Personality Factors

Question 1

What is fantasy proneness?

Answer 1

Where a person is prone to fantasising and has a vivid imagination

Question 2

What studies are related to fantasy proneness?

Answer 2

Wilson and barber

Gow et al

Question 3

What were Wilson and barbers findings?

Answer 3

A group of fantasy prone and non-fantasy prone women were compared and it was found that the fantasy prone group were more likely to spend time fantasising during the day, experience fantasies for real and experience apparitions

Question 4

What were gow et als findings?

Answer 4

They found that shy type of ufo experience was linked to high levels of fantasy proneness and stronger beliefs in the paranormal

Question 5

What contradicts the studies on fantasy proneness?

Answer 5

Roberts study

Question 6

What did Roberts find?

Answer 6

He reviewed studies that examined fantasy proneness and psychic abilities to ufos and aliens and found many studies did not show a link between fantasy proneness and paranormal experience

Question 7

Who suggested paranormal beliefs may be associated with personality characteristics?

Answer 7

Russell and Jones

Question 8

What did Russell and Jones suggest?

Answer 8

That paranormal beliefs may be associated with personality characteristics

Question 9

What are some of the person silty characteristics Russell and Jones suggested?

Answer 9

Neuroticism
Schizotypy
Extroversion

Question 10

What is neuroticism?

Answer 10

The tendency to experience negative rather than positive emotional states. Individuals who score high on this are more likely than average to feel anxiety, anger, guilt.

Question 11

What is the link between neuroticism and paranormal belief?

Answer 11

Paranormal beliefs may act as a defence mechanism for highly neurotic people to distance them from reality and reduce the impact of negative emotions

Question 12

What has research found about neuroticism and paranormal belief?

Answer 12

That there is a positive relationship between paranormal belief and neuroticism, suggesting neurotics may use this belief as a defence mechanism

Question 13

What is schizotypy? How does this link to paranormal belief?

Answer 13

This is a personality characteristic related to psychosis. Highly schizotypical people may have a tendency to hallucinations and disordered thinking, making them more likely to believe in the paranormal

Question 14

What is extroversion?

Answer 14

A personality trait where people tend to enjoy time spent with people, they get little reward in time spent alone. They are more prone to boredom when alone.

Question 15

What is introversion?

Answer 15

The opposite if extroversion, these types of people enjoy time spent alone and find less reward with large groups of people

Question 16

What study is related to extroversion?

Answer 16

Parra and Villaneuva

Question 17

What did Parra and Villaneuva find?

Answer 17

They compared introverts and extroverts to see if there was personality differences in ability to recurve ESP. Extroverts scored significantly better at ESP than introverts suggesting because they seek out new experiences they may be more receptive to ESP

Question 18

What undermines Parra and Villaneuva’s findings?

Answer 18

Studies have found there’s no difference between the two personality traits when undergoing spontaneous ESP tasks. It could be that extroverts are just more comfortable in a strange laboratory environment

Question 19

What are the personality factors which could affect anomalous experience?

Answer 19

Fantasy proneness
Neuroticism
Schizotyphy
Extroversion

Question 20

What can you use for evaluation?

Answer 20

Biological factors - temporal lobe lability hypothesis

Question 21

What is temporal lobe lability hypothesis?

Answer 21

There is evidence that unusual electromagnetic activity in the temporal lobes of the brain play an important role in paranormal experiences such as out of body experiences

Question 22

How is the temporal lobe lability hypothesis used for evaluation?

Answer 22

Because there is clear evidence for it it suggests that personality explanations may not be correct, there could be a biological cause for it

Question 23

What study supports the temporal lobe hypothesis?

Answer 23

Persinger et al

Question 24

What were persinger et als findings?

Answer 24

They managed to induce a variety of anomalous experiences including a ‘sends of presence’ by exposing the temporal lobes to complex magnetic fields using a purpose built helmet device