All You Need to Know to Get an a Grade on Anomalistic Psychology

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW TO GET AN A GRADE ON ANOMALISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

OUTLINE AND EVALUATE THE GANZFELD TECHNIQUE

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW FIRST

The Ganzfeld technique investigates ESP (extra sensory perception).

The technique was developed to introduce the auto-Ganzfeld technique which introduced sound-proofing and computerised selection of images.

OUTLINE OF THE GANZFELD PROCEDURE

Two people involved – a receiver and a sender + the researcher.

The receiver is deprived of their senses of sight and hearing (sensory deprivation).

This is done with ping-pong balls cut in half and placed over the eyes (translucent goggles are sometimes used now) and headphones playing white noise (fuzzy sound like speakers that aren’t playing anything).

The sender is in another room.

They randomly choose one of four images to send telepathically (by thought) to the receiver.

The receiver tries to receive the image telepathically.

At the end of the session the receiver is shown a set of images and asked to select the target image from them or they might be asked to describe the image they received while under sensory deprivation.

Chance level would be one in four as there are four images to choose from. If the receiver has ESP they should score more than one in four over several trials.

EVALUATION OF THE GANZFELD TECHNIQUE

Methodological issues include:

• Possible cheating due to lack of control particularly in early studies

Cheating could occur due to sensory leakage (the receiver could still see and hear a bit), insecure storage of images (the receiver could get a sneaky look at the images beforehand and know which was going to be sent to them). This was dealt with in later studies by soundproofing the room the receiver was in and by using a computer to randomly select the image to be sent.

• Researcher bias: the researcher could either help or hinder the elaboration of the receiver depending on their own preference, e.g. if they are sceptical they might give no help whatsoever to the receiver when describing what they received. Later studies tried to eliminate the possibility of a biased researcher helping the receiver by not allowing them to know which image had been sent.
• The sheep-goat effect refers to whether people believe or not. A sceptical participant may deliberately try not receiving anything from the sender.

Tip start with the methodological issues of the early studies and show how the later Auto-Ganzfeld technique attempted to deal with some of these.

OUTLINE AND EVALUATE THE STUDY OF PSYCHOKINESIS

Things you should know first:

Psychokinesis (PK) is the same thing as telekinesis and involves the movement of objects by an action of the mind (mental intention) rather than by physically moving them. IT IS NOT ESP SO IF YOU ANSWERING A QUESTION ABOUT PK DO NOT USE THE GANZFELD TECHNIQUE!

Micro-PK – very small effects not detected by the naked eye but detected statistically over a number of trials e.g. dice throwing (the dice isn’t expected to move again once it’s landed – the idea is that it lands where it is ‘willed’ to land.

Macro-PK – large scale effects detectable with the naked eye e.g. spoon bending – the spoon moves visibly without being touched.

There have been a number of ways in which researchers have tried to study PK.

Direct Mental Interaction with Living Systems (DMILS) is a form of PK. One person tries to influence the biological system of another from a distance. This may include psychic healing.

‘Die’ is plural for ‘dice’

WAYS IN WHICH RESEARCHERS ATTEMPT TO STUDY PK

• J.B. Rhine used a dice-rolling machine Die-rolling where attempts are made to affect the way the die lands.
• Random number generator (RNG) or a random event generator (REG) use radioactive decay, electronic noise or computer algorithms to generate random events. Participants are asked to alter the output by mental intention.
• Radin and Ferrari (1991) carried out a meta-analysis of 2.5 million dice throws over many years.

PROBLEMS WITH STUDYING PK

Although many issues are common and are, therefore acceptable, candidates should focus

on issues which apply to psychokinesis rather than its related phenomenon, ESP. Issues

that only relate to ESP are not creditworthy.

A wide range of issues can be selected, for example:

• the problem of experimental control and attempts made to deal with these (e.g. use of electronic coin flipper)
• the role of the experimenter (for, example, the problem of experimenter bias or psi inhibition),
• Differencesin analysis andreporting.

Candidates can address this aspect of the question in a number of ways. You can, forinstance, consider the adequacy of attempts to deal with methodological issues, includingexamples of research, or even question the extreme methodological restraints placed onresearch in this area compared to other fields of psychological research. More rigour is often required than normal due to sceptical attitudes and the possibility of fraud, but this may be considered as unfair.

THE ROLE OF COINCIDENCE AND PROBABILITY MISJUDGEMENTS IN ANOMALOUS EXPERIENCE

Coincidence is where two or more events happen to occur at the same time or within a noticeable time frame. For example, you think about a friend and they phone or text you very soon after.

