Anomalistic Flashcards
What is anomalous?
Something that is irregular and doesn’t fit into normal explanations
What is pseudoscience?
false science’ and refers to so called science and scientific practices with little or no scientific basis.
What is ESP (Paranormal cognition)?
Denotes psychic abilities such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, retrocognition, mediumship, and psychometry.
What is psi?
Supposed parapsychological or psychic faculties or phenomena
What are parapsychologists?
Accept paranormal events occur and try and find evidence to support this belief. Claim to be a science.
What is the paranormal?
Denotes events or phenomena such as telekinesis or clairvoyance that are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding.
What is psychokinesis (paranormal action)?
The ability to move things with your mind
What are anomalistic psychologists?
Tend to be sceptical about the phenomena and work on the assumption they can be explained in terms of known psychological and physical factors. Claim it is a pseudoscience.
What does the scientific method require?
- Rigorous2. High reliability and replicability3. Objective4. Controls5. falsifiability6. Burden of proof7. Procedure8. Publication
How does parapsychology differ from science in terms of replicability?
In science, another person should be able to repeat the study in some way and get some result. However, in parapsychology only some ‘experimenters’ can get the results. There is also the problem of experimenter effects.
How does parapsychology differ from science in terms of objectivity?
In science, it must be verified by unbiased measurements. However, in parapsychology it is often biased/subjective.
How does parapsychology differ from science in terms of controls?
In science controls are used to eliminate confounding variables. In parapsychology, significant results have been found but critics have claimed controls are inadequate When controls are greater the results are not significant.
How does parapsychology differ from science in terms of falsifiability?
In science, it follows the principle of falsification. In parapsychology, there are no circumstances which can falsify claims only reasons to explain away results or lack of. It cannot be falsified.
How does parapsychology differ from science in terms of burden of proof?
In science, the burden of proof is on the researcher. In parapsychology the burden of proof is up to the sceptics to disprove.
How does parapsychology differ from science in terms of procedure?
In science, the hypothesis is formulated and then data and information is gathered. In parapsychology, the hypothesis is formulated to fit data.
How does parapsychology differ from science in terms of publication?
In science, it is peer reviewed before publication. In parapsychology, it is often direct to the public and avoids critical assessment. Problem of selective reporting ‘file drawer problem’.
Why could it be argued that parapsychology is a pseudoscience?
- Lacks theory (most paranormal pheneomena have not been given theoretical explanations)2. Lack ability to change; psi phenomena have always been explained the same way despite lack of evidence (hypothesis doesn’t change)
Why could it be argued that parapsychology is NOT a pseudoscience?
- Paranormal research should not be singled out as it is no better or worse than other psychological research2. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) allowed the parapsychological Association to become affiliated in 1969
What did Mousseau find (2003) about parapsychology?
Did a content analysis. 43% of parapsychology journals collected empirical data, compared to 64 for mainstream scientific journals. 24% of parapsychology jouranls used experimental method, compared to 57% of mainstream scientific journals. No mainstream scientific journals cited their own previous work, but 12% of parapsychology journals did. However, she found that parapsychological research seems to fit more of the criteria for science than it does for pseudoscience.
Is there any harm in paranormal research?
- Money some people make a lot of money such as psychics.2. Find evidence – shouldn’t respond to trends which in the past have led to persecution of witches or the punishment of mental patients.3. Creditable research may lead to valuable discoveries – acupuncture a useful therapy.
What is ESP?
The perception of objects and events without any of the known physical senses being involved
What is telepathy?
ESP between two minds
What is clairvoyance?
ESP at a distance with no other mind involved
What is precognition?
Knowing about events in the future
Who developed the Ganzfield technique?
Honorton
What is the Ganzfield technique?
Subjects are in a red-lit room with halved table-tennis balls taped over their eyes and earphones playing white noise. The sender is in another room and chooses one of four images to send telepathically. The receiver then has to select the target image from many.
