates, both external locu s of control and dissociability correlate in a positive, significant, and p redicted way with suggestibility; introject variables correlate significant ly with imagination inflation, but not in the predicted manner. Findings ar e discussed in terms of helping psychologists better understand potential i atrogenic processes in psychotherapy. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.