Kekecs Zoltan

Eötvös Loránd University · Department of Affective Psychology

Expectancy theory of hypnosis posits that almost any procedure can serve as a hypnotic induction provided it is labelled as “hypnosis”. The present study explored this hypothesis by contrasting the effects of two conventional and two unconventional (sham) hypnotic inductions on subjective hypnotic experiences and electrophysiological correlates. In...

There is an abundance of outcomes research for clinical hypnosis showing promising results. Nonetheless, hypnosis is still underutilized in clinical care. For a behavioral intervention to enter mainstream clinical care, efficacy needs to be demonstrated with exceptionally high quality of evidence, and its reporting needs to be complete and sufficie...

David Wark's latest iteration of alert hypnosis, the "49word protocol," reduces performance anxiety. Several case studies have demonstrated improvements in the behavioral responses of subjects using this technique. This case series focuses on the more immediate emotional impact, such as the reported reduction in anxiety, on subjects who have benefi...

Practitioners and theorists of psychology, from cognitive psychologists to clinical psychologists, regularly work with beliefs without often being aware of this fact. This paper explores the profound influence of beliefs on various psychological phenomena, emphasizing their pivotal role in shaping thinking, perception and behavior. The authors high...

Hypnosis is a psychological intervention that is commonly used to enhance the effectiveness of therapeutic suggestions. Despite extensive fascination and study, the neural mechanisms behind hypnosis remain elusive. In the current study, we undertook a systematic exploration of these neural correlates. We first extracted well-studied neurophysiologi...

Do people in different societies experience morality differently in everyday life? Using experience sampling methods, we investigate everyday moral experiences in a sample from 20 countries across 6 continents, thereby replicating and extending a large-scale study originally conducted in the United States and Canada. We aim to replicate key finding...

The effectiveness of hypnosis-based pain management is well established. However, mechanisms of action and specific effective components are not well understood. The socio-cognitive theory of hypnosis proposes that the effectiveness of hypnosis for pain management is determined by the non-specific features of response expectancy and context. We tes...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rsos.191375.][This corrects the article DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2022.2500.].

Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of objects mentioned in sentences. Mental representation is often measured with the sentence-picture verification task, wherein participants first read a sentence that implies the object property (i.e., shape and orientation). Partic...

An online survey of 691 clinicians who use hypnosis was conducted in 31 countries to gain a broad real-world picture of current practices, views, and experiences in clinical hypnosis. Among 36 common clinical uses, stress reduction, wellbeing and self-esteem-enhancement, surgery preparations, anxiety interventions, mindfulness facilitation, and lab...

The low reproducibility rate in social sciences has produced hesitation among researchers in accepting published findings at their face value. Despite the advent of initiatives to increase transparency in research reporting, the field is still lacking tools to verify the credibility of research reports. In the present paper, we describe methodologi...

Hypnosis has a unique position in Hungary. It is widely used in clinical settings; internationally acclaimed researchers from Hungarian universities contributed to our collective knowledge, with paradigm shifts such as active-alert hypnosis and interactional approach among others. At the same time, hypnosis is still viewed as an occult phenomenon,...

This study explored the influence of suggestions on differences in electrodermal laterality of the skin conductance orienting response (SCR). Thirty-two participants were randomly assigned to either permitting or excluding suggestions. During the dream task in the permitting condition the suggestion was: "You are aware of your surroundings and any...

The study of moral judgements often centres on moral dilemmas in which options consistent with deontological perspectives (that is, emphasizing rules, individual rights and duties) are in conflict with options consistent with utilitarian judgements (that is, following the greater good based on consequences). Greene et al. (2009) showed that psychol...

Research on the efficacy of hypnosis applications continues to grow, but there remain major gaps between the science and clinical practice. One challenge has been a lack of consensus on which applications of hypnosis are efficacious based on research evidence. In 2018, 6 major hypnosis organizations collaborated to form the Task Force for Establish...

Open scholarship has transformed research, and introduced a host of new terms in the lexicon of researchers. The ‘Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Teaching’ (FORRT) community presents a crowdsourced glossary of open scholarship terms to facilitate education and effective communication between experts and newcomers.

Sleep disturbances are a pervasive problem among postmenopausal women, with an estimated 40 to 64% reporting poor sleep. Hypnosis is a promising intervention for sleep disturbances. This study examined optimal dose and delivery for a manualized hypnosis intervention to improve sleep. Ninety postmenopausal women with poor sleep were randomized to 1...