Why was the Ganzfield technique developed?
Researchers believe that ESP is a weaker force than other senses and therefore gets ‘drowned out’ by other senses. Ganzfield aims to create a situation of sensory deprivation to suppress sensory input, so a subject is better able to use their ESP and receive telepathic messages.
What were the results of the Ganzfield studies of ESP?
Found 38% success rate as opposed to 25% being due to chance.
What did Wooffitt find about the Ganzfield studies?
Analysed Ganzfield interviews. Found evidence of research bias. Sceptical researchers were much less encouraging when asking ‘receivers’ to elaborate. Interviewers who believed tended to elicit lengthier responses that led to more positive results. This is called the sheep-goat effect.
What did Hyman find about Ganzfield Studies?
He challenged the results; claimed studies lack security and were not correctly analysed. He re-analysed results and found no evidence.
How did Hyman try to resolve the issues with the Ganzfield studies?
They got together and developed a new scientifically improved technique (autoganzfeld). Again Honorton found significant results (34%). However, after his death researchers have found conflicting evidence.
What is the File-drawer effect?
Researchers filing away studies with negative outcomes. The researchers beliefs are relevant because they influence which studies are left out or not.
Why could it be argued that the Ganzfield studies lacked control?
- Rooms were not soundproofed2. There is a bias towards selecting the first one shown. Presentation should be randomised.
How do some try to explain researcher bias?
They argue that positive results from non-sceptical researchers are due to jealous phenomena. Phenomena disappear when observed by non-believers.
What did Hyman argue about the jealous phenomena?
Even if this is true it is meaningless unless some explanation can be given.
What did the improved autoganzfield do?
Automated computer system which generated and displayed the targets.Experimenter is blind to which target has been selected and therefore cannot unconsciously influence the targetReceiver is placed in a soundproof steel-walled electromagnetically shielded room.
What did Honorton et al find from the autoganzfield techniques?
Results from 11 autoganzfeld studies involving 8 different researchers. Hit rate of 34% (statistically significant)
What did Milton and Wiseman find from the autoganzfield techniques?
Reviewed 30 further studies and found no significant no significant effect. This review was criticised because it contained studies which had not followed the correct protocol.
What did Bern et al find in conflict to what Milton and Wiseman found from the autoganzfield techniques?
They removed studies which had not followed the correct protocol, and added more recent studies and found a significant result.
What procedural criticism did Carroll make about the Ganzfeld studies?
Subjective interpretation. The description or image is wordy and requires researchers to match reported images sent.
Why did Carroll criticise the Ganzfeld studies for the psi assumption?
Argued that it should not be assumed that positive results prove psi/esp/
What is the sheep-goat effect?
An interaction between subjects beliefs, the researchers beliefs and the results of the research. Sceptics often do not find evidence, whilst supporters do.
What is the Clever Hans story?
in 1904 scientists were convinced that the horse could do arithmetic…but in fact is wasn’t true. His owner was giving him clues in the questions.
What is psychokinesis?
The ability to move things with your mind
What is macro-PK?
Distorting an object such as spoon bending
What is micro-PK?
Influencing the output of probabilistic systems such as throwing dice.
How could the placebo effect explain macro-Pk?
Expectations make it more likely that a person reports a paranormal effect.
What did Wiseman and Greening find on PK?
Found that in a study where researchers said aloud ‘the spoon is bending’ participants were more likely to report that it did.
How is micro-PK usually investigated?
A random event generator (REG) is often used to investigate micro-PK. A REG is a kind of electronic coin flipper that produces an equal number of heads and tails over a number of coin ‘flips’. Micro-PK is demonstrated by asking volunteers to influence REG by coming up with more heads than tails, or vice versa.
What did Jahn find on Micro-PK?
Test REG-see if people can manipulate the flipping of a coin. Found that effect sizes very small for individuals, but when scores combined they were extremely significant. Also found effect sincreased when 2 subjects who had a close emotional attachment worked together.
