Beliefs and attitudes of psychology students towards hypnosis

Cilj ovog istraživanja bio je ispitati kakve opće stavove i uvjerenja o hipnozi imaju studenti psihologije na Filozofskom fakultetu Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, kao i moguće utjecaje na te stavove, te ispitati uvjerenja o kliničkim primjenama hipnoze za različite zdravstvene probleme. U istraživanju su sudjelovala 163 ispitanika, a podaci su prikupljeni online upitnikom. Sudionici su ispunjavali Skalu stavova i vjerovanja o hipnozi (modificirana VSABTH-C skala), Upitnik o kliničkoj upotrebi hipnoze, Upitnik alternativnih zdravstvenih navika, Big Five Inventory upitnik osobina ličnosti, Upitnik zainteresiranosti i iskustva s hipnozom te kratki upitnik demografskih podataka. Rezultati pokazuju kako studenti na višoj godini studija gube interes za hipnozu i edukaciju iz hipnoterapije, dok svoje znanje o hipnozi procjenjuju višim. S višom godinom studija također se smanjuje strah prema hipnozi i vjerovanje u korisnost hipnoze za pomoć ljudima. Što se tiče upotrebe hipnoze u kliničke svrhe, rezultati pokazuju da se vjerovanje o broju poremećaja koje je moguće tretirati hipnozom ne mijenja s godinom studija. Hijerarhijskom regresijskom analizom objašnjeno je 31.1% varijance za faktor pomoć i 17.5% varijance za faktor strah – rezultati pokazuju da su sa vjerovanjem u korisnost hipnoze za pomoć ljudima najviše povezani interes za hipnozu i edukaciju iz hipnoterapije, te manjim dijelom osobina ličnosti otvorenost prema iskustvu. Što se tiče osjećaja straha od hipnoze, taj faktor je najvećim dijelom povezan sa godinom studija i osobinom ličnosti neuroticizam.The aim of this study was to examine beliefs and attitudes of psychology students at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University in Zagreb about hypnosis, as well as possible influences on those beliefs and to examine the beliefs about clinical applications of hypnosis for various health problems. The study involved 163 participants and the data were collected through an online questionnaire. Participants completed the Beliefs and attitudes about hypnosis scale (a modified version of the VSABTH-C scale), Alternative health practices questionnaire, Big Five Inventory personality questionnaire, Interest and experiences with hypnosis questionnaire and a short demographics questionnaire. The results show that students at a higher year of study lose their interest in hypnosis and hypnotherapy education, whilst evaluating their knowlege of hypnosis higher. With higher years of study, the fear towards hypnosis and the belief that hypnosis is useful for helping people are also reduced. As for the use of hypnosis for clinical purposes, the results show that the belief in the number of disorders that can be treated with hypnosis does not change over the years of studying. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed 31.1% of the variance for the factor help and 17.5% for the factor fear – showing that the belief that hypnosis is a useful tool for helping others is mostly correlated with interests in hypnosis and education in hypnotherapy, and in a minor way with the personality trait openness to experience. As for feelings of fear towards hypnosis, this factor is largely correlated with the year of study and the personality trait neuroticism