Anomalistic Psychology

Front 1

The Soal Affair

Back 1

Soal spent years searching for evidence of ESP. He eventually found astonishing levels of ESP in Basil Shackleton. However, one of his agents later revealed that the results were faked.

Front 2

Rhine (1974)

Back 2

ESP in rats. He reported 12 of his assistants for behaving dishonestly.

Front 3

Carl Sargent

Back 3

Conducted research into ESP using the Ganzfeld technique. However, when Blackmore visited his lab she noticed suspicious behaviour. Sargent defended himself but subsequently left the research field.

Front 4

James Randi (1982)

Back 4

Accused Uri Gellar of being a fraud. Gellar’s manager confessed on TV to helping Gellar cheat.

Front 5

Playfair (2009)

Back 5

Suggests that many noted scientists such as Galileo and Newton have resorted to data-fudging or outright invention.

Front 6

Hines (2003)

Back 6

Points out that historically, fraud has been more common in parapsychology than in any other area.

Front 7

Honorton (1974)

Back 7

Developed the Ganzfeld technique. In 1985 he published an analysis of 28 Ganzfeld studies, showing a success rate of 38%.

Front 8

Hyman (1985)

Back 8

Challenged Honorton’s conclusions, claiming that the studies were flawed. Hyman reanalysed the data and found no evidence of psi phenomena.

Front 9

Hyman and Honorton (1986)

Back 9

Produced a joint communication proposing to conduct better controlled research studies. They developed the autoganzfeld technique.

Front 10

Milton and Wiseman (1999)

Back 10

Reviewed 30 well controlled Ganzfeld studies and concluded that the studies showed no significant effects.

Front 11

Batcheldor (1984)

Back 11

Claimed that people feel inhibited and self-conscious about displaying macro-PK.

Front 12

Heath (2003)

Back 12

Believes that most people possess powers of macro-PK but they need some way to prevent the conscious mind from interfering.

Front 13

Jahn et al.(1997)

Back 13

Conducted a study into micro-PK. They found that the effect size for individual trials was very small, but when all scores were combined the effect size was much larger. They also found that effects increased when two people with a close attachment worked together.

Front 14

Carroll (2003)

Back 14

Shows a clear scope for subjective interpretation about what counts as a match.

Front 15

Wooffitt (2007)

Back 15

Found that researchers who didn’t believe were less likely to encourage ‘receivers’ to elaborate on their images, showing researcher bias.

Front 16

Randi (1983)

Back 16

Arranged a hoax using two magicians, and was able to fool scientists for 4 years.

Front 17

Wiseman and Greening (2005)

Back 17

Believers were more likely to report further bending of a key when told the key would keep bending.

Front 18

Bierman (2000)

Back 18

If the phenomena were real then surely the effect size would have increased as scientists were better able to understand it and control variables. However, effect size has decreased.

Front 19

Gray (1987)

Back 19

Found that believers have significantly lower levels of academic performance than skeptics.

Front 20

Williams et al. (2007)

Back 20

Found a positive relationship between neuroticism and paranormal beliefs.

Front 21

Irwin and Green (1999)

Back 21

Found a link between paranormal belief and schizotypy in the cognitive-perceptual domain (e.g. tendency to have hallucinations and disordered thinking).

Front 22

Allen and Lester (1994)

Back 22

Found a correlation between external locus of control and paranormal belief.

Front 23

Brugger et al.

Back 23

The believers were more likely to see a face or word where there wasn’t one, and the non-believers were more likely to miss a face or word. When given a dopamine increasing drug, the non-believers saw more real faces/words when there was none. The drug had no effect on believers.

Front 24

Koenig et al. (2005)

Back 24

Found that identical twins were more likely than non-identical twins to have the same religious views.

Front 25

Evans (1973)

Back 25

Surveyed New Scientist readers, and found that of the 1500 readers, 67% regarded ESP as an established fact or a likely possibility.