What did Hansel find about PK?
Well controlled studies produce no support for PK. 30 studies only 13 produced positive results, none of which had adequate controls. Those that produced negative results mainly did have good controls. Therefore reasons for positive results are that they have flawed methodology.
Why would some argue that investigating micro-PK lacks ecological validity?
Some say that using REG is an inappropriate way of investigating PK. PK is about observable change and REG concerns unobservable change.
What did Radin and Nelson find about micro- PK?
Meta-analysis of 500 studies of micro-PK between 1959-2000. They assessed the methodological quality and correlated this with the outcomes, finding no significant relationship.
What did Bosch et al find about PK?
Looked at the highest quality studies and found no significant effects.
Why can it be argued that the number of investigators can not influence results?
Radin and Nelson reviewed 500 studies, involving 91 investigations. Half the studies were by 10 investigators. Therefore significant effect cannot be due to a small number of investigators.
What did Radin et al find about the file-drawer effect?
Found that on average the number of unreported studies per investigator was only about one. Therefore this would not be enough to explain the positive findings.
What did Bierman find about paranormal studies?
Analysed a large number of studies. Concluded that there was a reduction in the effect size. Usually, if there is a real effect, the size of the effect should become greater over time, however the opposite has happened in paranormal research; the increasing control has led to effect sizes getting smaller, suggesting the phenomena are not real.
What did the US government attempt to use PSI abilities for?
In 1970s the CIA in the US explored whether it could be used to exploit counterintelligence. The US government has spent millions on research but failed to find evidence.
What is a coincidence?
When two unrelated events correspond. There is no obvious relationship between the two, but a belief forms, creating a cognitive bias, that one causes the other.
What study did Brugger et al do in the illusion of connection?
Believers were shown real and scrambled faces and real and made-up words on screen. The believers were more likely to see a face or a word when there wasn’t one, whereas the non-believers were more likely to miss a real face or words. Both groups were given L-dopa. Result was that the non-believers acted more like the believers. The drug had no effect on the believers.
What did Brugger et al find about the illusion of connection?
Found that people with high levels of dopamine are more likely to find significance in coincidence and pick out meaning when there is none.
How could the illusion of control explain believing in coincidence?
Explanations of coincidence mean that people feel that they have control over things that they really do not. Makes the world seem a more orderly place.
What did Ayerroff and Abelson find about the illusion of control?
Believers are more likely to express an illusion of control when engaged in a psi task.
How could cognitive ability explain belief in coincidence?
Cognitive ability or intelligence may be lower in believers because they can’t judge where it’s a paranormal event or these is in fact another explanation.
What did Gray et al find about belief and cognitive ability?
Believers have lower levels of academic performance than sceptics. Research also shows that believers perform less well on tests of syllogistic reasoning.
How could the illusion of causality be considered adaptive?
Causal thinking allowed people to understand and control their environment. Predict that eating a certain mushroom may cause death. Causal thinking is adaptive as it will prevent eating poisonous mushrooms but it may result in a Type 1 error.
What did Brugger et al find about the illusion of connection?
Tecndency to see things that aren’t there is adaptive. Better to think you see a tiger hidden in the grass than miss it. THis ability may also underlie creativity.
What did Thalbourne find about the illusion of connection?
Believers are more creative than non-believers.
What did Whitson and Galinsky find about the illusion of control?
Found that reduced control led participants to detect patterns where there were none and form illusory correlations between unrelated events.
What did Jones et al find about cognitive ability?
Found that believers were higher in cognitive functioning than non-believers. New scientist readers- 67% said they regarded ESP either as established or a likely possibility.
What did Wiseman and Watt find about cognitive ability?
Believers and non-believers only differ in terms of syllogistic reasoning rather than cognitive ability.
What did Falk suggest about coincidence?
Extraordinary coincidences are singled out when they occur and given a significant status. This suggests a bias in cognitive processing. Furthermore, unlikely coincidences are considered more significant when they happen o us- egocentric bias.
