APA Division 30 (Psychological Hypnosis) Award for “Distinguished Contributions to Scientific Hypnosis” in “recognition of eminent and enduring contributions to the advancement of scientific hypnosis.” Award given by the Executive Council of Division 30 of APA. (Plaque received 6/6/2015).
Election to Fellow of the American Psychological Association (September, 2011 – Division 30: Psychological Hypnosis): Election to Fellow status “requires evidence of unusual and outstanding contributions or performance in the field of psychology.” Fellow status requires that a person’s work has had a national impact on the field of psychology beyond a local, state, or regional level. A high level of competence or steady and continuing contributions are not sufficient to warrant Fellow status. “National impact must be demonstrated.”
Recipient of the Milton Erickson Award from the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis received March 7th, 2011 (Las Vegas, NE) for the two papers entitled: Reply to Wagstaff: “Hypnosis and the relationship between trance, suggestion, expectancy, and depth: Some semantic and conceptual issues.” and Reply to “Methodological and interpretative issues regarding the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory: Hypnotic Assessment Procedure: A comment on Pekala et al. (2010a, 2010b).” for “scientific excellence in writing on clinical hypnosis.”
Recipient of the Clark Hull Award from the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis received March 15th, 2010 (Nashville, TN) for the two papers entitled: “Suggestibility, Expectancy, Trance State Effects, and Hypnotic Depth: I. Implications for Understanding Hypnotism,” and “Suggestibility, Expectancy, Trance State Effects, and Hypnotic Depth: II. Assessment via the PCI-HAP,” for “scientific excellence in writing on experimental hypnosis.”
Presidential Commendation for “his landmark research contributions and the novel perspectives his research has offered to the study of hypnosis, dissociation and trauma.” Award presented by the President of the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis (SCEH) in King of Prussia, PA at the Annual Meeting of SCEH, October 25th, 2008.
Elected Fellow of the Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, October 27, 2007.
American Psychological Association Division 30 (Psychological Hypnosis) Award for the Best Theoretical Paper presented to Ronald J. Pekala, Ph.D., V. K. Kumar, Ph.D., & Ronald J. Maurer, M.A. at the August 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC. for their paper entitled: “States, traits, and provocative debates: The state-nonstate controversy with particular reference to operationalizing hypnotism.”
Milton H. Erickson Award for “Scientific Excellence in Writing on Clinical Hypnosis” presented to Ronald J. Pekala, Ron Maurer, V. K. Kumar, Nancy Elliott-Carter, Ellsworth Masten, Edward Moon, and Margaret Salinger (2004) for their paper: “Self-hypnosis relapse prevention training with chronic drug/alcohol users: Effects on self-esteem, affect, and relapse.” American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, 46, 281-297.
Milton H. Erickson Award for “Scientific Excellence in Writing on Clinical Hypnosis” presented to Ronald J. Pekala and V. K. Kumar for their paper, “Operationalizing trance I: Rationale and research using a psychophenomenological approach.” Presentation given at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, 3/26/2001.
Best Theoretical/Clinical Award from Division 30 (Psychological Hypnosis) of the American Psychological Association for a Paper entitled “Types of hypnotically (un)susceptible individuals as a function of phenomenological experience: Towards a typology of hypnotic types” that was presented at the APA Annual Meeting in Toronto, Canada, August, 1996.