Paranormal beliefs and personality among Black South African Students
Main Article Content
This study set out to replicate research on the relationship between reported paranormal belief, measures of locus of control and psychopathology in an African population. Results indicate an association between internal, external locus of control and paranormal belief. Further, the study found that extraversion was positively associated with the total paranormal belief scale while neuroticism and psychotism were not. Psychotism was associated with Psi Belief.
Beliefs, particularly paranormal beliefs, are powerful motivators and organizers of individual and collective behaviors. The term paranormal is used to describe phenomena which, if authentic, violate basic limiting principles of science. These basic limiting principles (e.g., a mental event cannot directly affect a physical event, except for one in the experient's own brain) are overwhelmingly supported by evidence from human experience and from scientific observation. For the definition of paranormal, three criteria may be used: (a) inexplicability in terms of current science, (b) explicability achieved only by major revisions in basic limiting principles of science, and (c) incompatibility with normative perceptions, beliefs, and expectations about reality (Tobacyk & Milford, 1983). Paranormal beliefs can provide persons and societies with meaning in life, experienced control over life events, and resources for adjustment (Tobacyk & Pirittilä-Backman, 1992).
The relationship between locus of control and paranormal belief has been investigated and a more external locus of control has usually been related to greater paranormal belief (Allen & Lester, 1994; Groth-Marnat & Pegden, 1998; Tobacyk & Milford, 1983; Tobacyk, Nagot, & Miller, 1988). It was also found that in general, females had a more favorable attitude toward the supernatural than did males (Randall & Desrosiers, 1980). Scheidt (1973) claims that these variables are related because those with an external locus of control believe that life circumstances depend on external determinants and paranormal phenomena. However, Tobacyk, Nagot and Miller note that the relationship with locus of control depends on the type of paranormal belief. Further, different authors found that paranormal belief is related to religiosity (Irwin, 1985; Thalbourne & Hensley, 2001) and neuroticism (Windholz & Diament, 1974, cited in Irwin, 1993). Dag (1999) found among Turkish college students small but positive significant correlations between paranormal belief, psychopathology and locus of control. Willging and Lester (1997), however, found that beliefs in paranormal phenomena in a sample of adolescents were not positively related with scores on measures of psychological disturbance regarding psychotism, extraversion and neuroticism.
Thalbourne (1995) states that individual differences in paranormal belief need further investigation and existing findings need to be verified in different populations. The present study set out to replicate research on the relationship between reported paranormal belief, measures of locus of control and psychopathology (Groth-Marnat & Pegden, 1998; Tobacyk et al., 1988; Willging & Lester, 1997) in an African population. Research into paranormal beliefs may give greater insight into the nature of paranormal phenomena, as well as into the type of person who believes in and/or experiences paranormal events. It was hypothesized that a more external locus of control and personality factors would be associated with greater belief in paranormal phenomena.
Method
Sample
The sample included 504 students: 260 Grade 11 secondary school students chosen at random (sampled within grade and sex, using class registers) from all Grade 11 students from three rural schools in the central region of the Northern Province and 244 first year social science university students (all attendees of a class) from the University of the North chosen at convenience in a classroom setting. The secondary school students were 116 (44.6%) males and 144 (55.4%) females in the age range of 15 to 26 years (M age 19.2 yr., SD = 2.0) and the university students were 74 (30.1%) males and 172 (69.9%) females in the age range of 16 to 36 years (M age 21.9 yr., SD = 3.9). Distribution by ethnicity showed 423 (84%) Northern Sotho, 50 (10%) Tsonga and 30 (6%) other. Religious denomination was distributed as follows: 165 (32.7%) Zion Christian Church, followed by 110 (21.8%) Protestant Christians, 88 (17.5%) Born again Christians, 48 (9.5%) Apostolics, 45 (8.9%) Roman Catholics, 37 (7.3%) African or traditional religion and 8 (1.6%) no religion. Most students (374, 74.2%) came from a rural background while 130 (25.8%) had grown up in an urban area. The world view of the Pedi or Northern Sotho, the major group studied, has been described by Mönnig (1967, p. 48) as follows: "They are confronted daily with the difference between life and death. Their world is surrounded by various souls, spirits and powers. These are forces they have to contend with, and to which they have to relate their life and activities...At the death of a person, his moya (breath or soul) and seriti (supernatural form of shadow or reflection) depart the body a lifeless thing to decompose...The two entities (moya and seriti), as a single unit, continue the existence of the individual, shorn now only of his body." Christian influences have modified the world view of the Northern Sotho incorporating more Christian beliefs.