Most real-world applications of hypnosis involve a pair of actors: a hypnotist and a subject. Accordingly, most current models of hypnosis acknowledge the relevance of social factors in the development of the hypnotic response. Yet, psychophysiological research on hypnosis has been mostly restricted to techniques that are studying one individual, n...

While several theories assume that responses to hypnotic suggestions can be implemented without executive intentions, the metacognitive class of theories postulate that the behaviors produced by hypnotic suggestions are intended and the accompanying feeling of involuntariness is only a consequence of strategically not being aware of the intention....

The research on the efficacy of hypnosis applications continues to grow, yet there is frequently a chasm between scientific knowledge and clinical practice. One challenge has been a lack of a unified standard for efficacy research in hypnosis. In 2018, six major hypnosis organizations collaborated to form a Task Force for Establishing Efficacy Stan...

This project aimed to assess the consistency of hypnotizability over repeated assessments when measured by the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C (SHSS:C), and the Elkins Hypnotizability Scale (EHS) and to contrast score distribution and pleasantness of these scales. University students were administered either the SHSS:C or the EHS twi...

In this tutorial, we descibe an expert consensus procedure for scientific projects. Following such a procedure can achieve two main aims: (1) to decrease the chance that the product will be subject to conceptual or methodological mistakes, and (2) to increase the chance that the product of the project would be acceptable by the stakeholders on the...

Advances in mobile and wireless technology have expanded the scope of electrodermal research. Since traditional electrodermal measurement sites are not always suitable for laboratory research and are rarely appropriate for ambulatory measurements, there is a need to explore and contrast alternate measurement locations. We evaluated bilateral electr...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

We present a consensus-based checklist to improve and document the transparency of research reports in social and behavioural research. An accompanying online application allows users to complete the form and generate a report that they can submit with their manuscript or post to a public repository.

This project aimed to assess the consistency of hypnotizability over time when measured by theStanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale: Form C (SHSS:C) and the Elkins Hypnotizability Scale(EHS), and to contrast score distribution and pleasantness of these scales. University studentswere either administered the SHSS:C or the EHS twice with one week de...

The low reproducibility rate in social sciences lead researchers to hesitate to accept published findings at their face value. It became apparent that the field is lacking the tools necessary both to demonstrate and to verify credibility of research reports. In the present paper, we describe tools and methodologies that let researchers craft highly...

Much research on moral judgment is centered on moral dilemmas in which deontological perspectives (i.e., emphasizing rules, individual rights and duties) are in conflict with utilitarian judgements (i.e., following the greater good defined through consequences). A central finding of this field Greene et al. showed that psychological and situational...

We describe the data management bylaws for the Psychological Science Accelerator (PSA), a distributed network of laboratories dedicated to completing large-scale collaborative behavioral science projects. Our bylaws are organized around the principles of ethical data use, security, accuracy, usability, transparency. We describe how these embodied t...

Purpose/Objective • Behavioral interventions hold enormous promise for managing a variety of motor and nonmotor symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). Despite this, prior studies have suggested that the utilization of these interventions is relatively low. The current study seeks to understand factors that could relate to the utilization of PD behav...

Introduction and aim: Hip and knee replacement surgery is very demanding for patients. Medication consumption is further increased by perioperative anxiety. Besides pain killer and anxiolytic medications, patients’ recovery can be enhanced by applying therapeutic suggestions, which are easily applicable during the patient–physician communication. M...

Mental simulation theories of language comprehension propose that people automatically create mental representations of real objects. Evidence from sentence-picture verification tasks has shown that people mentally represent various visual properties such as shape, color, and size. However, the evidence for mental simulations of object orientation...

Concerns about the veracity of psychological research have been growing. Many findings in psychological science are based on studies with insufficient statistical power and nonrepresentative samples, or may otherwise be limited to specific, ungeneralizable settings or populations. Crowdsourced research, a type of large-scale collaboration in which...

Children with medulloblastoma (MB) are predisposed for negative cognitive sequela, which has been widely identified in this population. The purpose of the present study was to explore cognitive deficits and psychopathological symptoms and analyse their relation among MB survivors. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and the Mini Internatio...