What did Chopra suggest about coincidence?
There may be no such thing as a coincidence. All events can be related to unseen or prior causes/associations.
What is the problem with calculating coincidence?
Calculations of coincidence depend on memories- track must be kept of previous occurrences etc.
How could probability judgements explain belief in coincidence?
Many people misjudge the probability of unrelated events occurring and think it’s paranormal. Believers may underestimate the probability that certain events simply happen by chance. They attribute causality when it is simply be chance.
What did Blackmore and Troscianko suggest about paranormal experiences?
That they are a kind of ‘cognitive illusion’ resulting from a failure to accurately judge probability.
What is the birthday party paradox?
Asked ‘how many people would you need at a party to have a 50:50 chance that two of them will have the same birthday (not counting year)? More goats got this right when asked a multiple choice question containing the right answer of 23.
What is repetition avoidance and how is this used as a reasoning task to test probability?
Produce a string of random numbers and the number of repetitions is counted. In a true series of random numbers there will be consecutive repetition. People who underestimate probability are less likely to produce repetitions.
What did Brugger et al find about repetition avoidance?
Sheep avoided producing repetitions compared to goats.
What did Rogers et al find about probability judgements?
Gave participants 16 ‘conjunction vignettes’ (descriptions of occasions where two events co-occur, such as getting food poisoning after eating eggs). They had to indicate the probability of such events occurring. Sheep made more conjunction errors than goats.
What did Blackmore find about coincidence?
Although many studies find a difference in probability estimation between believers and non-believers, not all do. Suggests that this area is not fully understood.
Why could the methodology of coincidence be flawed?
Could be because methodology is flawed in how ‘belief’ is determined. Some studies use a scale and others just ask one question about ESP.
How could it be argued that probability judgements cannot explain coincidence?
Many studies suggest the link between probability misjudgement and paranormal beliefs. However, this could be due to other factors e.g. cognitive ability.
What did Musch and Ehrenberg find about probability judgements?
Found that poor probability judgements were linked to low cognitive ability.
What did Langer & Roth find about probability judgements?
Early success at a task (E.g. picking lotto numbers) enhanced an illusion of control. Participants believe skill was involved and are biased in success recall- contributes to a belief in ESP.
What did Paulus find about probability judgements?
Believers are more likely to consider dreams as predictive-based on a dream event and future occurrence. Suggests poor estimation of probabilities leads to paranormal beliefs.
What is magical thinking?
A term used to describe a wide variety of non-scientific and sometimes irrational beliefs. It may lead people to believe that their thoughts by themselves can bring about effects in the world or that thinking something corresponds with doing it. These beliefs are generally centred around correlations between events.
How does the psychodynamic approach try to explain magical thinking?
Freud identified MT as a form of childlike thought where children project their inner feelings onto the outer world. When adults exhibit such behaviour it is a form of defence mechanism (regression) where they regress to a former child-like state as a way of coping with anxiety.
What does the dual processing theory say to explain magical thinking?
Magical thinking is based on a child’s mode of thought. It is intuitive, i.e. lacking internal logic. Adult thinking is logical (internally-consistent reasoning) however adults continue to use intuitive thinking in some situations (there are two processes)
How can animism and Piaget explain magical thinking?
Piaget- pre-operation stage characteristic mode of thinking is animism- children ascribe feelings to physical objects. Lindeman and Aarnio relate magical thinking to animism, for example, Feng Shui assumes positive feelings come from arranging furniture.
How does nominal realism explain magical thinking?
Children have difficulty separating the names of things from the things themselves.
What did Rozin et al find about nominal realism?
Poured sugar in two glasses labelled as ‘sugar’ and ‘cyanide’. Participants who observed the pouring were still reluctant to drink from the glass labelled as poison.
How does the law of contagion explain magical thinking?
This states that things that have been in contact continue to act upon one another, even after physical contact stops. Such as believing that wearing something from someone special results in magical powers etc.