Measures
A 25-item Paranormal Belief Scale was used consisting of 7 subscales: Traditional Religious Belief (4 items), Psi Belief (4 items), Witchcraft (4 items), Superstition (3 items), Spiritualism (4 items), Extraordinary Life Forms (3 items), and Precognition (3 items). The points on this rating scale ranged from 1(strongly disagree with this item) through 3 (undecided or don’t know), to 5 (strongly agree) (Tobacyk & Milford, 1983).
Following pilot work, item changes were made in this South African version of the Paranormal Belief Scale to improve the cultural adaptation and factor analysis resulted in almost the same seven factors, namely: Superstition (e.g. owls seen next to home can bring bad luck), Witchcraft (e.g., witches do exist), Religious beliefs (e.g., the soul continues to exist though the body may die), Extraordinary powers (e.g., the idea of predicting the future is foolish), Spiritualism (e.g., reincarnation or rebirth), Precognition (e.g., dreams can provide information about the future), and Psi belief (e.g., psychokinesis, the movement of objects through psychic powers, does occur). Cronbach alpha as well as split-half reliability coefficients for the Paranormal Belief Scale were .72 and .75 for this sample.
A 24-item Levenson Locus of Control Scale was used which measures the degree to which people believe that life outcomes are controlled by each of three sources: (1) their own actions or characteristics (e.g., When I make plans, I am certain to make them work), (2) powerful others (e.g., I feel like what happens in my life is mostly determined by powerful people), and (3) chance or fate (e.g., To a great extent, my life is controlled by accidental happenings). Each of the three subscales consists of eight items. Participants rated each item on a six-point scale (from 1 = strongly disagree to 6 = strongly agree) (Presson, Clark & Benassi, 1997). Cronbach alpha as well as split-half reliability coefficients for the Locus of Control Scale were .79 and .81 for this sample.
A 24-item revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQR-A) (Francis, Brown & Philipchalk 1992) was also used. It has four subscales: Extraversion (6 items, e.g., Are you a talkative person?), Neuroticism (6 items, e.g. Does your mood often go up and down?), Lie scale (6 items, e.g., Have you ever cheated at a game?), and Psychotism (6 items, e.g., Would you take drugs which may have strange or dangerous effects?). Participants were asked to respond with “yes” or “no”. Cronbach alpha as well as split-half reliability coefficients for the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire were .76 and .69 for this sample.
Religiosity was measured with three questions: (1) How often do you attend religious services (from 1: never to 8: more than once a week), (2) How often do you usually pray (from 1: never to 5: once a day or more), and (3) How important in general would you say religion is for you? (from 1: not important at all to 3: very important) (Pargament et al., 1988). Cronbach alpha and split-half reliability coefficient for the substance use measure were .74 and .72, respectively, for this sample.
Procedure
The questionnaires were administered to the students by trained postgraduate research assistants. Students filled in the questionnaires voluntarily after informed informal consent in the presence of the research assistants and were free to ask questions for clarification. Anonymity and confidentiality were assured. No time limit was given, but on average students took 15 minutes to answer all the questions. Permission was obtained from the Provincial Department of Education and from the school authorities. Principals of the schools took the ethical responsibility of informing and obtaining permission from the parents of the participants beforehand, where necessary.
Results
There was no significant difference between the mean Paranormal Belief Scale Score of 75.5 (SD = 12.8, N = 190) for the males and that of 77.0 (SD = 13.0, N = 316) for the females as indicated by analysis of variance, F(1.12), p = .27.
Pearson correlation coefficients were obtained between measures of paranormal belief, locus of control subscales, and religiosity (see Table 1).
Paranormal belief in general was highly associated with chance control locus, powerful others and internal locus of control, but not with religiosity. Of the paranormal belief subscales, internal locus of control was significantly related with superstition, precognition, witchcraft, and religious beliefs. Similarly powerful others and chance were associated with superstition, witchcraft and extraordinary powers. The paranormal belief subscales spiritualism and Psi belief were not related to any of the measures.
