PSYCHOLOGY IN ACTION: ANOMALISTIC
PSYCHOLOGY
Learning Objectives
Issues to Consider
Anomalistic psychology refers to experiences that do not fit in with conventional physical laws,
for example, clairvoyance, telepathy, extra-sensory perception, and psychokinesis. These
experiences cannot be explained by science and scientific principles and this area of study is
known as parapsychology. In this chapter we will consider the theoretical and methodological
issues in the study of anomalous behaviour as there is a great deal of controversy as to whether
paranormal experiences really exist. We will also consider the factors that underpin anomalous
experience including biological, cognitive, personality, the functions of paranormal beliefs and
the role of self-deception, deception, superstition, and coincidence in paranormal experience.
Finally, we will consider some fascinating examples of anomalous experience, psychic healing,
out-of-body/near death experience, and psychic mediumship.
On completion of this topic you should be familiar with the following.
Use this list of learning objectives as a revision checklist. Cross-reference the objectives with the
Specification.
Theoretical and methodological issues in the study of anomalous experience
Discuss issues of pseudoscience and scientific fraud.
Critically consider controversies relating to Ganzfeld studies of ESP and studies of
psychokinesis.
Factors underlying anomalous expereince
Outline and evaluate cognitive, personality, and biological factors underlying anomalous
experience.
Consider the functions of paranormal and related beliefs, including their cultural
significance.
The psychology of deception and self-deception, superstition, and coincidence.
Belief in exceptional experience
Outline and evaluate research into: Psychic healing; out-of-body and near death experience;
and psychic mediumship.
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ANOMALISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
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Theoretical and Methodological
Issues in the Study of Anomalous
Experience
For details, see Eysenck’s A2 Level Psychology (pages 648–659).
Issues of Pseudoscience
Fill in the blanks.
Pseudoscience refers to beliefs that are based on a body of knowledge or “evidence” that
appears to be s____________ic but that, on closer inspection, does not adhere to scientific
principles or methods. An example is parapsychological phemonena, such as mind reading.
Pseudoscience is the opposite of science because it requires open-minded belief; it has failed
to use many aspects of the scientific m__________d favoured by traditional science. The
scientific method involves the manipulation of an ind_______________nt variable and
measure of a dependent variable. All other variables need to be controlled, so that the
independent variable is isolated as the only factor affecting the de____________nt variable.
Pseudoscience does not employ rigorous controls.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE FOR PARAPSYCHOLOGY
BEING A PSEUDOSCIENCE
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Mousseau (2003). What did his review of parapsychology research conclude?
Ψ Self-citations. Why are these an issue?
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RESEARCH EVIDENCE AGAINST PARAPSYCHOLOGY
BEING A PSEUDOSCIENCE
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ There are some parapsychology procedures that are scientific. Which research did
use the experimental method?
Ψ Conventional science is not always appropriate. Why?
Issues of Scientific Fraud
Fill in the blanks.
Scientific fr______d involves the participant, the experimenter, or both, claiming phenomena
that have not really happened!
Research example: the case of Walter J. Levy
Fill in the blanks.
Levy (see A2 Level Psychology pages 652–653) was researching the psi (ESP) abilities of rats
and gerbils, among other species. Mainly positive results were found and these seemed to
be valid as the study controlled for humans affecting the recording of results as
equ___________nt was used to do this. Levy’s associates—Kennedy, Davis, and Levin—
identified the case as fraudulent when they noticed that Levy acted strangely near the
recording equipment. Levy was seen “fiddling” with the recording equipment, which was
not necessary as the co________________er recorded the results on a “paper-punched”
readout. It was no coincidence that this tied with a string of “hits” being recorded on a
number of occasions! Subsequently it was also discovered that the plug for the “misses”
was not connected and so could not re_______d them! Levy’s associates set up another
recording device, unbeknownst to him, which showed conclusively that the misses had not
been recorded by the original recording equipment.
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Research example: project Alpha—James Randi
Fill in the blanks.
Randi (1983; see A2 Level Psychology page 653) set up Project Alpha to test if the
researchers were fraudulent. He chose two participants who appeared to have psychokinetic
and ESP powers, e.g. spoon be________g and te_____________hy.
