Abstract
The current investigation was designed to examine student perceptions of psychology as a science as well as beliefs about paranormal phenomena. For this purpose, the scales Psychology As a Science (PAS) and Revised Paranormal Beliefs (RPB) were used. The sample was comprised of 264 undergraduate students in Health Sciences (i.e., Medicine, Dentistry, and Psychology). Our results showed that Medicine students believed fewer paranormal phenomena than did the other Health Sciences students (Dentistry and Psychology). Furthermore, as expected, Psychology students showed higher favorable attitudes toward placing Psychology as a hard science and the need for psychological research training than the other Health Sciences students (Dentistry and Medicine). Whereas some gender differences were found, age did not account for any differences in PAS or RPB scores. Overall, these results suggest that still a significant proportion of students hold supernatural beliefs or have doubts about the status of psychology as a science. Psychology instructors should put more emphasis on presenting psychology as a true science and reducing beliefs in the paranormal.
Keywords: Psychopharmacologypsychologypharmacycollege educationmisconceptions
Introduction
Education is posited to be the great antidote against ignorance; more educated people tend to be healthier (Grossman, 2006), are better than less educated people acquiring relevant information (Lange, 2011), and have greater ability for critical thinking (McPeck, 2016).
Widespread consensus exists that effectively communicating the status of Psychology as a science is fundamental in college teaching, mainly given that Psychology and other science students often arrive at their first Introductory Psychology course with plenty of misconceptions (e.g., ideas about paranormal phemonena) and lack of critical thinking regarding the field of psychology and the human mind in particular (Lilienfeld et al, 2011).
In this study we set out to investigate whether the beliefs about paranormality and psychology as a science vary in undergraduates students in Health Sciences, while controlling for possible confounding variables (gender and age). We also explored the interdepency between these two beliefs.
Because parapsychology can be partly understood as the lack of understanding in terms of current scientific knowledge (Tobacyk & Milford, 1983) or phenomena that is impossible to occur in physics (Irwin, 1993), it would be expected to find a negative correlation between paranormal and psychology-as-a-science beliefs. We were also interested in exploring differences between Health Science degrees (i.e., Medicine, Psychology, and Dentistry) in their paranormal beliefs and perceptions of psychology as a science. We predicted that Psychology students would report fewer paranormal beliefs and support the idea of Psychology as a science.
Problem Statement
Psychology and other college students hold plenty of misconceptions (e.g., ideas about paranormal phemonena) and lack of critical thinking regarding the human mind.
Research Questions
Health-related students must understand the principles of the scientific method to develop and foster a critical thinking orientation style that allows future professionals to evaluate different treatment programs.
Purpose of the Study
We set out to (1) examine the prevalence of inaccurate beliefs about the status of Psychology as a science in first-year Psychology, Dentistry and Medicine undergraduate students at European University of Madrid; (2) examine the prevalence of believing in parapsychology phenomena in first-year Psychology, Dentistry and Medicine undergraduate students at European University of Madrid; (3) find out if there is a relationship between these beliefs.
Research Methods
Two hundred and sixty-four undergraduate (Medicine, Dentistry, and Psychology) students at European University of Madrid were employed as volunteer subjects, chosen on the basis that they were taking at least one Introduction to Psychology course. Our data consisted of 29.1% men and 70.9% women.
For this study, the scales Psychology As a Science (PAS) and Revised Paranormal Beliefs (RPB) were used. Friedrich’s Psychology as Science (PAS) scale (see Table
Tobacyk’s Revised Paranormal Belief (RPB) Scale (see Table
Statistics tests such as Cronbach’s alpha, Pearson correlation, student’s t-test, and ANOVA’s followed by Tukey HSD post-hoc analyses were performed when appropriated with the statistical program SPSS (version 20). Data were represented as means ±SEM. An alpha level of 5% was considered statistically significant.
Findings
As can be seen in Table
The reliability measures (Cronbach’s alpha) for each RBP subscales for our sample were .8 (Witchcraft), .7 (Psi), .8 (Superstition), .7 (Spiritualism), .7 (Precognition), .4 (Extraterrestrial Life), .9 (Religiosity). The Cronbach’s alpha for the RBP scale was .9.
Regarding PAS scores (see Table
The reliability measures (Cronbach’s alpha) for each PAS subscales for our sample were .7 (Psychology as a hard sciece), .6 (Need for psychological research), .4 (Determinis and behavior prediction). The Cronbach’s alpha for the PAS scale was .7.
Data demonstrated partial interdependency between PAS and RPB scores (see Table
Age, a potential confounding variable, was not related to any PAS or RPB scores (p=NS). Finally, gender differences were found statistically significant for PAS3 and RPB6. Men held significantly more views of determinism and belief in the predictability of behavior (t=2.3, p<0.05) and extraterrestrial life (t=2.3, p<0.05) than women.
Conclusion
Regarding our initial hypothesis, Psychology students did not report fewer supernatural beliefs. On the contrary, Medicine students held fewer paranormal beliefs than did the other Health Sciences students (Dentistry and Psychology) in terms of ideas about psi, witchcraft, and spiritualism.
Regarding PAS scores, Psychology students, as expected, showed better attitudes toward placing Psychology in the same conceptual framework as the hard sciences and their beliefs in the need for psychological research and the value of methodological training than did the other Health Sciences students (Dentistry and Medicine).
In general, a negative but modest correlation between paranormal and psychology-as-a-science beliefs was found, indicating partial interdependency between PAS and RPB scores.
Importantly, a significant proportion of students hold supernatural beliefs and/or have doubts about the status of psychology as a science. The investigation of these beliefs in Health Science students is of the utmost importance, as it may affect both clinical practice and the quality of care patients receive. Psychology instructors should put more emphasis on presenting psychology as a true science and reducing beliefs in the paranormal.
References
- Friedrich, J. (1996). Assessing students’ perceptions of psychology as a science: Validation of a self-report measure. Teaching of Psychology, 23, 6–13.
- Grossman, M. (2006). Education and nonmarket outcomes. Handbook of the Economics of Education, 1, 577-633.
- Lange, F. (2011). The role of education in complex health decisions: evidence from cancer screening. Journal of health economics, 30(1), 43-54.
- Lilienfeld, S. O., Lynn, S. J., Ruscio, J., & Beyerstein, B. L. (2011). 50 great myths of popular psychology: Shattering widespread misconceptions about human behavior. John Wiley & Sons.
- McPeck, J. E. (2016). Critical thinking and education. Routledge.
- Tobacyk, J.J. (2004). A revised paranormal belief scale. International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 23(1), 94–98.
- Tobacyk, J.J. & Milford, G. (1983). Belief in paranormal phenomena: assessment instrument development and implications for personality functioning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 648–655.
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About this article
Publication Date
16 October 2017
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eBook ISBN
978-1-80296-030-3
Publisher
Future Academy
Volume
31
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Edition Number
1st Edition
Pages
1-1026
Subjects
Education, educational psychology, counselling psychology
Cite this article as:
Rodriguez, M. A., & Gonzalez-Cuevas, G. (2017). Paranormality Vs. Scientific Psychology: Wrong Beliefs Among Health Science Students. In Z. Bekirogullari, M. Y. Minas, & R. X. Thambusamy (Eds.), ICEEPSY 2017: Education and Educational Psychology, vol 31. European Proceedings of Social and Behavioural Sciences (pp. 821-825). Future Academy. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2017.10.79