Document Type
Thesis
First Faculty Advisor
Dr. Joseph Trunzo
Second Faculty Advisor
Dr. Heather Pond Lacey
Keywords
suggestibility; achievement motivation; body consciousness; placebo effect
Publisher
Bryant University
Rights Management
CC-BY
Abstract
The present study aims to discover relationships between suggestibility and two predictor variables identified as achievement motivation, and body consciousness. The significance of this study is immense in placebo research due to the studied relationship of suggestibility as a predictor for placebo susceptibility. Relationships between both predictor variables and placebo susceptibility have also been established through research, but there remains a gap in the connection between these variables and suggestibility. The present study administered a survey to participants (N=103), using the Shortened Suggestibility Scale (SSS), Body Consciousness Questionnaire (BCQ), and the Achievement Motives Scale (AMS-R) as the measure of suggestibility, body consciousness, and achievement motivation respectively. It is hypothesized that motivation as measured by AMS-R will have a positive correlation with suggestibility. It is similarly hypothesized that greater Private Body Consciousness (as opposed to Public Body Consciousness) will have a positive correlation with suggestibility. It is finally hypothesized that increased body competence will have a positive correlation with suggestibility. The identified predictors were found to account for 45.7% of variability in secondary suggestibility within the collected sample, F(4, 103)=20.652, p<0.001, R2=.457. The data necessary for this study was collected through self-report measures administered through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), and analysis was conducted using SPSS software.
Comments
The present study was conducted as an Honors Thesis at Bryant University with the intention of publication and use in future research. No previous publication is on record.