Unit 4 – Section B – Psychology in Action
Anomalistic Psychology.
Specification:
The study of anomalous experience• Pseudoscience and the scientific status of parapsychology
• Methodological issues related to the study of paranormal cognition (ESP, including Ganzfeld) and paranormal action (psychokinesis)
Explanations for anomalous experience
• The role of coincidence and probability judgements in anomalous experience
• Explanations for superstitious behaviour and magical thinking
• Personality factors underlying anomalous experience
Research into exceptional experience
• Psychological research into and explanations for psychic healing, near death and out of body experiences, and psychic mediumship
This pack will cover the following part of the specification:
Research into exceptional experience.
· Psychological research into and explanations for:
o Psychic healing,
o Near death experiences,
o Out of body experiences
o Psychic mediumship
In the exam this area is usually assessed through a 10 mark question such as
Outline and evaluate explanations for psychic healing. (4 marks + 6 marks) or
Outline and evaluate research into near death experiences. (4 marks + 6 marks)
So the question will either ask about explanations or research. The mark schemes make it clear that research can mean studies or explanations, so the easiest way to answer both of the above questions would be to use the explanations for the AO1 then studies as the main part of the evaluation.
Belief in exceptional experience: research into and explanations for
Psychic Healing
Psychic healing refers to any method used to alleviate health problems by purely psychic means.
Psychological explanations for psychic healing
1. It works because it’s a placebo effect – people really do improve, but they improve because they think an effective treatment has been received.
2. It works because of anxiety reduction. The psychic healing works as a form of social support because it is contact with a sympathetic person. As such, it promotes relaxation, reduces anxiety and stress so the body is better able to heal. This explanation ties in with Keicolt-Glaser’s research showing that stress increases your probability of being ill.
There are non-psychological explanations for psychic healing such as energy healing and therapeutic touch, which rely on the belief that a healer can channel healing energy. Since these are not psychological explanations you will gain no AO1 credit for them in the exam, although you may want to refer to them in the evaluation.
Research about psychic healing
Evidence 1
In an Australian study (Lyvers et al. 2006) a psychic used a volunteer sample of 20 participants with chronic back pain and randomly assigned them to a control or experimental group. The participants were all told that the psychic was focusing on them, although he only focused on the treatment group. The psychic (he regarded his ability as a gift and accepted no money) was in one room looking at a photo of the participant and the participant was in another room. Each participant was assessed using a pain questionnaire before and after treatment and no significant difference was found between the two groups, so no evidence of psychic healing was found. Evidence that believers were more likely to think that they had received healing benefits was found; participants had filled out a questionnaire about belief in psychic healing prior to the study and this correlated to pain reduction, regardless of whether they were in the experimental or control group. Therefore belief seems to play a key role in the success of psychic healing.
Which explanation of psychic healing does this study tie in with? Why?
This explanation supports the placebo effect because their pain was reduced as a result of the individual’s belief in the success of psychic healing not because of the treatment itself (as shown by the non-significant difference found between the control and experimental group).
What is good about the way that this study was carried out?
Scientific method used to gain objective data e.g. randomly assigned to the conditions (reduces participant variables) and they were separated from the psychic. Also, they told all participants that the psychic was focusing on them (lowering demand characteristics)
All of the above increase the internal validity of the study thus providing strong support for the placebo effect explanation.
Evidence 2
Kreiger (2000) found higher haemoglobin (protein found in red blood cells that carries oxygen around the body) levels in a group with a range of illnesses who had received psychic healing from Oscar Estabany (who had first discovered his healing powers 20 years earlier when treating army horses) than in a control group who did not receive psychic healing. The control group had a similar range of illnesses. The experimental group still had higher haemoglobin levels one year later. The ability to fight off illnesses is associated with metabolism and oxygen consumption.
Which explanation of psychic healing does this study tie in with and why?
This explanation supports the anxiety reduction explanation because the findings suggest that psychic healing has reduced the participant’s anxiety thus increasing their haemoglobin levels which can help their ability to heal.
How could you criticise this study?
Even though the control group had a similar range of illnesses, they may have been more severe which could affect the internal validity of the study.
Although haemoglobin levels are linked to ability to fight off illnesses, you could argue that this study is not really measuring whether the participants have actually healed which means it is more difficult to establish a cause and effect.
Does the evidence allow us to discount the notion that Estabany had genuine healing powers?
No, it could be genuine but it can also explained by psychology/science
Evidence 3
In a double blind study (Keller et al, 1986) 60 participants with tension headaches were randomly assigned to receive either therapeutic touch or a placebo form of the therapy. Those who received the true therapy found significant benefits compared to the placebo therapy.
This is a double-blind study. Why does this make the evidence more scientific?
Because it is more objective as controls have been put in place (neither p’s nor investigator know who is receiving the true therapy) to avoid researcher bias and demand characteristics.
Can this study be explained by the placebo effect? Why/why not?
No - the double-blind technique controls for the placebo effect but there was still a difference found between the two groups
Can it be explained by anxiety reduction? Why/why not?
No - as both groups received a form of therapy either could potentially reduce anxiety but the real treatment group found significant benefits.
How can you explain it?
There could have been a statistical error (type 1)
Overall evaluation
Considering all the evidence, can psychic healing be discounted? Why?
Not wholly as some of the experimental evidence has found a difference (Keller et al, 1986) however there are inconsistencies in the research which casts doubt over psychic healing claims.
What seems the most likely explanation of psychic healing?
The psychological explanations (e.g. placebo & anxiety reduction) seem the most likely (could refer to Occam’s razor here). They provide sufficient contradictory evidence for the existence of psychic healing.