Randi instructed the researchers to put only one object on the table for the participants to
bend (to test if the researchers would follow a set protocol). However, there were many
objects on the table and each item was marked with a tag attached to it via a piece of
string, and so this could easily be sw_________d by the participants when the experimenter
was dist___________ed. Another trick involved the participants deliberately leaving the
room last so that they could leave a wi__________w unlocked. They would then come back
and bend all of the spoons, and then claim that they had done this via psychokinesis during
the night.
The te___________hy tasks involved the participants being given an envelope with a target
drawing inside, which was “sealed” using two staples. The participants were left in the
room alone with the envelope! It wasn’t that difficult to unpick and then replace the
staples. The participants deliberately got some wrong as 100% accuracy would have been
suspicious. This research shows how easily researchers can be fooled by fraudulent
participants and the lack of sc__________ic rigour of the test pro______________es.
Controversies Relating to Ganzfeld Studies of Extra-Sensory Perception
Fill in the blanks.
ESP stands for extra-se__________ry pe___________n, which refers to an ability to acquire
knowledge and information without the use of our five main senses, for example,
te___________hy, pre-cognition, and clai______________t abilities.
The Ganzfeld procedure (Ganzfeld is German for “entire field”) involves participants being
placed alone in a room. They then experience mild sensory de_____________n because
halved ping-pong balls are placed over their eyes, a red light is shone into their face, and
they wear headphones that play white noise so that they experience vi_________l and
au___________y deprivation for around 30 minutes. Participants are commonly referred to
as receivers because whilst they are being sensory deprived, a sender will choose from the
pack of Zener cards and try mentally to send the shape to the re____________r. The
receivers describe what they feel is on the card. The results are then calculated to see
whether the correct answers deviate significantly from ch_____ce.
Controversy 1: have early research findings been replicated?
Fill in the blanks.
Early research, e.g. Rhine and Pratt (1954) showed that certain individuals had
extraordinarily high scores on ESP tasks; as high as 40% accuracy (with chance being at
20%). The controversy is whether these findings have been successfully re____________d.
Some argue that the tightening of c_________ls and the introduction of Ganzfeld-type
procedures have meant such high accuracy is no longer found. However, Parker and
Brusewitz (2003) challenge this and identify six more case studies of people who score well
above ch________e in ESP and related tasks.
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Controversy 2: can the choice of experimental
design affect results?
Fill in the blanks.
The second controversy refers to whether a fo_______d-choice or a fr_____-response design
is used. In a forced-choice design, the participant chooses from a pre-de_______________d
set of answers (e.g. Zener cards). However, with a free-response design, participants must
simply state what is being transmitted to them and so there is no knowledge of the possible
answers, which avoids the issue that c____________t responses will be more likely using a
forced-choice design because the targets are kn______n. Research shows ESP is significantly
more likely to be supported when fixed rather than when free-response is used, which
questions the va_________y of these findings as evidence for ESP.
Controversy 3: can factors bring about positive
results without being a case for ESP?
Fill in the blanks.
Honorton and the Psychophysical Research Laboratory have identified a four-factor model of
“success in Ganzfeld” studies, which suggests that certain factors do b____s results in
favour of supporting ESP. These four factors have been further research by Dalton (1997).
Explain why the following factors bias results.
Ψ Factor 1: prior experience:
Ψ Factor 2: practice of a mental discipline like meditation:
Ψ Factor 3: prior laboratory experience:
Ψ Factor 4: feeling/perception preferences on a Myers–Briggs-type indicator:
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These four factors raise controversy because they are co_______________g variables that
may account for ESP and so if research does not control these four factors then cause and
e________t cannot be established.
Controversy 4: can the belief of the experimenter
affect ESP results?
Fill in the blanks.
Smith (2003) found results are more likely to support ESP when the experimenters believe in
the existence of psi phenomena than when the experimenters are sc____________l. This is
known as the experimenter ex_____________y effect as the experimenters’ expectations
affect the responses of the participants. Participants may try harder when being studied by
those that believe in psi.
Controversies solved? Autoganzfeld
Fill in the blanks.