What did Rozin & Nemeroff suggest about the law of contagion?
Suggest this may be related to our evolved fear of germs & contagion. It would be adaptive to avoid touching something that had been in contact with a diseased person and this leads to an intuition that psychological and physical properties can pass between people.
What are the benefits of magical thinking?
- May lead people to deal more confidently with their environment because they expect good things to happen as a result of their belief and actions2. Self-efficacy is one (belief in own ability). Another is the placebo effect- MT acts like a placebo, creating a positive view and this alone accounts for improvement.
What did Rosenthal & Jacobsen find about magical thinking?
Showed that children’s IQ scores increased over a period of a year as their teachers were led to expect them to do better. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy- things turn out as we expect because of our expectation.
What are the costs of magical thinking?
- Linked to mental disorders; too much is not a good thing2. One of the characteristics of schizotypal personality disorder & schizophrenia (Weinberger & Harrison)
What did Youlmaz et al find about magical thinking?
Found that MT was a critical factor in OCD. They found that people with strong magical beliefs also reported more checking symptoms.
Why may magical thinking be important?
People who are depressed generally show less MT, called depression realism. THis suggests that a fully accurate assessment of one’s own abilities may not be good for you (Huston).
What did Mohr et al link lack of magical thinking to?
Lack of MT as well as anhedonia (inability to experience pleasure) has been linked to low levels of dopamine. Dopamine is high in both schizophrenics and believers.
What is the main real world application of magical thinking?
Lack of donors is linked to law of contagion.
What did Vamos suggest about the lack of donors?
We link donation with the image of our dead body, therefore just thinking about the decision to carry a donor card creates negative emotions and discourages people from volunterring.
What did Pronin et al find about magical thinking?
Asked students to put pins in voodoo dolls to make a target victim get a headache. The intended victims (confederates) later acted as if they did have a headache. Half of the PP saw their ‘victim’ behaving stupidly beforehand so they felt greater annoyance with them. These PP felt much more responsible for the headaches- evident of magical thinking.
What did Keinan find about magical thinking?
Demonstrated that magical thinking is more prevalent in war zones.
What did Malinowski argue about magical thinking?
Argued that it helps people reduce their anxiety, to cope with uncertainty and gives a sense of control over an unpredictable world.
What did Blaisdell and Denniston find about magical thinking?
Found that magical thinking is more prevalent in some cultures than others, especially those where war is common.
What is superstition?
Belief in the significance of a behaviour not based on knowledge or reason.
Why may superstitions be adaptive?
Arise from making unjustified causal links. Making a Type 1 error; it is better to assume causality between two unrelated events that co-occur than occasionally miss a genuine one (Type 2 error).
How does the behavioural approach attempt to explain superstition?
Skinned proposed that superstitions develop through operant conditioning. An accidental stimulus-response link is learned and maintained through negative reinforcement. Every time you repeat the superstitious behaviour anxiety is reduced and the behaviour is reinforced.
What did Skinner show about superstition?
Pigeons were given food every 15 secs. This then increased in random durations until 60 secs. Repetitive behaviour was noticed in the pigeons in-between receiving the food, head tossing, swinging, hoping, spinning etc. As though these behaviours influenced receiving food (it didn’t.) Transferred to humans, they may learn superstitions.
How does the illusion of control explain superstitions?
Superstitions develop when people feel a lack of control- sitting an exam etc. In order to gain some control rituals are used to bring good luck.
What did Whitson and Galinsky find about superstition?
Group 1 asked to recall situations where they felt in control. Group 2 asked to recall situations where they felt a lack of control. Later all PP were given stories involving superstitious behaviour and asked how it affected the outcome of the meeting. Those who were made to feel less in control were more likely to believe the superstitious behaviour affected the outcome.
What did Staddon and Simmelhag find about the behaviourist explanation for superstitious behaviour?
