Hammer, Allen L.: Language as a therapeutic tool: the effects on the relationship of listeners responding to speakers by using perceptual predicates. Dissertation Abstracts International 41 (3), 991-A Michigan State University, 149 pp. Order = 8020705, 1980.Abstract: The relationship between counselor and client is an important element of successful counseling. The tasks of understanding the client and communicating that understanding are vital components of the therapeutic relationship. It was suggested that the focus of understanding be the process by which clients model their world. In explicating the process of modeling, the concept of representational system was introduced. Due to the limits on the capacity of the nervous system to process information, sensory data are grouped into patterns or representations, such as images. There is a representational system associated with each of the 4 sensory modalities; the focus of this study, however, was limited to the visual, auditory, and kinesthetic systems. For the purpose of aiding in perception and memory functions, labels denoting the modality of the representation are stored along with the information itself. These labels manifest in speech as perceptual predicates, for which the prototypes are `see`, `hear` and `feel` and/or `touch` for the visual, auditory and kinesthetic systems, respectively. In communicating their experience people access at least one representational systems, and the perceptual predicates in their speech signify which representational system is in consciousness at the time of speaking. For ethical and practical reasons an interview situation with trained counselors as interviewers was used for the experimental setting instead of actual counseling sessions. Based upon the series of assumptions above, it was hypothesized that an interviewee would perceive a high degree of empathetic understanding in an interviewer when the interviewer responded with perceptual predicates implying the same representational system being employed by the speaker. The purpose of this study was to examine the differential effects on perceived empathy of interviewers responding to speakers with either similar of dissimilar perceptual predicates. A posttest only control group design with two factors was employed. The Treatment factor consisted of two levels representing the similar predicates and dissimilar predicates response conditions. An Interviewer factor was included as a control variable with three levels corresponding to the three interviewers. The sample consisted of 88 female students who volunteered to be interviewed about dormitory or sorority life. Students were randomly assigned to the six cells of the design. The dependent measure employed was a revised version of the perceived empathy scale from the Barret-Lennard Relationship Inventory. A 2x3 fixed effects analysis of variance model was used to test the three hypotheses: One each for the Treatment and Interviewer factors and one for the two- way interaction. All hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance. The hypothesis testing revealed a significant difference between the two treatment response conditions. The difference was in the expected direction with those students in the similar predicates condition rating their interviewers higher on perceived empathy than those students in the dissimilar predicates condition. No significant difference was found among interviewers nor was the interaction significant. The two treatment response conditions accounted for 8.41% of the variance in the dependent variable. The Treatment and Interviewer factors together explained 9.6% of the total variance in perceived empathy. Descriptive statistics revealed that the students used about twice as many auditory and kinesthetic predicates as visual predicates. The type of perceptual predicates used by an interviewer in responding to a student had a significant impact on the relationship. Language can be an effective tool when used to understand a speakers representational system and then communicate that understanding through perceptual predicates.