There is not much empirical research for psychic healing; some studies have small samples, others are not properly controlled. Why does this make it difficult to reach conclusions about psychic healing?
Lack of objectivity and replicability mean it is difficult to reach conclusions. Also, it is difficult to make conclusions for the wider population as findings are difficult to generalise
How may psychic healers link to pseudoscience?
They use complex jargon to explain the process of psychic healing.
Lack of replicability means it fails to build on existing scientific knowledge
Comment on the ethics of psychic healing
Psychic healing could be seen as unethical as it exploits people who may be vulnerable. Also, deception could be an issue if psychic healing is not real.
Research into exceptional experience: research into and explanations for out-of-body experience (OBE)
OBEs are an experience in which a person seems to perceive the world from a location outside the physical body. Scientists agree that the many reports of OBEs are not made up by the reporter; the ‘experience’ is real to them. However, the causes of OBEs are open to debate.
Explanations of OBE
1. A neurological explanation for OBE looks at problems with a specific area of the brain. The area is the right temporal-parietal junction (TPJ). The TPJ is a region of the brain where the temporal lobe and the parietal lobe come together and it is involved in our spatial perception. The region is thought to be important to the brain’s analysis of sensory information that allows us to perceive our own bodies in space. If the area misfires in some way, then Blanke theorises that the effects can include an OBE.
2. A cognitive explanation of OBE is provided by the breakdown of sensory input (Blackmore, 1987). Whilst people normally view the world as if they are behind their eyes, sometimes this sensory input breaks down and the brain attempts to reconstruct the visual field using memory and imagination, hence they see from a birds-eye-view and experience an OBE. When normal sensory input returns the OBE ends.
Evidence 1
Blanke et al (2005) electrically stimulated the brain of an epileptic whose epilepsy meant that she had lesions in the right TPJ region. The electrical stimulation was given to the angular gyrus (which is in the area of the right TPJ) causing her to have a sense of floating and producing an artificially induced OBE. This was replicated on the patient.
In people without epilepsy, Blanke has shown that the conscious experience of seeing the self and the body being in the same place depends on the TPJ. When the right TPJ was stimulated (in a non-invasive way called transcranial magnetic stimulation) participants experienced difficulties with the perception of their own body. They didn’t experience these difficulties when other areas of the brain were stimulated.
Which explanation of OBE does it support and why?
It supports the neurological explanation because when the TPJ was stimulated it induced OBEs, thus supporting the idea that the TPJ is involved in spatial perception and the experience of OBEs.
Are the OBEs investigated by Blanke’s studies the same as naturally occurring OBEs?
No, they may not feel as realistic, stable or continuous as real ones. They may not feel natural as well because the participants know they are receiving TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation).
However, it is the same part of the brain involved and so there are likely to be some similarities between the experiences.
Evidence 2
Ehrsson (2007) demonstrated that an OBE can be created in a lab (without NDE) by scrambling a person’s visual and touch sensations. This is done by placing a pair of video displays in front of a participant’s eyes. The displays show a live film recorded by two video cameras that are two metres behind the participant (left camera to left eye). The participant sees their own back as if they were sitting behind themselves. The experimenter then prods the participant’s chest with a plastic rod and another rod in prodded where the illusory body would be located, just below the camera’s view. Participants reported that they felt that they were sitting behind their physical body and looking at it from a different location. They reported that although they could feel themselves being prodded, they also felt their ‘alter ego’ being prodded. When the illusory image was threatened by the researcher, the person showed a physical stress reaction (perspiration on their skin).
Which explanation of OBE does it support and why?
Cognitive explanation because there is a change of visual perspective. The perception of oneself is different resulting in experience of OBE.
This study is certainly clever, but is it a valid way of studying OBE?
It is valid scientifically but may not be entirely representative of real life OBE.
However, it does show us that they exist and can be induced experimentally.
Overall evaluation
Most of the evidence for OBEs is anecdotal (what people report of their OBE); why is Blanke and Ehrsson’s evidence preferable to anecdotal evidence?
Scientific/objective
Can measure neurological changes/influence reliably.
Whereas, anecdotal evidence is often unique, cannot test the reliability or validity of the report.
Why is this area so difficult to study empirically?
As an OBE cannot be seen (as such).
Only way to investigate it is to wait for a natural OBE to occur or induce an OBE and observe the effects.
There could be other explanations for OBE; Irwin reports that OBE may link to fantasy proneness. Why may this be the case? What would this suggest about OBE?
People with fantasy proneness are more likely to imagine they have had an anomalous experience. This would suggest that OBEs do not exist but are made up by people who are prone to fantasy-style experiences.
Research into exceptional experience: research into and explanations for near death experience (NDE)
NDEs are vivid and dramatic experiences reported by a sizeable minority of people who have, or believe they have, come close to death. NDEs often involve OBE. There are some interesting similarities in the reports from people who have a NDE. Often there is a sense of peace and the presence of a strong light. Some report this as a religious experience. Other common themes are a life review (my life passed before my eyes), feeling of joy, sense of mystical entity (god like figure), and sense of a point of no return.
Explanations
1. One neurological explanation is that when people are near death, a huge amount of endorphins may be released as a response to stress or pain. Endorphins produce feelings similar to opioids (e.g. morphine) and may account for feelings of peace and euphoria in NDEs.
2. A further neurological explanation is that when near death hypoxia occurs (the brain and body are starved of oxygen). This causes unstable cerebral physiology and may account for effects such as seeing a light at the end of a tunnel. Furthermore, when hypoxia occurs the brain may flood with the neurotransmitter glutamate; if too much glutamate is released neuron death occurs so the brain responds to the flood of glutamate by blocking the receptors which glutamate binds to. This blocking causes the NDE.