parapsychology Flashcards
Anomalistic Psychology Definition:
Goldsmiths University of London:
“Anomalistic psychology may be defined as the study of extraordinary phenomena of behaviour and experience, including (but not restricted to) those which are often labelled “paranormal”. It is directed towards understanding bizarre experiences that many people have without assuming a priori that there is anything paranormal involved. It entails attempting to explain paranormal and related beliefs and ostensibly paranormal experiences in terms of known psychological and physical factors.”
The Controversy of What is ‘Paranormal’:
Northcote (2007):
* “The history of paranormal/occult ideas reveals that boundaries between science, religion & the occult / paranormal have long been fluid, negotiable & contentious”
Example - Sleep Paralysis:
- Work of demons (incubi)
- Cross culturally experienced (e.g. old Hag, jinn, ghost, alien abduction, etc)
- Dysfunction of REM / waking state
The Controversy of the Paranormal (in Western Culture):
- Enlightenment rationality vs irrational
- Modernity vs per modernity
- Hume (1963[1741]) “superstition is the enemy of civil liberty “and “produces the most cruel disorders in human society”
- Superseded ‘supernormal phenomena’ as a category around the 1920’s
- A Western ontological category
- Non-Western countries may have a different definition
- E.g. Hess (1991) Brazilian study
Dr David Luke: Cultures & Paranormal Belief
“In some cultures, such as Madagascar, mediumship dominates politics, although, in such cases the only politicians considered to be any good are dead ones. And preferably dead from a long time ago. In Madagascar the most important political decisions are made solely by the ancestors. Conveniently this done through spirit mediums”
Why Should Psychologists/People be Interested in the Paranormal?
Increasing public interests in the paranormal -> Reflected in modern culture
Which Psychologist is Most Associated with Research on Paranormal Belief (PB)?
Irwin (2009)
* since 1993 has organised into 4 ‘hypotheses’
Irwin’s (2009) 4 Hypotheses
- world view hypothesis
- cognitive deficit hypothesis
- social marginality hypothesis
- psychodynamic hypothesis
What is the World View Hypothesis?
- emphasises that PB is one aspect of a broader world view that’s characterised by a highly subjective & esoteric outlook
- draws attention to the subjective experience of the paranormal
What is the World View Hypothesis Related to?
Related to:
* Dualist (especially New Age) beliefs
* interest in subjective experiences - e.g. dreams
* expansion of consciousness - e.g. meditation
Paranormal Belief vs Religious Belief
Tobayck & Milford:
* traditional religious belief pos correlates with belief in precognition & witchcraft
Clarke (1991):
* PB pos correlates with psychic healing & UFO healing
Criticism of PB pos correlating with Religious Belief
Thalbourne (2003):
* notes this is a weak correlation
Other Beliefs:
- psi belief correlates with a dualist view of the world
- and with belief in life after death
- have in inclination to interpret dreams (Haraldsson, 1981)
- be self-reflective and devote more time to subjective experiences (Davies, 1985)
What does psi mean in Parapsychology?
psi is the unknown factor in extrasensory perception and psychokinesis experiences that is not explained by known physical or biological mechanisms
Criticisms of the World View Hypothesis?
- difficult to test
- can be vague
Cognitive Deficit Hypothesis
(Irwin, 2009):
* expect PBers to be cognitively inferior
* individuals who are prone to belief in the paranormal lack the skills and abilities associated with ordinary cognition (van Elk, 2017)
include citations & 1 criticism
CDH: Studies have investigated supposed differences in:
- Educational attainment (e.g. Emmons & Sobal, 1981)
- Science education (e.g. Diaz-Vilela & Alverez-Gonzalez, 2004)
- Performance on intelligence tests (e.g. Killen, Wildman & Wildman, 1974)
- Reasoning skills
- Accuracy in probability judgements
- Perceptual ability
- But findings are at best equivocal (ambiguous) (Irwin, 2009)
What is ESP?