Shifts in hemispheric dominance were previously proposed to play a role in hypnosis. Participants (N = 32) were exposed to an active–alert hypnosis induction and a music-control condition while electrodermal activity was registered bilaterally, providing information on alterations in hemispheric dominance. The results suggest that highly hypnotizab...

The systematic review and meta-analysis will investigate the short-term effects of commercial video games on autonomic, hormonal, and subjective emotional responses. http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?ID=CRD42018094102

For this exploratory study, I reached out to all 302 individuals that were listed as PhD students at the psychology departments of all Swedish and Dutch “Top 100” universities. The final 111 participants (37.9% response rate) were asked to indicate how often they encountered questionable research practices (QRPs) and replied to items asking about t...

Perspective: In this meta-analysis of RCTs in orthopedic surgeries, significant benefits in postoperative pain, perioperative anxiety and recovery were found, suggesting that psychosocial interventions, especially patient education and relaxation techniques, are useful in improving the clinical care.

Célkitűzés:A gyermekkori medulloblasztóma (MB) túlélői a késői neurokognitív deficitek tekintetében különösen veszélyeztetettek. Vizsgálatunk célja, hogy feltárjuk ezeket a kognitív deficiteket és azonosítsuk a rizikótényezőket egy homogén betegcsoportban. Módszer: Mintánkat 34 fő, MB diagnózissal kezelt gyermek alkotta. Az intelligenciaprofiljuk f...

Concerns have been growing about the veracity of psychological findings. Many findings in psychological science are based on studies with insufficient statistical power and non-representative samples, or may otherwise be limited to specific, ungeneralizable settings or populations. Large-scale collaboration, in which one or more research projects a...

The authors investigated the feasibility and possible effects of hypnotic suggestion and music for chronic pain. Ten people completed the 2-week intervention that consisted of daily listening to hypnotic suggestions combined with music. Averaged subjective pain intensity, pain bothersomeness, overall distress, anxiety, and depression decreased from...

A new control condition called Wiki is introduced. Key themes of each test suggestion of the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C, were matched by a corresponding extract from Wikipedia.org. The authors compared phenomenological reports of participants across 4 conditions: hypnosis split into high and low hypnotizable subgroups, music, an...

Elméleti háttér Az 1980-as évektől kutatják az „anyai környezet” magzati fejlődésre gyakorolt hatását, ám az eredmények nem konzekvensek az anya–magzat kapcsolatot befolyásoló tényezőket illetően. Cél Magyar mintán kialakítani egy anya–magzat kapcsolatot mérő kérdőívet, valamint feltárni az intrauterin kötődésben meghatározó szerepet játszó jelleg...

The present study explored presence of meaning in life, search for meaning in life, and their correlation with health anxiety. The Meaning in Life Questionnaire and the Short Health Anxiety Inventory were completed by 753 individuals. Results indicated higher presence of meaning in life was associated with lower health anxiety, while the opposite w...

Suggestions can be used without formal hypnosis, especially with critically ill patients, due to their spontaneous trance state. In this paper we outline data on the effectiveness of therapeutic suggestions. We interpret the possible mechanism of therapeutic suggestions in the context of stress cognition. Basic principles of formulating suggestions...

Burn injuries create severe pain and psychological distress that are highly variable between patients. Distinct types of pain during various stages of injury and recovery make treatment complex. Standard pharmacological treatment of pain can have adverse effects and is not effective in treating anxiety and other psychological issues. Researchers ha...

Measuring hypnotizability is an integral part of hypnosis research and is also relevant for predicting effectiveness of hypnosis-based therapies. The Elkins Hypnotizability Scale (EHS) was designed to meet the needs of modern hypnosis research and clinical practice. Reliability, validity, and normative data were explored by subjecting 230 participa...

Objective: To explore the factor structure of the Maternal-Fetal Attachment Scale (MFAS) and to investigate its psychosocial and demographic correlates in a Hungarian sample. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: A sonography clinic in a metropolitan area. Participants: One hundred fourteen primiparous and multiparous women over the age o...

Absztrakt Bevezetes: Az ultrahangvizsgalatok kommunikacios hatekonysagat vizsgalo kutatasok arra hivjak fel a figyelmet, hogy a szorongasoldason tul alkalmasak az anya es magzata kozotti kotődes megerősitesere. Celkitűzes: A szerzők celja az intrauterin kotődes meresere hasznalt leggyakoribb eszkoz, a Maternal–Fetal Attachment Scale magyar nyelvű a...