Table 1. Correlations Between Paranormal Belief Scores and Measures of Locus of Control and Religiosity
Note: Because of the large number of contrasts only the significant levels of .01 and .001 were considered; ** p <.001, * p <.01
Religiosity was not associated with any paranormal belief subscale except for an inverse association with superstition.
Table 2 shows Analysis of Variance between Eysenck's personality variables and paranormal belief subscales.
Table 2. ANOVA Between Paranormal Belief Scores and Eysenck’s Personality Subscales
Note: Because of the large number of contrasts only the significant levels of .01 and .001 were considered;
** p <.001, * p <.01
Extraversion was positively associated with the total paranormal belief scale while neuroticism and psychotism were not. Psychotism was associated with Psi belief, extraordinary powers and Christian religious beliefs, and neuroticism was correlated with extraordinary powers and spiritualism.
Discussion
Results did not indicate a significantly greater supernatural acceptance for women but did indicate a positive relation of supernaturalism with both external and internal locus of control, which is different from what Randall and Desrosiers (1980) found among American college students.
This study found an association between internal, external locus of control and paranormal belief, which, so far as the external locus of control association is concerned, is in conformity with the results obtained in other studies (e.g., Allen & Lester, 1994).
Further, findings indicated that religiosity was not associated with any paranormal belief subscale except for an inverse association with superstition. This confirms and agrees with past research that has suggested that persons who believe in the paranormal may, or may not, be more religious on a variety of indicators (Thalbourne & O'Brien, 1999).
This study found that extraversion was positively associated with the total paranormal belief scale while neuroticism and psychotism were not. Psychotism was associated with Psi belief, extraordinary powers and Christian religious beliefs, and neuroticism was correlated with extraordinary powers and spiritualism. Lester (1993) used the short form of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire and found, contrary to this study, that beliefs in God and related concepts, life-after-death, and the existence of other beings in the universe were associated with lower psychoticism scores.
Limitations of the study are that findings cannot be generalized to the overall (student) population since the sample was not representative.
Results suggest an association between paranormal belief in general and locus of control and personality factors in this sample of African students. It may be that those who are more extravert have a greater belief in paranormal phenomena, which may have relevant implications for psychological adjustment in the population studied. Although paranornal belief in general was related with all three dimensions of locus of control, some paranormal belief factors were associated with only certain locus of control dimensions, for example precognition was related only with internal locus of control, which supports the utility of multidimensional conceptualizations of the relationships between paranormal beliefs and locus of control.
References
Allen, J., & Lester, D. (1994). Belief in paranormal phenomena and external locus of control. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 79, 226.
Dag, I. (1999). The relationship among paranormal beliefs, locus of control and psychopathology in a Turkish college sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 723-737.
Francis, L. J., Brown, L. B., & Philipchalk, R. (1992). The development of an abbreviated form of the revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQR-A): its use among students in England, Canada, the USA and Australia. Personality and Individual Differences, 4, 443-449.
Groth-Marnat, G., & Pegden, J.-A. (1998). Personality correlates of paranormal belief. Social Behavior and Personality, 26, 291-296.
Irwin, H. J. (1985). A study of the measurement and the correlates of paranormal belief. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 79, 301-326.
Irwin, H. J. (1993). Belief in the paranormal: A review of the empirical literature. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 87, 1-39.
Lester, D. (1993). Paranormal beliefs and psychoticism. Personality and Individual Differences, 14(5), 739.
Mönnig, H.O. (1967). The Pedi. Pretoria: JL van Schaik.
Pargament, K. I., Kennel, J., Hathaway, W., Grevengoed, N., Newman, J., & Jones, W. (1988). Religion and the problem-solving process: Three styles of coping. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 27, 90-104.
Presson, P. K., Clark, S. C., & Benassi, V. A. (1997). The Levenson Locus of Control Scales: Confirmatory factor analysis and evaluation. Social Behavior and Personality, 25, 93-104.
Randall, T. M. & Desrosiers, M. (1980). Measurement of supernatural belief: Sex differences and locus of control. Journal of Personality Assessment, 44, 493-498.
Scheidt, R. J. (1973). Belief in supernatural phenomena and locus of control. Psychological Reports, 32, 1159-1162.
Thalbourne, M. A. (1995). Psychological characteristics of believers in the paranormal: A replicative study. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 89, 153-164.