People explain coincidence in different ways. Psychological explanations are based around the idea that humans have a deep-seated need to seek meaning. Some people are particularly keen to attribute coincidence to paranormal activity. This may be because they misjudge the likelihood of such a coincidence happening. Probability and randomness are difficult to understand and it is often a surprise to find that the chances of something happening are much greater than we would anticipate, for example there only have to be 23 people in a room together before the chance of two of them sharing a birthday is greater than two of them not sharing a birthday. People often don’t understand that true randomness means that a string of heads or a string of tails when flipping a coin is just as likely as alternate heads and tails because there is a 50:50 chance of either on each flip of the coin. Probability misjudgement is one of the main reasons why people interpret coincidence in a ‘spooky’ way.

People also often do not understand the Law of Truly Large Numbers meaning that the chances of unusual things happening become greater, e.g. a person buying two winning lottery tickets. Another example is with dreams. We all dream, and there are a lot of people in the world. This amounts to a very large number of dreams and it would be very strange if some of them didn’t appear to come true. People believe that extreme events are unlikely to happen and misattribute them to paranormal activity. This is not a personality factor so much as a cognitive reasoning factor, i.e. the way people think and reason. This is due to their knowledge and intellectual capacity rather than their personality.

There is considerable evidence (eg review by French (1992) that belief in the paranormal is higher in people with some sort of 'cognitive deficit'. A particular cognitive ability to attract attention in this context is syllogistic reasoning (egWierzerbiki (1985).
These are tests where conclusions have to be made from a couple of statements,
e.g.1Statement 1: All men are animals Statement 2: Some animals are aggressive
Conclusion: Some men are aggressive
e.g.. 2 Statement 1: All men are animals Statement 2: Some animals are female
Conclusion: Some men are female
Although, findings are mixed, there has been general support for the idea that people who believe in the paranormal do worse on such tasks than other people. There is also some evidence that believers are less familiar with scientific principles and are less able to see the flaws in poorly designed experiments than others. Poor intellectual ability may be the reason why people do not appreciate the role of coincidence. Such people may be more likely to attribute coincidences to psychic ability.

Yet another cognitive factor in belief is the way people explain anomalistic experience is subjective validation. This is the way in which there is a tendency to notice and record the ‘hits’ and overlook ‘misses’ even when they are actually more frequent. We remember the times when a friend calls us just as we are thinking of them and forget the times (which are far more numerous) when they didn’t call. The dreams that come true stand out in our memory and the rest are forgotten. There is a focus on one coincidental event and it confirms something that we really want to believe.

Superstitious beliefs and behaviour

Superstitions are often shared with family and friends within a cultural context (Opie and Opie 1959).They can also be more personal coming from lucky charms or believing that certain rituals bring about particular outcomes, e.g. tennis players have little rituals about how many times they bounce the tennis ball before serving, or believe that they must use the same ball they used for a winning point in order to succeed again. Operant conditioning can explain how these links occur.

Operant conditioning

Skinner (1948) described an experiment in which pigeons were individually placed inside a box and simply presented with a food pellet once every 15 seconds, regardless of their behaviour. Surprisingly, however, after a few minutes the birds had developed various little idiosyncratic rituals, such as walking round in circles, bobbing their heads up and down and so on. Although behaviourists would reject such mentalist notions it looked for all the world as if the pigeons thought their strange little routines were causing the release of the food even though in reality there was no relationship between their behaviour and the release of food whatsoever. Skinner’s explanation for this phenomenon was that the accidental pairing of the release of food early on in the process with whatever the bird happened to be doing was enough to reinforce that particular type of activity. Many personal superstitions, such as the wearing of lucky hats or the adoption rituals, probably have their origins in such coincidental reinforcement.

Superstitious thinking and behaviour increase in situations where there is a heightened sense of uncertainty, stress and unpredictability (Keinan 2002).

Magical thinkingis a clinical term used to describe a wide variety of non-scientific and sometimes irrational beliefs. Magical thinking can be found everywhere. Irrational beliefs (fairies, Santa Claus, belief in power of spells or rituals) are passed on to us. Survival requires recognising patterns – night follows day, winter follows summer etc – and we look for patterns because we like to be in control. Emotional stress and events of personal significance push us strongly toward magical thinking in order to make meaning of things that happen to us. Magical thinking is bound up in superstitious beliefs and the subsequent behaviour which arises. It may be part of the schizotype personality.

The specification emphasises that you may be asked to provide explanations for Magical thinking rather use Magical thinking as an explanation for belief. Operant conditioning is not named on the specification, but could provide an explanation for why people hang on to their irrational beliefs. The process may begin with vicarious reinforcement (social learning) if parents or significant role models are believers. Magical thinking may also be explained by schizotypy. People with a schizotype personality may be prone to irrational thinking and, therefore, belief in the paranormal. As this is a disorder it is recommended that you don’t use it as a personality factor but you can use it to explain Magical thinking, if asked to, as this is named on the specification.

PERSONALITY FACTORS IN EXPLAINING ANOMALISTIC EXPERIENCE

Personality is measured in different ways and can explain the tendency to attribute the paranormal to coincidence.

