It Isn't That Strange: Paranormal Belief and Personality Traits

Abstract

This study examined two contrasting views of paranormal belief which suggest, in one camp, that belief in the paranormal is indicative of psychopathology. On the other hand, a number of researchers have disagreed with this viewpoint, suggesting that such belief is not an indicator of psychopathology, but the fulfillment of some other underlying need. This study was designed to assess the personality traits of those we would consider high and low believers in parapsychology. 105 participants completed the Paranormal Belief Scale (PBS), (Tobacyk & Milford, 1983) the Anomalous Experience Inventory (AEI), (Kumar, Pekala & Gallagher, 1994) and the Personality Research Form (PRF) (Jackson, 1984) in order to examine the differences among the personality traits of high and low believers in the paranormal. The 2 commonly used measures of paranormal belief were significantly correlated. Likewise, high believers scored significantly higher on the PRF scales of Aggression and Defendence. There were no differences on any of the other personality scales. The results indicate that high and low believers do not differ on the traits that are considered to be nonpathological.

Empirical Research and Paranormal Beliefs: Going beyond the Epistemological Debate in Favour of the Individual

“…Spinelli, Reid and Norvilitis (2003) add that belief in and experience with the paranormal is related to thinness of personality boundaries. However, Auton, Pope and Seeger (2003) remark that non-pathological personality traits such as achievement, understanding, education, affi liation, and a positive cognitive structure do not diff er between low and high paranormal believers.…”

“…Belief in and experience with the paranormal seems related to gender role (Spinelli & al., 2003;Auton & al., 2003) and to a form of intrasexual competition (Weiss, Egan & Figueredo, 2004). Dag (1999) points out that females' scores are higher in superstition, dissociative experience, psi belief, witchcraft and precognition and males score higher in extraordinary life forms.…”

Investigation of the Relationships Between Paranormal Beliefs, Parental Bonding, and Adult Attachment of University Students

“…Researches have been conducted on relations between paranormal belief and variously associated extents. They include the locus of focus (Dag, 1999;Groth-Marnat & Pegden, 1998;McGarry & Newberry, 1981;Richards, Stewart-Williams, & Reed, 2015;Tobacyk, Nagot, & Miller, 1988), schizotypy (Dagnall, Denovan, Drinkwater, Parker, & Clough, 2017;Denovan, Dagnall, Drinkwater, & Parker, 2018;Willard & Norenzayan, 2017), pseudoscience (Bensley, Lilienfeld, & Powell, 2014;Lobato, Mendoza, Sims, & Chin, 2014;Wilson, 2018), identity (Auton, Pope, & Seeger, 2003;Rattet & Bursik, 2001;Tobacyk & Milford, 1983), cognitive style and thinking skills (Balkis, 2006;Genovese, 2005;Williams & Irvin, 1991), childhood trauma (Berkowski & MacDonald, 2014;Irwin, 1992;Irwin, 1994aIrwin, , 1994b, fantasy, and tendency to separation (Irwin, 1990(Irwin, , 1994bLawrence, Edwards, Barraclough, Church, & Hetherington, 1995).…”

Church Attendance, Implicit Religion and Belief in Luck

“…Recent studies have employed this operationalized construct in research concerned with the relationship between paranormal beliefs and: anxiety (Watt et al 2007), childhood physical abuse (Perkins and Allen 2006), critical thinking (Hergovich and Arendasy 2005), control (Rudski 2004), emotional intelligence (Rogers etal. 2006), help seeking (Smith and Simmonds 2006), intuitive versus refiective processes (Irwin and Young 2002), narcissism (Roe and Morgan 2002), personality traits (Pope et al 2003), reality testing (Irwin 2004), risk perception (Sjöbery and af Wâhlberg 2002) and thinking styles (Aarnio and Lindeman 2005).…”