Repeated Skinner’s experiment and observed similar behaviours but realised these were unrelated to the food. Birds often showed movements all together but they had no relationship to food arriving.
What did Manute find about the behaviourist explanation for superstitious behaviour?
Tested on humans in a library. A noise being omitted from a computer. The PP pressed the keys and the noise eventually stopped. It was not in relation to any particular key. The next time the noise was heard they pressed the same key that coincided with the noise stopping.
What did Damisch et al find about the illusion of control and superstition?
Found that the activation of good luck related superstitions led to enhanced performance on a variety of tasks (motor dexterity and memory) which increased self-efficacy.
How does the psychodynamic approach explain superstitious behaviour?
Freud- unconscious, unacceptable thoughts are repressed in unconscious. Superstitions involve attaching unconscious threats to real world events. E.g. bad thought (harm to love one)=guilt in the unconscious= expectation that something bad will happen to them. This ‘terror’ that something bad will happen manifests itself in the conscious by performing behaviours to prevent it.
How does Mamor use the psychodynamic approach to explain superstition?
Oedipus/Electra complexes. Hostility towards same sex parent, boys jealous of dad because of feelings towards mum, girls angry at mum for castration. The child needs the parent & so can not vent this hostility. Hostility ‘housed’ in unconscious & needs to be calmed by behaviours e.g. knocking on wood.
What did Jahoda find about cognitive explanation of superstition?
That thinking error’s/false perception or memory can lead to superstition. The way we think a bout situations may lead to superstitions. I.e. ‘selective forgetting’- we forget the information which disproves a superstition but remember info which confirms it
What did Linderman & Saher find about cognitive explanation of superstition?
Superstitious people are more likely to state that things have intentionality- ‘a cut finger wants to get better’- even with some biological knowledge. Dual-coding process theory; everyone encodes intuitively & analytically- superstitions more intuitive, not stupid.
What is intentionality?
Implying that an inanimate object or body part is capable of thinking
What 4 categories of superstition did Jahoda propose?
- Superstition forming part of a cosmology or worldview2. Socially shared superstitions3. Occult experience of the individual4. Personal superstitions.
How do students generally express superstition?
Students taking exams tend to have solitary and unique beliefs, reflecting this solitary activity. Many students want to wear particular items or have particular lucky talisman.
How do sports generally express superstition?
Sports tend to be a group activity and produce socially shared superstition.
How do gamblers generally express superstition?
Gamblers are taking part in an individual activity but tend to learn most of their superstitions from other gamblers.
What did Tobacyk and Millford find about gender differences?
Found that college women were more likely to believe in precognition but college men were more likely to believe in Bigfoot.
What did Corrigan et al find about age differences?
Found that younger police officers were more likely to believe in the ‘full moon effect’ than older police officers.
What did Bennett find about age differences?
Studied retired British women and found a high degree of superstitious belief. She suggested that it gave some status to these former wives, mothers and workers.
What did Tobacyk and Mifford find about locus of control?
Found stronger belief for paranormal phenomena in students with a relatively high external locus of control.
What did Tobacyk and Shrader find about self-efficacy?
Examined the link between self efficacy and belief in superstition. Women with lower self efficacy were more likely to be more superstitious. However, this link did not hold true for men.
What did Tobacyk find about students and belief?
Found that students who were alienated and marginalised had greater belief in superstition. However this was no true for all paranormal belief.
What did Epstein find about superstitious belief?
Found it was positively correlated with neuroticism, anxiety, an over-protective father and depression, but not with introversion/extroversion, anger, or maternal relationship.
What is personality?
A collection of characteristics and qualities which make up an individual. The personality type of a believer and non-believer may be fundamentally different.
What is extroversion?
Characterised by positive emotions and the tendency to seek extra stimulation to increase brain arousal. Outgoing and seek new experiences.
What did Peltzer find about personality factors?
Found that extraversion was associated with paranormal beliefs.
What did Honorton et al find about personality factors?
Conducted a meta-analysis of 60 studies and found a correlation between extraversion and ESP.
