Describe and evaluate the claim that hypnosis is an altered state of awareness.

Hypnosis is a hotly debated state of awareness in that as the question indicates state theorists hold that it involves an altered state of awareness while other non-state theorists claim it is simply an act of social compliance where the hypnotised simply act out a role. Nevertheless as we shall see research has led to an understanding of various aspects of the phenomenon of hypnosis but it has failed to resolve this debate. Research using …

…unlikely that such people - especially children - are simply complying with the hypnotist's suggestion that they will feel no pain and then simply act as if they do not. Furthermore, simply acting out a role, however real it may seem, is highly unlikely to actually result in the alleviation of real pain however, compliant the person! Thus in conclusion to date this is the strongest evidence that hypnosis IS an altered state of awareness.