ESP and LOC   1

Running head: BELIEF IN ESP AND LOCUS OF CONTROL

 

 

 

 

 

Belief in ESP and its Relationship to

Locus of Control

Adam Dean

Ryan Olson

Michael Reynolds

Chas Swanson

MaryAnne Walace

Rowland Hall-St. Mark’s Upper School

Salt Lake City, Utah

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Belief in ESP and its Relationship to

Locus of Control

     ESP, or extrasensory perception, has always caught mankind's curiosity. Extrasensory perception is the belief that humans can perceive things outside the normal realm of existence.  Telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychokinesis are all different forms of ESP.  Telepathy is "mind to mind communication" between two people, whether it be the perception of another's thoughts or sending one’s thoughts to another person (Myers, 2000, p. 234).  Clairvoyance is the ability to perceive "remote events, such as sensing that a friend's house is on fire" (Myers, 2000, p. 234).  Precognition is the ability to perceive "future events, such as a political leader's death or a sporting event's outcome" (Myers, 2000, p. 234).  In 1983, Myers, Austrin, Grisso and Nikeson defined an out of body experience, as "a subjective event in which an individual experiences the world from a location outside his physical body" (p. 131).  There are those who believe so strongly in ESP that they have made it a profession.  A psychic, for example, is an individual who claims to have the ability to predict the future from an out of body experience (OBE).  While most researches believe this psychic ability to be

 

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"hallucinatory fantasies" (Blackmore as cited in Myers et al, 1983), many members of the general public still believe in extrasensory perception or ESP. 
    Psychologists have proposed that a belief in ESP corresponds to locus of control, or the extent to which humans feel that they control their own fate.  Bronzaft (1972) has defined the two aspects of locus of control as “external” or “internal”.  Externals are characterized as people who believe that the outcome of a situation is controlled primarily by luck, fate, or other external forces. Internals are characterized as people who believe that their own behavior is most responsible in determining the outcome of a particular situation.  In general, it has been found that externals believed in ESP more than internals on ESP questionnaires (Bronzaft, 1973).  More specifically, it has been found that people who believed in an "illusion of control" were more inclined to believe in ESP (Brugger, Regard, & Landis, 1992).  An "illusion of control" is defined as “attributing personal involvement in randomly determined processes” (Myers, 2000, p. 246).  Psychologists have also tested whether belief in the occult or paranormal corresponds to a belief in ESP.  McGarry, James, Newberry, and Benjamin (1981) conducted a study that found 

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that people who believed in ESP also believed in the paranormal or extraordinary. Based on the results of previous studies, the present project will examine the relationship between subjects’ beliefs in ESP and their locus of control.  We plan to execute our study by use of a questionnaire that measures both belief in ESP and defines whether the subject has an internal or an external locus of control.  We hypothesize that subjects with an external locus of control will have significantly stronger beliefs in the existence of ESP than those subjects with an internal locus of control.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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References

Bronzaft, A.L. (1973). Internal-external scores and success on 
    an ESP task. Psychological Reports, 31(1), 41-42.
Brugger, P., Regard, M., & Landis, T. (1992). Belief in
    extrasensory perception and illusory control: A replication.
    Journal of Psychology, 125(4), 501-502.
McGarry, J.J, Newberry, H., & Benjamin H. (1982). Beliefs in
    paranormal phenomena and locus of control: A field study.
    Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 41(4), 735-736.
Myers, D. (2000). Psychology.  6th ed.  New York: Worth Publishers.
Myers, S.A, Austrin, H.R, Grisso, J.T, & Nikeson, R.C. (1984).
     Personality characteristics as related to the out-of-body
    experience. Journal of Parapsychology, 47(2), 131-144.

 

 


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