Promoting Positive Mentation through Online Self-Help Hypnosis

摘要

Objectives: This study was to investigate whether an online self-help hypnosis intervention was a suitable vehicle to convey a positive psychology intervention exerting beneficial influence over one's well-being, hopefulness, and self-efficacy. It was expected that the modified online positive psychology self-help hypnosis would be useful in a Chinese milieu.;Method: An online double-blind pretest-posttest experimental study was conducted. Participants, including 58 adult Chinese (33 women), were divided into three groups (Positive Psychology Hypnosis, Hypnosis alone, and Narrative Writing). The experimental procedures were completely automated and conducted via the internet. Upon entering the experimental platform, participants in Hypnosis group and Positive Psychology Hypnosis group were exposed to the voice recording of an induction procedure by an experienced therapist. Afterwards, the Positive Psychology Hypnosis group were further exposed to a voice recording consisted of suggestions about an element in positive psychology. The subjects in the Narrative Writing group had not gone through the hypnosis but only wrote essays about themselves and their friends. Dependent variables were the Chinese version of Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Expanded, Dispositional Hope, and General Self-Efficacy Scale.;Results: A significant interaction was obtained for the three groups in the pre- and posttest measures on the Positive Affect (PA) Scale (p = .018, partial eta squared = .14). It was shown that participants in the Positive Psychology Hypnosis group ( p = .001, partial eta squared = .48) improved more than subjects in other groups and which confirmed the main hypothesis of this study. However, no significant interaction was noted for the two-way ANOVA (Groups by pre- and posttests) on the Negative Affect (NA) Scale. Similarly, no significant interaction was obtained in the pre- and posttest measures for the three groups on the pathway subscale of the Dispositional Hope Measure. However, all three groups improved over time. Interestingly, analyses of three post-tests on Hope Scale showed that participants in the Positive Psychology Hypnosis group had significantly higher scores in pathway subscale than those in Narrative Writing (p = .026).;Conclusions: Online Positive Psychology Hypnosis appeared to be beneficial for Chinese participants. This is particularly important in a milieu where negative stigma associated with mental illness is prominent.