Why may extroverts be more likely to believe?
Extroverts might react better to new situations and so are more open to paranormal experiences.
What did Parra & Villaeuva find about personality factors?
In Ganzfield studies, with 30 P who were receivers. Extroverts always performed better. Argued that personality factors ‘contaminate’ results (not actual PSI ability), but believers would say it is proof that only certain people possess the ability.
What did Rattet & Bursik find about personality factors?
107 PP. Extrovers more likely to experience ESP but not have PSI beliefs. Complex interaction.
What is neuroticism?
A tendency to experience negative mood states. Anxious, moody, emotionally unstable.
Why may neuroticism be linked to paranormal beliefs?
Paranormal beliefs may create a distance from reality as a defence mechanism to reduce such negative emotional states. Thought to allow neurotics to interpret and predict events and so help them to not get worked up and overemotional
What did Williams et al find about personality factors?
300 PP, 13-16 year olds. Used Eysenck personality questionnaire and index of paranormal belief. Found a significant correlation between paranormal beliefs and neuroticism.
What did Wiseman and Watt find about personality factors?
Used questionnaires on neuroticism and paranormal belief. Found strong correlation.
What was the issue with WIsemand and Watt’s study on personality factors?
They focused on just the superstition scale of the PBS. Neuroticism was only linked to paranormal beliefs related to bad luck. Neuroticism does not explain all paranormal beliefs.
What did Francis et al find about personality factors?
20,000 children aged 13-15 found high psychotism correlated with paranormal beliefs such as astrology and psychokinesis.
How is locus of control thought to affect paranormal belief?
PSI correlate with an external locus of control. PK correlates negatively. Some studies have found a positive correlation between an internal locus on control and paranormal belief. Unreliability of results may be due to type of paranormal belief measured.
What did Groth-Marnat and Pegden find about personality factors?
A greater external locus of control is linked to belief spirituality and precognition. A greater internal locus of control linked to superstition.
What is fantasy proneness?
Refers to the tendency to become so deeply absorbed in a fantasy that it feels as if it is actually happening.
What did Gow et al find about personality factors?
In Australia. Compared a group claiming alien abduction/UFO sighting vs. a control group. Found fantasy proneness linked to paranormal beliefs.
What did Roberts et al find about personality factors?
1 in 3 studies into UFOs and fantasy proneness found a link.
What did Wilson and Barber find about personality factors?
Compared 27 easily hypnotised vs. 26 not. Found hypnotised individuals (as children) thought their toys had emotions/feelings, more likely to be fantasy characters during play, praised by adults for fantasy play. (As adults) spent more time fantasising during the day, experience fantasies are more real, claim to have psychic abilities and experience apparitions. Called this collection of characteristics Fantasy Proneness (FP) personality.
What is suggestibility?
Inclination to accept the suggestion of others. People who are more suggestible are more easily hypnotised.
What did Hergovich find about personality factors?
Suggestible people may be more likely to be deceived- link to paranormal experience/belief. Positive correlation between being hypnotised and score on a paranormal belief score.
What is a creative personality?
Imaginative, artistic, and inventive
What did Thalbourne find about personality factors?
15 studies on creative personality and paranormal beliefs. All positive results. More likely to accept ‘strange’ outcomes, will try to draw meaning from experience, more open to different experience. But studies done on students so generalizability Is questioned.
How do some explain accounts of paranormal experiences?
Argue that they are actually false memories. They may occur because people have strong imaginations
What did Clancy find about personality factors?
Found that people who claimed to have experienced alien abduction were more susceptible to suggestion. Thus, how reliable are personal accounts of anomalous experience?
What did French find about personality factors?
Gave 100 PP a questionnaire (1 false event and 4 real events) about CCTV footage of the Bali bombing. 36% claimed to have seen the fictitious footage. These people had scored higher on tests of paranormal belief and experience.
Why did Wolfradt criticise Locus of control?
