REAL EXAMPLE ANSWERS WITH AQA MARKS
PSYA 4 Jan 2011 Section B
014What has research shown about personality factors underlying anomalous experience? 5 marks
One personality factor underlying anomalous experience is personality traits of introversion and extroversion. Remakrishna used Indian high school students and administered an ESP test. The term ‘psi hitter’ was used for good performance and the term ‘psi misser’ for bad performance. Psi hitters were found to be more sociable, open and warm whilst psi-missers were generally cold, anxious and irritable. This research suggests a difference in belief in ESP between people with a more extrovert personality versus those with introvert personalities. Ramakrishna’s research was however replicated and this difference was not found, suggesting methodological issues. Research using biographical analysis has also shown that people who are more fantasy prone are more likely to hold a higher belief in alien abduction. Therefore, it is reasonable to suggest that fantasy proneness is a personality factor underlying anomalous experience.
AQA – 4 marks (reasonable)
015Using your knowledge of research in this area, explain why some researchers might think there is a link between poor reasoning and strong belief in the paranormal. 3 marks
The best results for assessing cognitive ability comes from syllogistic reasoning tasks where the participant is given two statements and a conclusion and is asked to what degree they think the conclusion relates to the statements. It has been found that people who score low on the tests are more likely to believe in the paranormal.
AQA – 1 mark but was moderated to 2.
016to investigate this, a researcher asked participants to complete a reliable and well-validated scale measuring belief in the paranormal. Each participant was then scored on their attempt to solve a set of reasoning problems.
What is meant by a ‘reliable and well-validated scale? Explain why it is important to use such a scale when measuring paranormal beliefs. 2 + 2 marks
The scale being reliable means that it measures what it is measuring well and will hold up under the test–retest method. It being well-validated means that it has been shown to effectively test what it says it is testing either through concurrent or face validity. It is important to have reliable and valid methods in order to gain reliable and valid results.
AQA 2 (validity and reliability one mark each) + 0 (why is it important?)
017Apart from poor reasoning skills explain how one other cognitive factor is linked to belief in the paranormal. 3 marks
Probability misjudgement is another cognitive factor underlying anomalous experience. People are generally poor at estimating probabilities in real life, for example it takes 23 people in a room on average in order for two people to share the same birthday but most people would assume that this would be much higher. It is suggested that those who make poor probability judgements are more likely to have a belief in the paranormal.
AQA – 1 mark – was moderated to 2.
Q. 18 Discuss methodological issues in the study of psychokinesis.4 + 6 marks
J.B. Rhine conducted the first studies into PK. He asked participants to attempt to influence the outcome of a dice roll in order to prove PK ability. There were issues with Rhine’s research in that it lacked the methodological rigour needed to be scientific. Rhine also used himself as a participant in many of his studies which raises issues of bias. Rhine’s research split PKresearch into two camps – those studying macro PK (effects visible to the naked eye), and those studying micro PK (effects more subtle and need to be statistically analysed). Rhine focused more on macro PK in his studies which is less scientific and is therefore another issue.
Schmidt then later investigated PK with more of a focus on micro PK. He developed an electric coin flipper and asked participants to attempt to influence the outcome of the coin flip. The use of the electric device made fraud impossible and Schmidt was applauded by other psychologists for finally finding a more scientific method for the study of pk.
Another issue with PK research is the fact that it has been shown that people who believe more in the phenomena are more likely to report its occurrence. PK research has also been inundated with issues of fraud for example the psychic Uri Gellar was able to fooled scientist for years with his remarkable ‘spoon bending’ techniques and furthermore the magician James Randi was able to do the same.
AQAAO1 – 3 marks moderated to 2 marks AO2 mark - 1 mark