Thalbourne, M. A., & O’Brien, R. (1999). Belief in the paranormal and religious variables. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 63(854), 110-122.
Thalbourne, M. A., & Hensley, J. H. (2001). Religiosity and belief in the paranormal. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 65, 47-50.
Tobacyk, J., & Milford, G. (1983). Belief in paranormal phenomena: Assessment instrument development and implications for personality functioning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 1029-1037.
Tobacyk, J. J., Nagot, E., & Miller, N. (1988). Paranormal beliefs and locus of control: A multidimensional examination. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52, 241-246.
Tobacyk, J. J. & Pirttilä-Backman, A.-M. (1992). Paranormal beliefs and their implications in university students from Finland and the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 23, 59-71.
Willging, B. T., & Lester, D. (1997). Paranormal beliefs and personality scores of high school students. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85, 938.
Allen, J., & Lester, D. (1994). Belief in paranormal phenomena and external locus of control. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 79, 226.
Dag, I. (1999). The relationship among paranormal beliefs, locus of control and psychopathology in a Turkish college sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 26, 723-737.
Francis, L. J., Brown, L. B., & Philipchalk, R. (1992). The development of an abbreviated form of the revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQR-A): its use among students in England, Canada, the USA and Australia. Personality and Individual Differences, 4, 443-449.
Groth-Marnat, G., & Pegden, J.-A. (1998). Personality correlates of paranormal belief. Social Behavior and Personality, 26, 291-296.
Irwin, H. J. (1985). A study of the measurement and the correlates of paranormal belief. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 79, 301-326.
Irwin, H. J. (1993). Belief in the paranormal: A review of the empirical literature. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 87, 1-39.
Lester, D. (1993). Paranormal beliefs and psychoticism. Personality and Individual Differences, 14(5), 739.
Mönnig, H.O. (1967). The Pedi. Pretoria: JL van Schaik.
Pargament, K. I., Kennel, J., Hathaway, W., Grevengoed, N., Newman, J., & Jones, W. (1988). Religion and the problem-solving process: Three styles of coping. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 27, 90-104.
Presson, P. K., Clark, S. C., & Benassi, V. A. (1997). The Levenson Locus of Control Scales: Confirmatory factor analysis and evaluation. Social Behavior and Personality, 25, 93-104.
Randall, T. M. & Desrosiers, M. (1980). Measurement of supernatural belief: Sex differences and locus of control. Journal of Personality Assessment, 44, 493-498.
Scheidt, R. J. (1973). Belief in supernatural phenomena and locus of control. Psychological Reports, 32, 1159-1162.
Thalbourne, M. A. (1995). Psychological characteristics of believers in the paranormal: A replicative study. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 89, 153-164.
Thalbourne, M. A., & O’Brien, R. (1999). Belief in the paranormal and religious variables. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 63(854), 110-122.
Thalbourne, M. A., & Hensley, J. H. (2001). Religiosity and belief in the paranormal. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 65, 47-50.
Tobacyk, J., & Milford, G. (1983). Belief in paranormal phenomena: Assessment instrument development and implications for personality functioning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 1029-1037.
Tobacyk, J. J., Nagot, E., & Miller, N. (1988). Paranormal beliefs and locus of control: A multidimensional examination. Journal of Personality Assessment, 52, 241-246.
Tobacyk, J. J. & Pirttilä-Backman, A.-M. (1992). Paranormal beliefs and their implications in university students from Finland and the United States. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 23, 59-71.
Willging, B. T., & Lester, D. (1997). Paranormal beliefs and personality scores of high school students. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 85, 938.
Table 1. Correlations Between Paranormal Belief Scores and Measures of Locus of Control and Religiosity
Note: Because of the large number of contrasts only the significant levels of .01 and .001 were considered; ** p <.001, * p <.01
Table 2. ANOVA Between Paranormal Belief Scores and Eysenck’s Personality Subscales
Note: Because of the large number of contrasts only the significant levels of .01 and .001 were considered;
** p <.001, * p <.01
Appreciation is due to reviewers including Dr. Sylvester Ntomchukwu Mudu
Department of Psychology
University of the North
Sovenga
South Africa.
Karl Peltzer, Health Behavior Research Unit, University of the North, Private Bag X1105, Sovenga 0727, South Africa. Phone/Fax: 0027-15-2960937; Email: [email protected]