He said that only some forms of PSI, e.g. superstition, correlate positively with an external LOC, whereas others like PK, correlate negatively. The variation in results of studies of LOC and anomalous experience can be due to the type of anomalous experience being measured.
What did Williams et al find about personality factors?
Tested 300 Welsh school children and found a +0.32 significant correlation between neuroticism and paranormal beliefs.
What did Wiseman et al find about fantasy proneness?
Found that deep absorption (being very involved in a task) may enable people to overlook the facts and believe in events they know are not true. They set up a mock séance which everyone knew was fake, but during the séance one actor suggested the table was levitating when it wasn’t. After the séance more believers than non-believers reported that the table had moved. They’d been more deeply absorbed, so were led to believe.
What did THalbourne find about creative personality?
Conducted a meta-analysis of studies and found a correlation between creative personality and paranormal belief. Creative people were more likely to be able to make links between unrelated items, a characteristic that may underlie paranormal experience.
What did Irwin and Green find about paranormal beliefs?
Found people who display schizotypy have a tendency to paranormal beliefs. One characteristics of this disorder is ‘having magical or superstitious belief’.
What did Bentall et al find about paranormal beliefs?
Found that those who scored highly on schizotypy also scored highly on paranormal belief.
What did French and Kerman find about paranormal beliefs?
Found a relationship between childhood trauma, fantasy proneness, and paranormal beliefs. The beliefs provide an illusion of control and therefore serve a psychological need.
What did Auton et al find about paranormal beliefs?
Examined personality traits in non-believers and believers and found that belief is not an indication of psychopathology.
What is psychic healing?
It is the passing of some form of energy from one person to another living being. This can be the laying of hands on an individual or through prayer.
How does Benor define psychic healing?
“The intentional influence of one or more people upon one or more living system without utilising known physical means of intervention.
How are energy used to explain psychic healing?
Therapeutic touch (TT) is explained by supporters in terms of the ability to detect a patient’s aura (energy field) without touching their body. Health is restored by re-aligning the patient’s energy field.
How is anxiety reduction used to explain psychic healing?
It involves being around a sympathetic person. In the same way as social support from friends and family works to reduce anxiety and enhance the immune system (Kiecolt-Glaser)
How is the placebo effect used to explain psychic healing?
Success could be due to placebo. These beliefs are based on the facts that some cases of psychic healing are apparently successful.
How can the success of some psychic healing be explained?
Placebo effect. Could be due to spontaneous recovery or because recovery is only temporary and later the patient relapses (but relapses are not reported)
What study did Wirth do on psychic healing?
Conducted a study of patients with wounds who were either treated with Therapeutic Touch or no treatment. The patients were not aware of the treatment they received, thus eliminating placebo effects. Patients treated with TT healed faster.
What study did Rosa et al do on psychic healing?
Tested 21 therapeutic touch practitioners. Each say on one side of a screen and place their hands through two holes in the screen. On the other side an experimenter placed one of her hands about 4 inches above the practitioner’s right or left hand. TT practitioners should detect the energy field of the hand, but they were correct only 44% of the time (less than chance)
What study did Krieger do on psychic healing?
Took blood samples from patients before and after a healing session. Observed any changes in haemoglobin levels. Patients who were treated by the healer had high haemoglobin levels and generally felt better than those in the control group. Long-lasting effects- a year later still showing a difference.
What study did Keller and Bzdek do on psychic healing?
Explored therapeutic touch on tension headache pain. 60 participants (aged 18-59). They all suffered tension headaches, and had not taken medication in the previous 4 hours. Were randomly assigned to TT or control group (did not know which group they were in). 90% of the PP in the TT group reported lower levels of headache pain, found to be significant at p
What study did Cha et al do on psychic healing?
Looked at the effect of prayer on infertile women. Researchers arranged for Christian strangers to pray for some of the women. As far as they know no one prayed for the other women and those who were infertile were twice as likely to become pregnant.