Front 26

Thalbourne (1998)

Back 26

Found a link between creativity and paranormal beliefs.

Front 27

Wolfradt (1997)

Back 27

Found that some forms of psi phenomena such as superstition correlate positively with an external locus of control, whereas others such as ESP or PK correlate with an internal locus of control.

Front 28

Palmer et al. (2007)

Back 28

Failed to replicate the results of Brugger’s study.

Front 29

Watt et al. (2007)

Back 29

Found a significant association between childhood experiences such as parental divorce and the tendency to hold paranormal beliefs.

Front 30

French and Kerman (1996)

Back 30

Recruited participants with a history of abuse and found a correlation between childhood trauma, fantasy proneness and paranormal belief.

Front 31

Freud (1913)

Back 31

Proposed that religion was a response to deep emotional conflicts.

Front 32

Hood (in Henderson, 2006)

Back 32

Suggests that credulity is adaptive for younger children as if they accepted explanations provided they would avoid dangerous situations.

Front 33

Bloch (2008)

Back 33

Suggests that the ability to imagine has led to the development of the transcendental social, which unites groups of people.

Front 34

Wilson (2002)

Back 34

Argues that religious behaviour evolved because it links people into coherent and successful groups.

Front 35

Henderson (2006)

Back 35

Supported the need for control explanation, as when Israel was attacked by Iraqi missiles, there was a rise in superstitious belief.

Front 36

Wiseman and Watt (2004)

Back 36

Point out that paranormal beliefs should not be considered an abnormal response to abnormal situations, as some beliefs are positive e.g. good luck charms.

Front 37

McCullough and Willoughby (2009)

Back 37

Show that religion is adaptive, as religious people have great self-control and have better physical and mental health.

Front 38

Pinker (2004)

Back 38

It is important to distinguish between the functions of paranormal beliefs for the believers compared to their function for those in power.

Front 39

Wiseman (1997)

Back 39

Deception involves a variety of manipulative tricks similar to those used by magicians. These deceivers mask their deception by appearing to have no motivation to deceive and emphasising their honesty.

Front 40

Freud on self deception

Back 40

Self deception is when a person consciously believes one thing but unconsciously believes another.

Front 41

Trivers (1976)

Back 41

Argues that self-deception evolved alongside deception. If you can believe your own lie you will be better at making others believe it.

Front 42

Wiseman (1995)

Back 42

People are most accurate at detecting lies on the radio (73%).

Front 43

Skinner (1947) (theory)

Back 43

Proposed that superstitions are an accidental stimulus-respone learned through operant conditioning.

Front 44

Kokko (2009)

Back 44

Argues that the adaptive advantage will persist as long as the occasionally correct response has a large adaptive benefit.

Front 45

Beck and Forstmeier (2007)

Back 45

Point out that Type 1 errors are tolerated to avoid Type 2 errors.

Front 46

Taylor (2005)

Back 46

Points out that self-deception may be beneficial as facing the plain truth may be depressing.

Front 47

Skinner (1947)

Back 47

Placed hungry pigeons and food pellets were delivered randomly each day. However, certain random behaviours tended to precede the food and these behaviours were then repeated as the pigeons seemed to believe their random actions caused the food delivery e.g. turning anticlockwise.

Front 48

Solfvin et al. (2005)

Back 48

Theraputic touch has been taught to at least 10000 nurses in the US.

Front 49

Wirth (1990)

Back 49

Patients in the theraputic touch condition healed faster.

Front 50

Rosa et al. (1998)

Back 50

Theraputic touch practitioners were only 44% correct at detecting a hand they could not see on the other side of a screen.

Front 51

Schwartz et al. (2001)

Back 51

Two women who had recently experienced deaths were behind a screen and answered yes or no to the questions of a medium. They were 83% and 77% correct.

Front 52

Roe (1996)

Back 52

Many sitters are aware that statements are just generalised but they still remain convinced.