Extra-sensory perception (ESP):
* ‘anomalous processes of information or energy transfer, processes such as telepathy… that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological mechanisms’ (Bem & Honorton, 1994)
3 Studies & 1 Criticism of Them
CDH: Studies into PB & Reasoning Skills
Polzella et al. (1975):
* ESP believers less successful at syllogisms
Alcock and Otis (1980):
* believers in psi have poorer critical thinking skills
Wierzbicki (1990):
* global paranormal belief related to syllogism problem solving
However:
* studies by parapsychologists have failed to replicate some of these findings (i.e. motivational factors may be play a role in how people perform)
* e.g. Roe (1999); Watt & Wiseman (2002)
Define Probability Misjudgement
Brugger et al (1991):
* “belief in ESP might thus arisefrom the overestimation of the meaningfulness of naturally occurring coincidence”
* e.g. dreaming of friend you haven’t seen for a long time and then you bump into them
Research into Probability Misjudgement
Blackmore (1997):
* found no sig difference between PBs & non-PBs in “real life” cases
However: Bressan et al (2008):
* found that PBers used different standards rather than understood probability less
People’s choices tend to be…
People’s choices tend not to be random but instead can be quite predictable, especially when they are trying to behave randomly
Pareidolia: 2 Types
- pattern recognition
- auditory
Example of pattern recognition pareidolia
The “Brown Lady”
How is Perception Affected by Prior Exception?
Wiseman & Morris (1995):
* showed video purportedly of psychokinetic effect
* asked if they should work with them
* subtly put other key Q’s about how the effects were done - e.g., where did the ‘psychic’ pick up the spoon from
* PB disbelievers more likely to remember these details
1 strength, 1 criticism
CDH Evaluation
-little consistent evidence: little evidence of intelligence being a primary factor in PB
-CDH is context dependent: however context dependent suggests that some paranormal experiences / belief may be produced
Social Marginality Hypothesis: Irwin (2009)
- those on the margins are more likely to believe in theparanormal
- loss of control and alienation
SMH: Wuthnow (1976)
- socially marginal groups hold PBs as a compensation for hardship experienced by offering the promise of future rewards or retribution
SMH: What did Wuthnow (1976) Identify about Marginality?
Identified eight markers of marginality:
* (old) age
* (female) sex
* (low) education
* (minority) ethnic background
* (broken) marital status
* (un)employment status
* (unattractive) physical characteristics
* (low) self-reported psychological well-being
SMH Example: Research by Owen (1990)
Marginal status of women in Victoria Britain see greater involvement with Spiritualist movement
3 Demographics which Correlate with PB
- age
- gender
- socioeconomic position
3 Demographics which Correlate with PB:
1.) Age
- with the exception of religious belief, mostly stronger in younger people (Boy, 2002; Heintz & Brauss)
- problems with research being cross-sectional rather than longitudinal
- problems of scale used
- reverse of what we would expect under SM (older should believe more), in western societies ‘youth’ venerated rather than age
3 Demographics which Correlate with PB:
2.) Gender
- most PB stronger in females
- reversed in UFO belief
- but is this related marginality?
- socialisation / education?
3 Demographics which Correlate with PB:
3.) Socioeconomic Position
- Sheils and Berg (1977) found no relation
- Emmons and Sobal (1981) again found no evidence
- small number of empirical finding support but the evidence is not clear
SMH: Criticism of Measuring Marginality
- single dimensions don’t demonstrate convincing evidence
- majority of society do endorse at least one PB
- if there’s evidence of a link tells us little about why at the psych level this might be so
SMH: What Method was Proposed as a Better Way to Measure Marginality?
Roe (1995):
Marginality Index
* survey: N = 277
* ppts get marginality index score
* displayed on bar graph
* results show whether differences between groups are/aren’t significant
SMH: Criticisms
- problems defining marginality (i.e. is being old socially marginal or are they young?)
