Psychology and the Paranormal

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Psychology and the Paranormal

• Stuart A. Vyse

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Paranormal Belief Percentages

• ESP
• Possession
• Telepathy
• Haunted Houses
• Clairvoyance
• Astrology
• Ghosts
• Reincarnation
• Communicate with dead
• Psychokinesis
• Channeling

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Paranormal

• Any belief that is in conflict with accepted
  principles of science and logic
• Examples

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Astrology

• Began 3,000 years ago
• Planet gravitational pulls
• Shape our personalities
• Research
• Yet people still believe WHY?

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Astrological Signs

• Adventurous and energeticPioneering and
  courageousEnthusiastic and confidentDynamic and
  quick-wittedSelfish and quick-temperedImpulsive
  and impatientFoolhardy and daredevil
• HOW MANY OF YOU DOES THIS DESCRIBE?

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Answer
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Astrological Signs

• Patient and reliableWarmhearted and
  lovingPersistent and determinedPlacid and
  security loving
• Jealous and possessive
• Resentful and inflexibleSelf-indulgent and
  greedy
• HOW MANY OF YOU DOES THIS DESCRIBE?

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Answer
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Astrological Signs

• Friendly and humanitarianHonest and
  loyalOriginal and inventiveIndependent and
  intellectualIntractable and contraryPerverse
  and unpredictableUnemotional and detached
• HOW MANY OF YOU DOES THIS DESCRIBE?

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Answer
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Astrological Sign

• Generous and warmheartedCreative and
  enthusiasticBroad-minded and expansiveFaithful
  and lovingPompous and patronizingBossy and
  interferingDogmatic and intolerant
• HOW MANY OF YOU DOES THIS DESCRIBE?

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Answer
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This Information
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Studying the Paranormal

• Boils down to psychological issues
• Examples

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Paranormal in 2 Groups

• Believers
• Founder of American Psychology
• Carl Jung
• B.F. Skinner

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Paranormal in 2 Groups

• Skeptics

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The Study of Paranormal Psychology

• Exists
• Investigators in this field
• Most skeptics
• Skeptics publish work in

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The Study of Paranormal Psychology

• Believers are known as
• They work in
• They publish work in
• Less scientific

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History of Paranormal Psychology

• First systematic investigation of the paranormal
  began
• 1882
• These members attended séances
• They debunked many
• But were unable to debunk a few

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History of Paranormal Psychology

• The first lab investigation of Paranormal
  Psychology
• Each of five cards showed a star, circle, or
  other pattern
• The sender
• The receiver

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History of Paranormal Psychology

• Rhine was
• Zener was
• These two groups
• They had research
• So Rhine called

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Study of Paranormal

• Anomalistic psychology because it studies the
  abnormal or irregular
• Examples paranormal beliefs, superstitious
  behavior, perceptual illusions
• This study broadens our understanding of human
  behavior, learning, cognition, and applies to
  paranormal to see how so many in such an advanced
  society continue to believe

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Most Important Activities of Psychologists who
Study the paranormal

• 1. Conduct research on paranormal beliefs
• 2. Serve as experts for the government and media
• 3. Teach critical thinking

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Research

• One study asked does our bias toward forgetting
  disconfirming information diminish for events
  that are temporally focused?
• This takes advantage of the human bias

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Research

• Hypothesis was supported

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Research

• Superstition Research

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Research

• One study looked at how stress effected
  superstitious beliefs
• Looked at people in cities frequently hit by
  these missiles and people in cities not
  frequently hit by these missiles

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Research

• Study on beliefs about magical contagion
• Studied how people believe that AIDS can be
  transferred from someone who has it to an object
  they touch, even if it was long ago

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Research

• Study on Homeopathic Magic
• Let students watch sugar being poured from a new
  box into 2 clean containers
• The students then arbitrarily decided which would
  be labeled sodium cyanide and which would be
  labeled sugar

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Research

• Study on children and superstitious behavior
• Much like Skinners pigeon study
• Told kids that the Bobo doll would spit out
  marbles they could turn in later for prizes

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Psychologists as Experts on Paranormal Behavior

• In the media

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Psychologists as Experts on Paranormal Behavior

• When psychologists appear in the media they often
  explain how these events can be results of
  perceptual illusions or errors in reasoning
• Example

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Psychologists as Experts on Paranormal Behavior

• Psychologist would explain these usually occur
  when falling asleep or waking up
• When asked about these experiences subtle
  suggestions and
• Group membership

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Psychologists as Experts on Parapsychological
research

• Must follow the research in parapsychology
  journals and
• Must follow those journals because

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Psychologists and Government

• Psychologists can also be called to evaluate
• Example the CIA top secret research program
  called Stargate testing whether ESP could be
  used to see top secret governmental locations

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Psychologists and Critical Thinking

• This is the most valuable thing psychologists can
  do
• Equip students with
• Psychologists are particularly good at teaching
  this
• Critical thinking stresses the importance

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8 Steps for Successful Critical Thinking

• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• 5.
• 6.
• 7.
• 8.

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The Future of Psychology and the Paranormal

• Interest in the paranormal
• Superstition
• Since public opinion drives public policy the
  future probably holds more

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Psychologists Important in this Field Because

• There are people who choose unsafe and untested
• This is okay sometimes
• There are people who spend large sums of money on

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Psychologists Important in this Field Because

• The media and society has pressed the importance
  of these services and now people feel they must
  have them like life insurance

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Psychologists Need to Be

• Experts on
• Educators
• Advocates