Hungarian norms for the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A.

ABSTRACT

Hungarian norms for the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHSA) are presented. The Hungarian translation of the HGSHSA was administered under standard conditions to 434 participants (190 males, 244 females) of several professions. In addition to the traditional self-scoring, hypnotic behavior was also recorded by trained observers. Female participants proved to be more hypnotizable than males and so were psychology students and professionals as compared to nonpsychologists. Hypnotizability varied across different group sizes. The normative data-including means, standard deviations, and indicators of reliability-are comparable with previously published results. The authors conclude that measuring observer-scores increases the ecological validity of the scale. The Hungarian version of the HGSHSA seems to be a reliable and valid measure of hypnotizability.