State and trait depression, physical and social anhedonia, hypnotizabilityand subjective experiences during hypnosis

This study (n = 465) examined if (a) hypnotic susceptibility (assessed by t he Harvard Group Scale, Form A) was related to state and trait depression, and physical and social anhedonia, and (b) phenomenological experiences (as sessed by the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory [PCI]) varied with d epression, anhedonia, and hypnotizability during hypnosis, compared with a sitting quietly condition. Only physical anhedonia showed a weak, but signi ficant, negative correlation with hypnotizability. Hypnosis, compared with the sitting quietly condition, facilitated lowering of feelings of sadness especially for the chronically depressed Other results pertaining to phenom enological experiences suggest that in future studies, instead of only corr elating individual difference variables with hypnotizability, it may be mor e fruitful to explore their relationships with what happens during hypnosis in terms of reported phenomenological experiences.