An autoganzfeld testing system has helped to address the weaknesses of the traditional
method as the system is au__________c and randomised by computer so this eliminates
human error and ex______________er effects. The procedure is completely standardised and
can be easily replicated.
After Honorton and a range of colleagues ran a series of trials using the system, a review
was conducted and the success rate was well above ch________e, at 33% (Bem &
Honorton, 1994). Thus, this offers stronger support for ESP than previous research with
even higher percentages because this research is well controlled and so we can be more
confident in the va__________y of the evidence.
Psychokinesis (Mind Over Matter)
Fill in the blanks.
Psychokinesis (PK) derives from the Greek words psyche, meaning “m____d”, and kinesis,
which means “mo__________nt”. This occurs when the mind is able to affect matter, space,
time, or energy in a way that cannot be explained by the current laws of physics. A
common test of psychokinesis is spoon-bending.
There are two main types of psychokinesis:
1. Macro-PK: the ability to affect objects that can be directly ob_________d (so the effect
can be seen), e.g. affecting the throw of a die or spoon-bending.
2. Micro-PK: the ability to affect much smaller objects (like a random number generator).
Therefore, the effects cannot be d____________ly observed so the researchers use
statistics to see if the results are well above what would be expected by chance.
Significantly less work has been done on PK than on ESP. Nevertheless, there are still
controversies surrounding research into PK.
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Controversy 1: early research used dice in a
potentially biased way
Fill in the blanks.
Early research tested whether participants could influence the throw of two
d______e to achieve a cumulative score over 7. For significance 5 hits out of every
12 rolls needed to be successful as this is better than chance. J.B. Rhine obtained
results that were significantly better than chance. However, he decided to check
whether the dice were b________d by changing the cumulative score round to less than
7, and then to exactly 7. Above-chance performance was seen on all trials, indicating
biased dice.
Radin and Ferrari (1991) reviewed 148 experiments using a m_____a-an_________is
and found only 69 studies of these did check to see if the dice were bi___________d.
The results were still significant and so did support PK but not as strongly as when all
of the studies were used. The controversy is that not all studies have checked whether
the dice are biased and so this questions the va___________y of the evidence as
support for PK.
Another bias in early research is that participants used to be allowed to throw the dice from
their hand, therefore they may have practised ways of throwing the dice to influence the
la____________g and so findings would be due to this rather than PK, thus completely
invalidating the research as evidence for PK.
Controversy 2: potential experimenter effects
Fill in the blanks.
Potential experimenter effects have been tested out via anpsi—examining if animals have PK
powers. The procedure involves an el_____________ic grille with half of it activated at any
one time to test if the animal can use PK powers to “send” the electric current to the other
half of the grille. Irwin and Watt (2007) report that there has been success using a range of
species.
A study using cockroaches found a significant effect but in the wrong direction as
the cockroaches sat on the side that became electrified sig________________ly more
than chance would suggest (Schmidt, 1970)! Exp__________________er effects may
account for the findings as it has been suggested Schmidt might have disliked
cockroaches and so used his own PK powers to influence which half was electrified,
i.e. the side that the cockroaches were on. Whilst we cannot be sure if experimenter
effects occurred or not this shows how difficult it is to research parapsychology as it
is difficult to is___________e the participants’ PK powers from those of the
experimenter.
FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF: Produce a newspaper article that documents an interview
between a sceptical journalist and a “believer”. Through this, bring up the arguments for
and against the study of anomalous experience being a pseudoscience.
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CONCLUSIONS—SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Answer the following questions in your conclusions:
• What are the arguments for parapsychology being a pseudoscience?
• How can the argument that parapsychology is a pseudoscience be refuted?
• How have the procedures that led to cases of scientific fraud been improved?
Using this in the exam
(a) Outline issues of pseudoscience and scientific fraud.
(b) Evaluate findings from Ganzfeld studies.
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(9 marks)
(16 marks)
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Factors Underlying
Anomalous Experience
For details, see Eysenck’s A2 Level Psychology (pages 659–678).
Cognitive, Personality, and Biological Factors Underlying Anomalous
Experience
Cognitive factors
Fill in the blanks.