Moine, Donald: A psycholinguistic study of the patterns of persuasion used by successful salespeople. Dissertation Abstracts International 42(5), 2135- B University of Oregon, 271 pp. Order = 8123499, 1981.Abstract: The lingusitic forms of influence used by eight life insurance salesmen were studied. Four of the salesmen were the top producers in their companies, and the other four, matched on background variables, were evaluated as "average" producers. A 45-minute long cassette recording of each salesman's work was analyzed for frequency, chronology, and style of usage of linguistic patterns of persuasion which have been previously identified in the work of master hypnotists (Bandler & Grinder, 1975, 1975a, 1979). Fourteen other highly-successful salespeople, working in real estate sales, luxury automobile sales, and investment (stocks, commodities, and trust deed) sales were studied in a less formal way for their usage of these linguistic patterns of influence. A reliability study was conducted on the coding system which was developed to analyze the 45- minute long audio tapes. The first 10 minutes of each tape was used to determine intercoder reliability. The mean number of linguistic patterns identified in each 10- minute tape segment was 574; the range was 421 to 787. The mean level of agreement between coders was 84.3 percent, using conservative scoring conventions. The level of agreement between coders ranged from 72.4 percent to 89.5 percent. In the discussion of the significance of the reliability study, additional scoring conventions are presented which are expected to raise intercoder reliability in future studies of this type. The interaction between salesperson and customer is described in terms of a cybernetic model, exhibiting feedback, redundancy, and homeostasis. The majority of the salespeople studied used almost all of the linguistic patterns of influence, but the patterns were found to be utilized in significantly different ways and at different times by the highly- successful salespeople and the less-successful salespeople. Linguistic patterns of confusion, selectional restriction violations, and linguistic patterns of suprise were used rarely by top salespeople and were almost never used by less-successful salespeople. Less- successful salespeople were found to use more comparative deletions, phrases lacking referential indices, conjunctive leading statements, opinion- pacing statements, response-potential building patterns, superlative deletions, and unspecified verbs than did highly-successful salespeople. Highly- successful salespeople were found to employ anchors and tonality shifts, attention-focusing statements, imbedded commands, adverbial leading statements, cause-effect leading statements, metaphors, mind- reading patterns, modal operators of necessity, modal operators of possibility, and statements pacing mood, objections, observables, and predicate usage with greater frequency than that shown by less- successful salespeople. Highly-successful salespeople were found to begin their sales presentations with a predominance of nonspecific language patterns. As s/he collected information on the customer, and as s/he paced the cognitive maps and experience of the world of the customer, more specific language patterns were then utilized by the successful salesperson to elicit desired responses in the customer. The findings of this study further indicate that the stronger linguistic forms of influence are utilized by top salespeople in the middle and close of the sales interaction, after they have first built rapport and trust with the customer through the use of pacing statements. Less- successful salespeople were found to maintain a high- frequency usage of nonspecific language patterns throughout the sales interaction. They were also found to use certain strong linguistic forms of influence relatively early in the sales interaction, possibly endangering rapport with the customers. Implications and significance of the findings are examined, and suggestions are presented for future research concerning how we, as human beings, understand and are influenced by certain psycholinguistic patterns of persuasion.

Unterberger, Gerhart; Ulbrich, Hanne: Effects of NLP interventions with chronical diseases - the HGT (Hildesheimer Gesundheits-Training) in clinical tests College Hildesheim/Holzminden, Research Project, 1998.Abstract: Aktuelle wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen weisen nach, daß Heilung und Gesundheit nicht nur von körperlichen, sondern in hohem Maße von seelischen, geistigen und sozialen Bedingungen abhängen. Uns bewegt die Frage, ob es mit den powervollen Mitteln des Neurolinguistischen Programmierens möglich ist, hier in relativ kurzer Zeit helfend einzugreifen. Diese Ausgangsüberlegungen finden sich wieder in unserem "mentalen" Gesundheitstraining. Unser Ziel ist es, Blockaden der Selbstheilung abzubauen und