Microsoft Word Complete article [10] versie e-thesis[1]. doc

 

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scored highest on magical thinking showed a predisposition to psychosis 

(Eckblad and Chapman, 1983).  Research has also shown that paranormal 

beliefs are significantly and positively correlated with schizotypy 

(Thalbourne, 1994; Chequers, Joseph and Diduca, 1997) and with manic-

depressive experiences (Thalbourne and French, 1995). 

 

As can be seen there are various forms of paranormal belief. Here the 

individual is heavily influenced by cultural factors, such as family, peer 

group processes, dissemination of paranormal concepts in the media and 

formal persuasion by social institutions, e.g. the church (Schriever, 2000).  

Socialisation has been one of the reasons used to explain gender differences 

concerning the extent of paranormal beliefs.  Females express greater global 

paranormal belief than males (Irwin, 1993; Rice, 2003), although men 

express greater belief in UFOs and extraterrestrials (e.g. Rice, 2003).  

Blackmore (1994) speculated that males were socialised to take more 

interest in science, while females were socialised to be better informed 

about religious issues, implicating women’s richer fantasy life as possible 

explanations for gender differences.  Furthermore, a study by Lester, 

Thinschmidt and Trautman (1987) reported that precognition experience and 

paranormal belief were directly related to feeling and intuition scores, 

supporting the view that believers tend to be less logical, more open-minded 

and prone to fantasy than non-believers.       

 

All this may suggest that (strong) believers in paranormal phenomena may 

be maladjusted in some form or another, but the evidence with respect to 

personality dimensions is decidedly mixed.  Early research with regard to 

personality and religiosity used Eysenck’s three-dimensional model of 

personality, based on the underlying factors of Psychoticism, Extraversion 

and Neuroticism (PEN) (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1968, 1985), whereas ewer 

research used the Five Factor Model (FFM) introduced by Costa and 

McCrae (1978, 1992, 1995).   The FFM can be thought of as an extension to 

Eysenck’s model with Agreeableness and Conscientiousness, now providing 

a two dimensional view of Psychoticism (Digman, 1997; McCrae, 1996b) 

and Openness to Experience constituting a new element (Costa and McCrae, 

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1995).  This model claims to represent the basic factors organising human 

traits (Saucier and Goldberg, 1998).  Bearing this in mind, Thalbourne, 

Dunbar and Delin (1995) found a significant positive relationship between 

paranormal beliefs (specifically belief in psi, witchcraft, spiritualism, 

precognition and traditional religion) and Neuroticism using the revised 

Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS), whereas other researchers (Lester and 

Monaghan, 1995; Willging and Lester, 1997) have found no such 

relationship.  In a similar way, anxiety showed a close relation with 

paranormal beliefs in some studies (Okebukola, 1986; Wagner and 

Ratzeburg, 1987), but it didn’t in others (Tobayck, 1982).  A more recent 

study has reported significant relationships between paranormal beliefs, trait 

anxiety and dissociative experiences (Wolfradt, 1997), which mirrors 

findings of previous studies (Irwin, 1994; Pekala, Kumar and Marcano, 

1995).   

 

It is postulated that paranormal beliefs serve the same function as 

dissociative experiences, i.e. creating a distance from reality (of a situation 

or experience) as a defence mechanism (Wolfradt, 1997). Similarly, fantasy 

proneness - correlated with paranormal beliefs- is also believed to serve this 

function (Irwin, 1990).  Even so, a low but significant correlation has been 

found between paranormal belief and irrational thinking (Tobayck and 

Milford, 1983; Roig, Bridges, Renner and Jackson, 1997). 

 

One personality factor that would have been thought related to paranormal 

belief is Openness to Experience, as individuals scoring high in this factor 

may be characterised by a particularly permeable structure of consciousness, 

as well as an active motivation to seek out the unfamiliar.  This goes hand in 

hand with tolerance of ambiguity and open-mindedness and leads those high 

in Openness to Experience to endorse liberal political and social values, 

because questioning conventional values is a natural extension of their 

curiosity (McCrae, 1996a).  However, currently there is little or no support 

for this hypothesis (Thalbourne, Dunbar and Delin, 1995; Lester and 

Monaghan, 1995; Willging and Lester, 1997).

 

  

 

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Perhaps the strongest evidence relating personality correlates and 

paranormal beliefs has come from empirical studies showing Extraversion to 

be a salient correlate of paranormal belief. The prime example is the study 

of Thalbourne (1981), who discovered that individuals with higher 

paranormal belief scores (sheep) were more extraverted than disbelievers 

(goats), with Eysenck (1967) and Thalbourne and Haraldsson (1980) 

reporting similar results.  However, some other studies have shown no such 

association (Lester et al., 1987; Windholz and Diamant, 1974), which may 

be due to some of the issues highlighted below.    

 

Unfortunately, some of the prior research in this area has been plagued by 

several methodological problems, including semantic ambiguity regarding 

the dimensions of paranormal belief, imprecise operational definitions that 

blur the constructs of belief and experience, and measurement 

inconsistencies of the constructs themselves.  For example, Irwin (1993) 

points out that the numerous scales differ widely in their operational 

definitions of the construct and as such ‘paranormal belief’ has been 

stretched to include a host of unusual phenomena, e.g. belief in witches, 

UFOs, etc., which do not fall under  the traditional definition of the term 

(French, 1992)

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.  The reasons for this include specific biases of the 

researchers, limitations of the measurements, or conceptual differences 

regarding the dimensionality of the construct (Rattet and Bursik, 2000).   

 

With respect to the employed RPBS, a controversy exists (Lawrence, 1995) 

regarding the classification of traditional religious beliefs and superstition as 

                                                 

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 The traditional definition of the term ‘paranormal’ that French (1992) refers to only 

includes ESP and PK.  ESP is defined as ‘paranormal cognition: the acquisition of 

information about an external event, object, or influence (mental or physical; past, present, 

or future) in some way other than through any of the known sensory channels’.  This term 

subsumes telepathy (direct mind to mind contact), clairvoyance (acquisition of information 

relating to remote objects or events), and precognition (knowledge of future events other 

than by ordinary deduction). PK or psychokinesis is defined as ‘paranormal action; the 

influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the 

mediation of any known physical energy’. PK is often subdivided into micro-PK, defined as 

‘any psychokinetic effect that requires statistical analysis for its demonstration. Sometimes 

used to refer to PK that has as its target a quantum mechanical system’ and macro-PK, 

defined as ‘any psychokinetic effect that does not require statistical analysis for its 

demonstration; sometimes used to refer to PK that has as its target a system larger than 

quantum mechanical processes, including microorganisms, dice, as well as larger objects’. 

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