A cognitive factor that affects anomalous experience is the sheep–goat effect, which refers
to whether a person is a be____________r or non-believer in the paranormal. Believers are
“sh_______p” and non-believers “go______s”.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE FOR COGNITIVE FACTORS
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Sheep’s and goats’ recall of a demonstration of ESP. How did their recall differ?
Ψ Sheep’s and goats’ recall of a séance. How did their recall differ?
Ψ Cognitive biases and horoscopes. How are judgements of horoscopes biased?
EVALUATION OF COGNITIVE FACTORS
Summarise the evaluation point below.
Ψ Natural experiments. What is the key weakness of this method?
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Personality factors
Fill in the blanks.
One such personality trait that may affect anomalous experience is fa_______sy proneness
(FP) and another is ext__________________n.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE FOR PERSONALITY FACTORS
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Wilson and Barber’s (1983) research on FP personality types. How did they differ
from controls?
Ψ FP and UFO experience. What did Gow et al. (2001) find?
Ψ Extraverts and PSI. What did Parra and Villaneuva (2003) find?
RESEARCH EVIDENCE AGAINST PERSONALITY FACTORS
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Why does Roberts (1997) question FP evidence?
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EVALUATION OF PERSONALITY FACTORS
Summarise the evaluation points below.
Ψ Cause and effect. Why can this not be established?
Ψ Control groups. Why is the use of these a strength?
Ψ Extraversion as a confounding variable. Is it a confounding variable or not?
Ψ Sample bias. What is the bias?
Ψ Researcher bias. How might this have biased results?
Ψ Self-report. What are the weaknesses of self-report?
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Biological factors
Fill in the blanks.
Two key biology factors that may underpin paranormal experiences are temporal lobe
l_____y and electro____________y, and both of these may be linked.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE FOR BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ The Temporal Lobe Lability Hypothesis. What is this?
Ψ Blackmore’s (1994, see A2 Level Psychology page 663) replication for a Horizon
programme. What were the results of this?
Ψ Electrohypersensitivity. How has this been linked to anomalous experiences?
RESEARCH EVIDENCE AGAINST BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Sleep paralysis. Why do Blackmore and Cox (2000) suggest this is more relevant than
temporal lobe lability?
Ψ Spanos et al. (1993). How does this study challenge temporal lobe lability?
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EVALUATION OF BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
Summarise the evaluation points below.
Ψ Cause and effect. Why are these not established?
Ψ Lack of scientific evidence. Why is there a lack of evidence?
Ψ Lack of understanding of electrohypersensitivity. Why is this an issue?
Ψ Reductionist. Why are biological factors too simplistic?
Functions of Paranormal and Related Beliefs, Including Their Cultural
Significance
Psychodynamic functions hypothesis
Fill in the blanks.
One reason suggested for why people hold these beliefs is based on psychodynamic
psychology. The Psychodynamic Functions Hy___________sis suggests early
trauma (e.g. abuse) can lead to a belief in the pa_____________al. Irwin (1992)
suggests childhood trauma leads to childhood fa___________sy (e.g. high imagination,
prone to fantasy play, etc.) as a coping mechanism and this means the trauma can be
repressed into the un_______________us. This manifests itself as either a paranormal
experience or a stronger belief in paranormal activities during adolescence and
adulthood.
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RESEARCH EVIDENCE FOR PSYCHODYNAMIC FUNCTIONS
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Lawrence et al. (1995). Does this support the Psychodynamic Functions
Hypothesis?
A lack of control as a result of childhood experience
Fill in the blanks.
The Psychodynamic Functions Hypothesis has been expanded to give a broader theory;
the concept of co________ol, and whether this is internal (feel have control of life) or
external (feel external factors have control) as suggested by Rotter (1954), has been
added to the theory. External lo______s of c____________l is more closely associated
with pa________________l belief and so Irwin (2005) now suggests that paranormal
beliefs arise because of a lack of control brought about not just by childhood
abuse/trauma but any childhood experience characterised by a lack of control
(e.g. having older si____________gs, having authoritarian parents, moving house
a lot).
RESEARCH EVIDENCE FOR A LACK OF CONTROL
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ A negative correlation between belief in the paranormal and perceived
childhood control. What evidence is there for this?
Loneliness and insecure attachment
Fill in the blanks.