Heilungsprozesse mental zu fördern, so daß der Körper - insbesondere das Immunsystem - auf beste Weise die Gesundheit schützen kann und andere Heilmittel optimal wirken können. Die ersten Ergebnisse zu den Effekten im HildesheimerGesundheitsTraining bestätigen unsere Vorannahmen hinsichtlich der Wirksamkeit unseres ziel-  und ressourcenorientierten Gesundheitstrainings. Anscheinend erweisen sich die im Training angewendeten NLP- Techniken durchaus als erfolgreiche Verfahren zur Gesundheitsförderung. Obwohl das HGT in der orthopädischen Rehabilitation lediglich über einen Zeitraum von 3 Wochen mit insgesamt 12 Trainingsstunden durchgeführt wurde, zeigen sich signifikante Ergebnisse. So beurteilen die Teilnehmenden am HGT den Erfolg ihrer Rehabilitationsmaßnahme durchweg positiver als die Angehörigen der Kontrollgruppe. Vor diesem Hintergrund verspricht die Nachbefragung sechs Monate nach Beendigung der Rehabilitationsmaßnahme interessante Erkenntnisse zur Langzeitwirkung unseres Gesundheitstrainings. -Description: Die Umsetzung wichtiger Erkenntnisse der Psychoneuroimmunologie in eine "komplementäre" Medizin steht erst am Anfang. Deshalb haben wir auf NLP-Basis ein psychologisches Behandlungssystem für Gruppen entwickelt, das diese Erkenntnisse aufgreift - das Hildesheimer Gesundheits-Training (HGT) - und bei chronischen Erkrankungen des Rückens, bei Krebserkrankungen und bei Allergien und Asthma klinisch getestet. Das HGT verbindet in innovativer Weise Gruppenarbeit, Einzeltherapie, Eigenarbeit und die Arbeit mit Trancecassetten. So bleibt die Therapiezeit kurz (ca. 8 Sitzungen à 3 Stunden) und die Kosten- Nutzen-Relation günstig. Daß Effekte von klassischen Gesundheitstrainings oder von NLP- Interventionen klinisch getestet werden, ist im Moment noch eher die Ausnahme als die Regel. Solche Untersuchungen sind aber dringend erforderlich; sie ermöglichen nicht nur die Optimierung eines Verfahrens, sondern auch den Nachweis seiner Effektivität. Dies gewinnt noch an Bedeutung vor dem Hintergrund der Diskussion über Qualitätssicherung im Gesundheitswesen. Wir haben das HGT in Reha- Kliniken und bei Selbsthilfegruppen untersucht. Bei chronischen Erkrankungen des Rückens und bei Krebs (Ergebnisse zu Allergien und Asthma werden Mitte 98 vorliegen) zeigen sich signifikante Verbesserungen bei wesentlichen Variablen (wie z.B. der Zufriedenheit mit der Gesundheit, Erschöpfung, Streß u.a.) sowohl am Ende des Trainings als auch nach 6 Monaten. So erhoffen wir, mit diesem laufend optimierten Behandlungssystem auf dem richtigen Weg zu sein zu einer effektiveren und humanen Medizin der Zukunft.

Vander Zyl, Eldon Lee: The effects of meta- model questioning and empathetic responding on concreteness in client statements and client ratings of anxiety and counselor attractiveness, expertness, and trustworthiness. Dissertation Abstracts International 44(12), 3600- A 3601-A Iowa State University, 117 pp. Order = DA8407xxx, 1983.Abstract: The effects of the meta-model questioning strategy from neurolinguistic programming (NLP) were compared to the effects of an empathy responding strategy in the initial counseling interview. Seventy-two clients were obtained from a pool of undergraduate psychology student volunteers. Two graduate students majoring in counselor education served as the counselors and were trained to deliver the two counseling strategies. A four group design was used for the investigation. Clients were assigned at random to one of the two counselors and to one of the two counseling strategies. Each client was treated in one thirty- minute interview. Five dependent variables were identified to assess the effects of the treatments. The first, concreteness in client statements, was determined by trained raters of concreteness using a five-minute transcribed segment of each interview. The second dependent variable was the change in client anxiety during the counseling interview. Client self-reported anxiety change was assessed immediately following the interview. The final three dependent variables were counselor attractiveness, expertness, and trustworthiness, as perceived by the clients. The Counselor Rating form was completed by each client immediately following the counseling interview to assess these final three variables. No differences could be shown between the two counseling strategies on any of the five dependent variables. Also, no differences could be shown between the two counselors. An interaction of treatment strategy and counselor was found for self- reported change in client anxiety. The counselors, when using either of the two strategies, were generally perceived to be highly attractive, expert, and trustworthy. On the average, client self- reported anxiety was lowered somewhat for both treatments. Client concreteness scores averaged just below the midpoint on a five-point concreteness scale for both treatments. Possible conclusions and recommendations are discussed.