The Relation of Hypnotizability and Dissociation to Everyday Mentation: An Experience-Sampling Study

Research has found that individuals varying in hypnotizability and dissociation respond differently to questionnaires and procedures geared to affect their state of consciousness, but their stream of consciousness in everyday life has not been investigated. We evaluated the everyday mentation of students (N 46) in a 2 (High vs. Low Hypnotizability) 2 (High vs. Low Dissociative) design through experience sampling with personal digital assistants (PDAs). The PDAs prompted volunteers randomly 8 times per day during 5 days and included questions about attention, type of mental activity, and mood, among others, which resulted in 5 factors: focus/absorption, daydreaming, negative affect, control/awareness, and detachment. High control/ awareness correlated with high focus/absorption, low negative affect, and low detachment. Detachment correlated also with daydreaming. As predicted, high dissociatives reported less control but more detachment and negative affect than low dissociatives. High hypnotizables (Highs) did not report more focus/absorption than low hypnotizables (Lows) but endorsed more daydreaming and negative affect. Highs reported more thoughts than Lows, and Lows reported more sensory impressions than Highs. Hypnotizability and dissociation also interacted: Low dissociatives/Lows reported less daydreaming than the others, and high dissociatives/Lows experienced less control than the other 3 groups combined. Participants reported less control/awareness during daydreaming, with high dissociatives/Highs showing a larger decrement than the others. Most mentations referred to thoughts or sensory impressions; the former were characterized by more negative affect than the latter. In general, individuals felt more dysphoric whe