Rogers, Qualter, and Phelps (2007, see A2 Level Psychology page 666) proposed
that lon___________ss and/or atta__________________nt style affected paranormal
belief. Thus, paranormal experience may be a way of dealing with loneliness and
childhood ins_________________y, in particular, the avoidant attachment style may
be able to explain paranormal beliefs because it follows the Psychodynamic Functions
Hypothesis idea that we ignore and avoid dealing with the tr______________ic events of
childhood.
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RESEARCH EVIDENCE INTO LONELINESS AND INSECURE ATTACHMENT
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Childhood trauma, loneliness, and attachment style. Which one most strongly
predicts paranormal beliefs?
EVALUATION OF RESEARCH ON LONELINESS
AND INSECURE ATTACHMENT
Summarise the evaluation points below.
Ψ Self-report biases. How do these affect validity?
Ψ Multi-factorial. How do we know paranormal belief is multi-factorial?
Cultural significance
Fill in the blanks.
The functions of belief in the paranormal are culturally re_____________e, which means
they differ across cultures. Therefore, one culture may perceive a paranormal activity to be
that—paranormal—yet another may see it as a human-based skill.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE INTO CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Belief in a huge monster called marsalai in New Guinea (Jahoda, 1969). How did
researchers interpret this?
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Ψ Sleep paralysis and paranormal experience. What is this and why is the experience of
it culturally relative?
Ψ Irwin (1993). What cultural differences in paranormal experience did this research find?
Ψ Near-death experiences. How do these show the influence of culture?
The Psychology of Deception and Self-deception, Superstition, and
Coincidence
RESEARCH EVIDENCE INTO DECEPTION
The cases of scientific fraud covered previously are examples of deception.
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Faith healers. What observation did Wiseman (2001) make?
Ψ The Cottingley Fairies photographs. Why are these examples of deception?
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Ψ The use of trickery. How does this go undetected?
Ψ Psychic surgery. What is this and what evidence is there of deception?
Self-deception
Fill in the blanks.
Self-deception is when we mislead ourselves to accept as t_____e what is most likely
fa_____e. Irwin (2002, see A2 Level Psychology page 671) suggests that many psychologists
agree self-deception to be the acceptance of a belief in a self-serving way by people who
have a motivation to believe in whatever is under investigation.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE INTO SELF-DECEPTION
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Traditional Paranormal Belief (TPB) and New Age Philosophy (NAP) scores and
self-deception. Is there any relationship?
EVALUATION OF RESEARCH INTO SELF-DECEPTION
Summarise the evaluation points below.
Ψ Difficult to study. Why is it difficult to study deception and self-deception?
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Ψ Cause and effect. Why can cause and effect not be established in the research on selfdeception?
Ψ Sample bias. Why is the sample biased in research on self-deception?
Superstition
Fill in the blanks.
Superstition is defined as a belief or notion that is not based on re____________n or
kno____________________e that highlights the “significance” of some behaviour to the
individual.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE INTO SUPERSTITION
Fill in the blanks.
Skinner’s view of superstition
Skinner’s theory of op________________nt conditioning states that learning is based on the
co_____________________es of behaviour. In general terms, we are more likely to repeat a
behaviour if it is positively rei______________ed and less likely to repeat a behaviour if it is
pu_________________d.
One of the main assumptions of behaviourism is that general laws govern all behaviour (e.g.
rewards), irrespective of species. Therefore, Skinner (1948, see A2 Level Psychology page 672)
studied sup________________on in pigeons. Eight hungry pigeons were placed in their own
Skinner boxes for just a few minutes per day, where they received food pellets every 15
seconds. This procedure lasted for several days and towards the end of this, the length of time
between each delivery of pellets increased. Six of the eight pigeons began to show strangely
re_______________e behaviours in between the delivery of food pellets. These included
head tossing, pendulum-type swinging of the head, ho_____________g, and turning in an
anti-clockwise circle. These behaviours had not been seen prior to the study and they were
not performed once the food was presented to them. Thus, Skinner concluded that these
behaviours were a form of su_________________on. The pigeons performed the behaviours
as if the delivery of food depended on them. Thus, superstitions develop when we learn that
behaving in a certain way will be re_________________ed. This is a form of maladaptive
learning because in reality the behaviour has nothing to do with the reward.