- single dimensions sometimes show correlation but tell us little about how this affects the individual
- multi-dimensional research does not seem to support the hypothesis
- problems of measuring marginality
- not consistent with measure of marginality
Psychodynamic Hypothesis: Basic Points
- beliefs should serve the needs of the individual
- research focus on personality variables that correlate with PB
PDH: Irwin (2009)
Notes 3 broad categories:
1.) social dimensions of personality
2.) aspects of psychological adjustment
3.) psychopathological characteristics
PDH: Explanation for PB (Roe & Morgan, 2002)
- people rely on PBs to cope with hardships (e.g. social deprivation, alienation)
- offers promise of potential / future rewards / compensation
- PBs may provide framework for effectively structuring otherwise chaotic / unpredictable / unfair events in life so they appear comphrehensible & able to be mastered (at least intellectually)
PDH: Childhood Causes of PB & Experience
Lawrence et al. (1995):
Model of childhood causes of PB & exp. :
childhood trauma
-> childhood fantasy
-> paranormal experience
-> paranormal belief
PDH: Research into PB & Control
- PBs tend to perceive the world as more unpredictable or unjust (McGarry & Newberry, 1981)
- people whose situation is more unstable report higher levels of belief both in the lab (Matute, 1995) & in the field (Keinan, 1994)
- PBs are more susceptible to the illusion of control (perceived control over life events) (Blackmore & Trosciano, 1985)
- PB has been shown to correlate with anxiety (e.g. Wolfradt, 1997) & an external locus of control (e.g. Groth-Marnat & Pegden, 1998)
PDH: Modelling Control (Roe & Bell, 2016)
- some evidence to date for bivariate relationships between variables
- but none had considered them together in a single population
-> PB -> control -> anxiety -> (cycle)
Method & Results
PDH: Measuring Locus of Control Study (Roe & Bell, 2016)
- opportunity sample of 65 undergraduates
- 5 questionnaires:
1. Demographics (i.e. age , sex etc)
2. State – Trait Anxiety for adults
3. Estimated Likelihood of stressful Events Scale (ELSE)
4. Perceived control over stressful Events Scale (PCSE)
5. Revised Paranormal belief scale (Tobacyk, 2004) - no relationship was found between perceived control over future life events and paranormal belief
- but measures of state and trait anxiety correlated significantly with both perceived control and paranormal belief
PDH: Measuring Locus of Control (2 scales)
Rotter (1966):
* “one of the major reasons why we have wars is because people don’t take enough interest in politics”
* “capable people who fail to became leaders have not taken advantage of their opportunities”
Duttweiler (1984):
* “what other people think (blank) has a great influence on my behaviour”
* “when part of a group, I (blank) prefer to let other people make all the decisions”
PDH: Criticism of Rotter (1966) & Duttweiler (1984)
These do not seem to reflect aspects of control that are implicated by the Psychodynamic Functions Model
PDH: Measuring Locus of Control Study (Roe & Bell, 2016)
What the Results Mean: High vs Low Anxiety
High Anxiety:
* PB was related to anxiety with those who presented as more anxious - also scoring higher in PB
* high anxiety group felt that neg events were more likely to happen in their future
* “bad things will happen and there’s little I can do to stop them”
Low Anxiety:
* less PB
* thought pos things were more likely to happen in their future
* could do things to encourage them to happen
PDH: Measuring Locus of Control Study (Roe & Bell, 2016)
How Were Results Displayed?
Path Analysis:
* (allows us to examine more complicated relations among the V’s than having several IVs predict one DV and to compare different models against one another to see which one best fits the data)
* Non-significant relationships are given as a dashed line
* e.g. anxiety & PB = signif
* e.g. likelihood of pos future events & PB = not signif
PDH: Roe & Bell (2016) Study: Evaluation (1 + ; 3 -)
+explains relationship between anxiety, control & PB
-Small sample size using students
-ELSE and PCSE need further evaluation
-PB scale used can be problematic for this type of research
