Anomalistic Psychology

Anomalistic Psychology

1. Anomalous Experience

   • Anomalous: means something that is irregular and doesn't fit into existing explanations
     • a way to refer to paranormal or psi phenomenon
   • Pseudoscience and Parapsyhology
     • used to describe a 'false' science
       • masquerading as science
     • Lack falsifiability
       • scientific method of testing hypotheses: not possible to prove it correct but you can prove it wong
       • many hypotheses related to anomalous experience have a end result of a non-falsifiable hypotheses as they are 'jealous phenomena
     • Lack carefully controlled, replicable research
       • many examples of failure to replicate studies in parapsychology
       • the fact that sceptics invariably fail to get the same results as believers challenges the objective nature of the research
     • Lack of ability to change
       • continued to be explained in the same way for centuries despite a lack of evidence
     • Burden of proof misplaced on sceptic
     • If there are two competing explanations, simpler ne is to be preferred(Occam's razor) - paranormal explanations are extremely convoluted
   • Methodological Issues
     • ESP (Ganzfeld)
       • Researcher bias - sheep-goat effect
       • File drawer effect
       • Lack of control - sensory leakage
       • Expectations affect outcome of meta-analysis
     • Psychokinesis (PK)
       • Expectations created in study led to macro-pk reports
       • Lack of control - well controlled studies show no effect
       • Ecological validity - micro-pk may not represent paranormal action
   • Explanations
     • Coincidence and Probabilty
       • Coincidence
         • Illusion of causality
           • if two things happen at the same time, sheep are more likely to believe that one has caused the other
         • Illusion of connection
           • making links between unrelated items
         • Illusion of control
           • explanations for coincidence give sense of order in world
         • General cognitive ability
           • lower intelligence more likely to be believers
       • Probability
         • paranormal experiences are a cognitive illusion due to attributing cause to random events
         • tested using repetition avoidance(estimate dice throw), questions about probability(birthday party paradox), conjunction vignettes(estimate probability)
     • Superstitious behaviors and Magical thinking
       • Superstitious Behaviour
         • making erroneous causal links (Type 1 error)
           • Type 1 error: erroneously assume causality between two unrelated events that co-occur
         • Skinner: superstitions develop when an accidental stimulus-response link is learned and then maintained through negative reinforcement
         • superstitious develop to give an illusion of control
       • Magical Thinking
         • Freud: a form of childlike thinking, a defense mechanism in adults
         • Dual processing theory: thought is intuitive or logical
         • Animism: association of objects with feelings, e.g. the bed will hurt if we jump on them, feng shui
         • Nominal thinking: names of objects affect our feelings about them
         • Law of contagion: magical thinking is adaptive to avoid disease
     • Personality factors
       • Eysenck's personality factors
         • Neuroticism - negative emotional states reduced by paranormal beliefs ( defense mechanism)
         • Extraversion - people are more open to paranormal beliefs
         • Psychoticism - associated not only with the liability to have a psychotic episode, but also with aggression
         • Williams et al - positive correlation between neuroticism and paranormal beliefs
         • Honor ton et al - positive correlation between extraversion and paranormal beliefs
       • More imaginative personality
         • Fantasy proneness - becoming so deeply absorbed in fantasy to believe it real
         • Suggestibility - more willing to believe fakes
         • Creative personalities make links between unrelated items
       • Other factors
         • Locus of control, field dependence, higher sense of seeking

2. Exceptional Experience

   • Psychic healing and mediumship
     • Psychic healing
       • energy fields re-aligned by therapeutic touch
       • reduction of anxiety through psychological support
       • Placebo effect - expectations of benefit created by success stories which could be due to spontaneous recovery
       • Wirth - tested patients treated with TT or no touch, former recovered fasted
       • Rosa - TT practitioners unable to detect 'energy field' of experimenter's hand
       • Cha - effect of prayer on infertile women, twice as many became pregnant
     • Psychic mediumship
       • Clues help medium produce accurate information without psychic ability
       • Use of general statements ( Barnum statements) and willingness of sitters to elaborate
       • Fraud - psychic mediumship is big business so people rest to complex and convincing strategies
       • Schwartz - accuracy of medium statements about 80%
       • Rock and Beischel - mediums responding differently to dead and living love ones
   • Out-of-body and Near-death experiences
     • Out-of-body (OOBE)
       • Paranormal - mind and body separated
       • Sensory input is disturbed, reconstruction based on bird's eye view
       • Blake - stimulation of temporal-parental junction of the brain resulted in OOBEs
       • Alvarado - induced OOBEs - weak but occasionally startling results
       • Green - 400 personal accounts of OOBEs, 20% 'parasomatic', rest 'asomatic'
     • Near-Death-Experience (NDE)
       • evidence of an afterlife or 'soul' due to paranormal belief
       • Endorphins released at time of stress, lead to feelings of euphoria and detachment
       • REM intrusions due to hypoxia disrupt integration of sensory information
       • Hypoxia triggers a flood of glutamate which is blocked by the brain to prevent neuronal death, leading to an NDE
       • Ring - survivors describe NDE as peaceful and like a life review
       • Nelson - NDE group more likely to experience REM intrusion
       • Jansen - ketamine can produce symptoms of NDEs, ad ketamine has same effect a s glutamate