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EVALUATION OF RESEARCH INTO SUPERSTITION
Summarise the evaluation points below.
Ψ Experimental support. Why is this a strength?
Ψ Rewards are not always clear. Why not?
Ψ Extrapolation. How does this question the behavioural approach?
Ψ Ignores cognition. Why is this a key weakness?
Perceptual and memory errors
Fill in the blanks.
Jahoda (1969) suggests that superstitions are formed because of errors or faults in our
perceptual and m______________y systems. For example, “selective forgetting” means we
remember only su__________________n-confirming thoughts and behaviours.
Lehmann’s (1898) study of séances supports the fact there can be errors in our
pe________________al and memory systems. The participants were asked to pick a line from
a book. He then organised the séance so that there was a blackboard just underneath a red
light with some unintelligible wr_____________g on it. The light was used because it is very
difficult to observe much under this light, so anything that might be seen by a person at a
séance would be an error in encoding and processing of information. Participants identified
the unintelligible writing as the line they had chosen and so errors were confirmed.
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EVALUATION OF PERCEPTUAL AND MEMORY ERRORS
Summarise the evaluation points below.
Ψ Artificiality of the research means problems with demand characteristics. Why
might demand characteristics have been guessed?
Ψ Self-deception may be more valid. Why?
Superstitions and the unconscious
Fill in the blanks.
Freud (1901) explains superstitions through un________________s mechanisms.
Unconscious fears and desires drive our behaviour. Freud believed that superstitions are a
form of pro_________________n whereby the threats from these unconscious thoughts are
dealt with by attaching them to things in the outside world. One of Freud’s examples starts
with a person having a cruel thought about someone they care a lot about. This causes
g______lt and an expectation of punishment. This hidden conflict manifests in the conscious
as a su____________n that misfortune can be avoided if a particular set of behavioural
patterns are stuck to.
EVALUATION OF SUPERSTITIONS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS
Summarise the evaluation points below.
Ψ Unverifiable and unfalsifiable. Why can the theory not be verified or falsified?
Ψ Lacks scientific validity. Why is this limited?
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Contemporary ideas and research on superstition
Fill in the blanks.
Contemporary research has expanded upon early work into faulty cognitive
pro________________g. Lindemann and Arnio (2006) categorised participants into intuitive
thinkers who tend to “trust their h__________es” and therefore use little reasoning and
an_____________l thinkers who tend to “have explainable reasons for decisions”. 239
Finnish volunteers completed a battery of questionnaires aimed to test their superstitious
beliefs, analytical thinking, and intuitive thinking. Roughly half of the sample were
superstitious and the other half sceptics. The findings clearly showed that the superstitious
participants relied much more on int___________e thinking than the sceptics and much less
on analytical thinking in general decision making.
They concluded that superstition can be explained using dual-coding pro____________es.
The dual-processing refers to the fact we all process intuitively and analytically it is just that
in superstitious people they process more intuitively when it comes to strange phenomena.
EVALUATION OF CONTEMPORARY IDEAS AND
RESEARCH ON SUPERSTITION
Summarise the evaluation points below.
Ψ Cause and effect. Why is it difficult to establish cause and effect?
Ψ Self-report criticisms. Why might questionnaires not be the best method to test out
processing?
Ψ Reductionism. Why is the classification into superstitious or sceptics too simplistic?
Coincidence
Fill in the blanks.
Psychologists are obviously interested in coincidences because many anomalistic experiences
are based on “strange occurrences”. But how many are simply coincidences that can be
explained by the laws of pro__________ity? So if coincidence has the probability of
occurring to everyone in one million people per day, and the UK has a population of 61
million then 61 coincidences should happen per day, e.g. somebody ringing you just as you
are thinking about them could lead you to think you have pre-co_______________e power.
Many of these may be seen as being anomalistic in nature when it is simply what should
happen by ch______________ce!
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Coincidence and belief in paranormal activity
Fill in the blanks.