Aims: Pain and anxiety are commonly reported among those undergoing orthopaedic surgery. Improvement in anxiety and pain control might be achieved by supplementing standard care with psychological interventions. However, the effectiveness of adjunctive psychosocial interventions in anxiety and pain control have not been addressed sufficiently by p...

Health related quality of life (HRQoL) is negatively impacted in patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease (PD). For the specific components that comprise HRQoL, the relationship between clinical variables, such as disease duration, is not fully characterized. In this cross-sectional study (n = 302), self-reported HRQoL on the Parkinson’s Disease...

Clinical evidence for the effectiveness of hypnosis in the treatment of acute procedural pain was critically evaluated based on reports from randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs). Results from the 29 RCTs meeting inclusion criteria suggest that hypnosis decreases pain compared to standard care and attention control groups and that it is at l...

This paper argues that studying why and when people call certain actions stupid should be the interest of psychological investigations not just because it is a frequent everyday behavior, but also because it is a robust behavioral reflection of the rationalistic expectations to which people adjust their own behavior and expect others to. The relati...

Exploring autonomic nervous system (ANS) changes during hypnosis is critical for understanding the nature and extent of the hypnotic phenomenon and for identifying the mechanisms underlying the effects of hypnosis in different medical conditions. To assess ANS changes during hypnosis, electrodermal activity and pulse rate variability (PRV) were mea...

Since the discovery of the mirror neuron system, it has been proposed that the automatic tendency to copy observed actions exists in humans and that this mechanism might be responsible for a range of social behavior. A strong argument for automatic behavior can be made when actions are executed against motivation to do otherwise. Strategic games in...

In this pilot study, the authors introduce a new system to assess hypnosis style. The Feature-Based Coding System (FBCS) comprises 24 standard individual hypnosis sessions, which were videotaped and coded according to both a previous and the new coding system. In addition, both subjects and hypnotists filled the Archaic Involvement Measure (AIM), t...

Background: Suggestive interventions such as hypnosis and therapeutic suggestions are frequently used to alleviate surgical side effects; however, the effectiveness of therapeutic suggestion intervention has not yet been systematically evaluated. In the present study, we tested the hypotheses that (1) suggestive interventions are useful for reduci...

Background: In recent decades video games were occasionally used to study the stress response, although it is not clear whether video gaming can be considered a source of distress. The present study aimed to examine whether exposure to video games yield comparable physiological response to standard stressors, such as mental arithmetic task, public...

Our study investigated the phenomenological characteristics of hypnosis from the perspective of the hypnotist and the subject. Seventeen hypnotists and 278 subjects participated in individual laboratory hypnosis sessions, following the standard protocol of Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale Form A (SHSS:A). Immediately after the session hypnoti...

Abstract Changes in oxytocin and cortisol levels were tested in healthy volunteers during hypnotic interactions in standardized laboratory sessions. Pre- to posthypnosis changes of oxytocin and cortisol were related to the hypnotic susceptibility of subjects and the relational experiences reposted by subjects and hypnotists on several paper-and-pen...

THERE IS AN EVER REOCCURRING QUESTION IN MEDICAL PRACTICE: Does the positive attitude and communication of the medical staff make any difference? Our aim is to present a comprehensive overview of the medically relevant effects of positive suggestions by reviewing the recent literature. We will review the studies measuring the effects of suggestive...

Introduction: There is an ever reoccurring question in medical practice: Does the positive attitude and communication of the medical staff make any diff erence? Aim: Our aim is to present a comprehensive overview of the medically relevant eff ects of positive suggestions by reviewing the recent literature. Methods: We will review the studies measur...

Unlabelled: There is a re-occurring question in medical practice: do positive attitude and communication of the medical staff make any difference? Aim: Our aim is to present a comprehensive image of the medically relevant effects of positive suggestions by reviewing the recent literature. Methods: We review the studies measuring the effects of...

Purpose An illness, pain, an emotionally demanding situation (e.g. an injury, being frightened) are associated with certain conditions of the psyche, in which suggestions have strong effects on people. During the operation the patient’s thoughts focus on their conditions and the challenges ahead. The fear of pain, temporary loss of usual references...