A NORMATIVE STUDY OF SUGGESTIBILITY IN A MENTAL PATIENT POPULATION.

Abstract The postural sway technique was used to make suggestibility measurements on a total of 490 Ss of which 279 were hospitalized psychiatric patients. The remaining Ss were “normal” college students. The “normal” Ss were significantly more suggestible than the psychiatric group. Within the psychiatric group, the psychotics, nonpsychotics, and organics differed significantly, with the nonpsychotics being least suggestible, the psychotics most suggestible, and the organics intermediate. The hospital group was further reduced into diagnostic subcategories and postural sway parameters were shown. The sample distributions were essentially normal although the sample drawn from a psychiatric population showed positive skewness.