Blackmore and Troscianko (1985) conducted a classic study into the link between belief in
the paranormal and coincidences and probability. They ran a series of experiments testing
out the beliefs and pro____________y judgements of sheep (believers in psi) and goats
(non-believers in psi). They found that sheep are more likely to see a coincidence as being
something “out of the ordinary” because they are more likely to ov_____________k
probability explanations for events in favour of anomalistic explanations. The sample for this
research was 50 school girls so it lacks generalisability. However, a second sample of 100
volunteers (aged 12–67) were tested on their understanding of probability (results
happening by chance) and the same results were found, that is “sheep” overlook
probability and prefer “coi__________________ce” as an explanation.
FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF: Make up a case study using a number of the different factors
to illustrate who is most likely to experience paranormal phenomena.
CONCLUSIONS—SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Answer the following questions in your conclusions:
• How do early childhood experiences influence anomalous experience?
• What evidence is there that culture affects anomalous experience?
• How can superstition be explained?
Using this in the exam
1. (a) Outline cognitive factors underlying paranormal beliefs.
(9 marks)
(b) Discuss the functions of paranormal and related beliefs, including their cultural
significance.
(16 marks)
2. (a) Outline biological factors underlying anomalous experience.
(5 marks)
(b) Discuss the psychology of deception, self-deception, superstition, and/or
coincidence in anomalous experience.
A2 Level Psychology Workbook. Copyright © 2009 Psychology Press
(20 marks)
ANOMALISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
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Belief in Exceptional Experience
For details, see Eysenck’s A2 Level Psychology (pages 678–685).
Research into Psychic Healing
Fill in the blanks
Psychic healing refers to the passing of some form of en_________gy from one person to
another living being with the aim of treating the individual. This can be the laying of hands
on an individual or through prayer. There are many anecdotal accounts about how healers
have performed “mi_____________s” and cured people of a variety of ailments. Is this
reliable or valid evidence? Scientific research requires randomised and d____________ebl_____d trials; that is, participants have an eq_____l chance of being in the healing or
non-healing group and do not know which condition they are in. The doctors who examine
the participants to see if their condition has improved also do not know who had healing or
non-healing.
RESEARCH EVIDENCE INTO PSYCHIC HEALING
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Prayer healing. What evidence did Byrd (1998) find of this?
Ψ Distant healing. Why is this a completely double-blind study?
Ψ Abbott et al. (2001). Why does this study not support the use of healing in chronic pain
sufferers?
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ANOMALISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
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EVALUATION OF RESEARCH INTO PSYCHIC HEALING
Summarise the evaluation points below.
Ψ Double-blind design. Why is this design needed?
Ψ Placebo effect. How might this explain the research findings?
Ψ Confounding variables. How might these reduce validity?
Ψ Contradictory findings. Which findings are contradictory?
Research into out-of-body experiences
Fill in the blanks.
An out-of-body experience (OoBE) is said to occur when individuals believe that they
have had a sensation of fl_________g out of their own body and being able to see
their own body and the environment surrounding it. Very little research has tested
the va___________y of OoBEs due to the obvious problem of the impossibility of testing
the truth of self-re_____rt. Instead, research has focused on common characteristics
across OoBEs.
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ANOMALISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
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RESEARCH EVIDENCE INTO OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Common characteristics of OoBEs. What are these, according to Alvarado (2000)?
Ψ Irwin and Watt (2007). What further characteristics did they find?
EVALUATION OF RESEARCH INTO OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES
Summarise the evaluation point below.
Ψ Self-report criticisms. What are these criticisms?
Research into near-death experiences
Fill in the blanks.
Generally, a near-death experience (NDE) is the perception reported by someone who
was cli______________ly dead but revived or nearly died (this is the crucial difference
between this and out-of-body experiences—the latter can occur in non-life threatening
situations).
RESEARCH EVIDENCE FOR NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ Themes common to NDEs. What did Moody (1975) identify as common themes?
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Ψ Five stages of an NDE. What are these?
Ψ Differences between NDE experients and a control non-NDE group. What did van
Lommel et al. (2001) find?
Ψ Physiological differences. Did Parnia et al. (2001) find any physiological difference
between the NDE group and other survivors?
Ψ Greyson’s (2003) research. What differences did this study find between an NDE group
and a control group?
EVALUATION OF RESEARCH INTO NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES
Summarise the evaluation points below.