For example some people are very creative. Creative people can be identified through tests which show various traits e.g. making associations and links. Gianotti et al (2001) found a positive correlation between creative personality traits and beliefs in the paranormal. Research has also shown that highly artistic people tend to score higher on ESP tests.

Another way of measuring personality is introversion / extraversion.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO LEARN THE FOLLOWING LISTS, BUT IT IS USEFUL TO HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THESE TERMS MEAN.

Extraversion

The energy of extraverts is outward, towards people and things. They need a lot of stimulation and often express emotions. They get their motivation from other people.

They often want to change the world (rather than think about it). Extraverts like variety, action and achievement. They do well at school but may find University more difficult.

Their attitude is often relaxed and confident. They are understandable and accessible. They tend to act first and think later.

At work, they seek variety and action and like working with other people. They prefer work that has breadth rather than depth.

Introverts may see them as being shallow and pushy.

Introversion

The energy of introverts is inward toward concepts and ideas. They need little external stimulation - and in fact they can easily be over-stimulated. It is possible that they focus more on their inner worlds because they suffer from sensory overload if they spend too much time outside and focusing on other people. They thus bottle up their own emotions, which can explode if pushed too far.

Rather than trying to change the world, they just want to understand it. They think deeply about things and often do better at University than they did at school.

Their attitude is reserved and questioning and they can seem subtle and impenetrable. They tend to think before they act.
At work they like to work alone and often seek quiet for concentration. They tend to prefer work that has depth rather than breadth.

Extraverts may see them as egocentric and passive.

There is a view that introverts may act as they do because they are more easily overwhelmed by external stimuli, as opposed to extraverts who have a higher basic stimulation threshold and need the more visceral external stimulation to avoid boredom.

Honorton et al (1998) found that extroverts generally have higher beliefs in ESP. This means they are more likely to believe in the ability to transmit ideas telepathically. This will inevitably lead to them attributing some coincidences to ESP – e.g. you think of your friend, your friend thinks of you (because there is some telepathic transmission between you) and texts or phones. Extroverts have also been found to perform better on ESP tasks than introverts.

Another way of measuring personality is by Sensation seeking. Kumar et al (1993) used Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale and a questionnaire measuring beliefs and experiences in paranormal phenomena and found that the two were related. You can look up these scales on line and measure your own.

Locus of control is another way of describing personality. Internal locus of control means that people take more responsibility for outcomes rather than being fatalistic about things. People who score highly for external locus of control score more highly for belief in the paranormal. Note that locus of control is strongly related to certain kinds of paranormal belief e.g. superstitious belief and behaviour, but not all, so avoid using it unless it is relevant.

NOTE THAT FANTASY PRONENESS AND SCHIZOTYPY HAVE BEEN OMITTED DELIBERATELY DUE TO THEIR AMBIGUITY

RESEARCH INTO EXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCE

PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH INTO AND EXPLANATIONS FOR PSYCHIC HEALING, NEAR- DEATH AND OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCES, AND PSYCHIC MEDIUMSHIP

One exceptional experience is when a person who claims to be a psychic medium claims to contact someone who has died and wants to communicate with someone who is still living.

There are a number of ways that mediumship has been researched for example there are have been some studies on:

• The state of mediumship – case studies on particular psychics such as Eileen Garrett and their experience of trance states when they claim to be able to communicate with people who have ‘passed over to the other side’. In some instances they appear to have been taken over temporarily by the spirit of the dead person who uses them as a vehicle to speak through.

Psycho-physiological studies of the trance state indicate that there may be some right hemisphere dominance in the brain and an abnormality in the temporal lobe which is part of the limbic system (Krippner, 2011).

Braude (1995) has found links between Dissociative Identity Disorder and psychic mediumship.

• Factors which influence people to believe in psychic mediumship - A variety of things influence people’s belief – poor scores on cognitive reasoning tasks especially critical thinking and high scores on neuroticism (Fulham and Varian 1988) have been found to correlate with people’s belief. Richard Wiseman has found that some people are more suggestible than others and are more likely to be influenced by psychic mediums.

(THE FOLLOWING IS THE FOCUS HERE AND COULD BE USED TO ANSWER A QUESTION ABOUT RESEARCH INTO PSYCHIC MEDIUMSHIP AND THERE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH HERE SO BE SELECTIVE)

• Methods used by mediums –Psychological aspects of the processes involved in reading: cold reading techniques including stage setting, the ‘stock spiel’, and fishing.

MATERIAL WHICH COULD BE USED FOR OUTLINE AND DESCRIPTION (Chris Roe, 1991)

There are contrasting findings about the ability of psychic mediums but in many cases their success can be explained by the use of a technique that has been termed ‘cold reading’. The classic account of cold reading is given by Hyman (1977) who defines it as a “procedure by which a ‘reader’ is able to persuade a client whom he has never met before that he knows all about the client’s personality and problems.”