Manipulating the Explicit Demand of Paradoxical Intention Instructions

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Abstract
In a previous study, Ascher and Turner (1980) accounted for differential results of two types of paradoxical intention administrations by suggesting that in one case subjects were encouraged to follow the explicit demands of the instructions which adversely effected performance. It was the purpose of the present study to determine the effect of employing a procedural component to emphasize the explicit demands of paradoxical intention instructions. Two groups received identical paradoxical intention instructions. One was required to present “objective” data along with their subjective sleep report—the other had only to present the subjective data. Two control groups were included in the design which employed sleep onset latency as a dependent variable. As hypothesized, results indicated that the paradoxical intention group submitting “objective” data reported latencies which were significantly longer than those of the no-treatment control, while the paradoxical intention group that was not required to submit “objective” data reported sleep onset latencies which were significantly shorter than those of the no-treatment control group.