Ψ Prospective not retrospective. Which study took a prospective approach and why is
this a strength?
Ψ Self-report. Why is this a weakness?
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Ψ Sample drop off. Why is this an issue in van Lommel et al.’s study?
Ψ Small samples. Why is this a weakness?
Ψ Correlational data. What cannot be established from correlational data?
Research into psychic mediumship
Fill in the blanks.
Psychic mediumship refers to a type of relationship that a living person says they have with
sp_____________s. Mediums tend to claim that they can communicate with spirits and pass
on me__________________es to loved ones “left behind” in the “earthly” world. It is
practised as part of many religions across the globe. There are many hypotheses about
mediumship, ranging from the survival hypothesis (i.e. our spirit survives after death and can
communicate) to the Sceptical Hy_________________is (which predicts that the mediums’
messages are so general that they can apply to anyone).
RESEARCH EVIDENCE INTO PSYCHIC MEDIUMSHIP
Summarise the research evidence below.
Ψ The Sceptical Hypothesis. Why did Robertson and Roy’s (2001; 2004) research reject this?
Ψ Robertson and Roy’s (2004) follow-up study. What did this find?
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Ψ Sensory leakage. How did O’Keeffe and Wiseman (2005) control for this and why did this
lead them to accept the Sceptical Hypothesis?
EVALUATION OF RESEARCH INTO PSYCHIC MEDIUMSHIP
Summarise the evaluation points below.
Ψ Lack of standardisation. What is the lack of standardisation?
Ψ Participant effects. How can these limit validity?
FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF: Conduct research into one or more of the above phenomena.
How do your findings compare to those found in the above psychological research? Refer
back to the principles of scientific research from the introduction to this topic. Does the
research meet or fail to meet these?
CONCLUSIONS—SO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
Answer the following questions in your conclusions:
• Why is it difficult to research OoBEs or NDEs?
• How has some research taken a more scientific approach?
Using this in the exam
Outline and evaluate research into psychic healing, out-of-body and/or
near-death experience, and psychic mediumship.
A2 Level Psychology Workbook. Copyright © 2009 Psychology Press
(25 marks)
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Example Essay Plan
(a) Outline issues of pseudoscience and scientific fraud. (9 marks)
(b) Outline and critically evaluate findings from Ganzfeld studies. (15 marks)
The marking is broken down into three sets of criteria, AO1, AO2, and AO3. In this question,
part (a) is AO1 and part (b) is AO2/AO3.
AO1 (9 marks)
Outline reasons why anomalistic psychology may be seen as a pseudoscience and describe the
examples of scientific fraud in some detail.
AO2 (12 marks)
Discuss the weaknesses of the original Ganzfeld studies and the improvements of the
autoganzfeld testing system.
AO3 (4 marks)
A full consideration of the scientific weaknesses of the studies will achieve the AO3 marks.
So the essay could be structured in the following way.
Part (a)
Explain why parapsychology is considered by many to be a pseudoscience and give examples of
pseudoscience and scientific fraud. Outline evidence such as Mousseau’s (2003) findings that
parapsychology uses the experimental method less than does mainstream science.
Describe what scientific fraud means and use the cases of Walter J. Levy and Randi’s (1983)
Project Alpha as evidence. Evaluate that these are just case studies and so cannot be said to be
representative of all research into parapsychology. Describe Levy’s deliberate fraud and the poor
methodology employed in the Project Alpha research. Certainly the fact that the participants
could so easily defraud the researchers in the Project Alpha research shows the lack of scientific
rigour of the test procedures.
Part (b)
Discuss the controversies of the technique such as the issue of replication and the effect of the
experimental design, i.e. whether a forced-choice or a free-response design is used.
Consider the confounding variables that limit internal validity. Also discuss whether factors such
as prior experience, practice of a mental discipline like meditation, prior laboratory experience,
and feeling/perception preferences on a Myers–Briggs-type indicator are confounding variables
that may account for ESP, and so if research does not control these four factors then cause and
effect cannot be established. Also discuss the issue of the experimenter expectancy effect.
Assess how well the autoganzfeld testing system has addressed the weaknesses of the
traditional method and use Bem and Honorton’s (1994) research as evidence.
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