Psychology Homework Help

• The overarching research question is to what extent are individual differences and well-being linked with belief in and experience of ostensibly paranormal events.

Specific Research Questions

The research questions need to be developed into research hypotheses. Keep in mind that a research hypothesis needs to be specific and testable. 

• Is there a gender difference in belief in the paranormal?

• Is there evidence to suggest that there is an effect of age on belief in the paranormal? i.e. Are younger people more likely to believe compared to older adults?

• How far are belief and anomalous experiences related to well-being? 

• Which variable or combination of variables is the best predictor of belief in the paranormal?

• Any version of the above hypotheses will be acceptable, but they need to be clearly written, directional or non-directional. 

The four hypotheses to be developed need to be in the last paragraph only.  But the literature review needs to be related to the hypotheses and why you came to the conclusion. I am attaching photos that will help you in crafting a perfect introduction and examples of how to write hypotheses. Need around 12 references and everything should be in strict APA format.

Measures

Belief

Australian Sheep Goat Scale (ASGS) 18-item questionnaire designed to measure levels of belief in the paranormal. Scored 0 – 36. The higher the score the higher the level of belief. 

Experience

Anomalous Experiences Inventory (AEI) 70 item questionnaire that is comprised of FIVE subscales: belief, experience, ability, fear of the paranormal and drug taking. For ethical reasons the drug taking subscale will not be used in this study. 

Well-Being

Life Satisfaction Scale (LSS) Questionnaire that explores everyday examples of life satisfaction. The higher the score the higher the level of life satisfaction reported. 

Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS) Questionnaire that explores everyday examples of subjective happiness. The higher the score, the higher the level of life satisfaction reported. 

For the purposes of this study, all variables are continuous measures. 

Participants and Procedure

One hundred and sixteen respondents, mean age of xx years (SD = xx.xx),

were recruited by a University researcher. The sampling frame parameters were set to reflect an Australian national representative sample in terms of age, gender, and geographical location. All participants completed the battery of questionnaires with no missing data. 

Sample References: To Get You Started

These references are related to your report and include material useful to give you background to the research. Reading these studies prior to conducting you own literature review will help orientate you to the topic. You will need to briefly discuss another three or four studies to support your hypotheses and information from other articles or scholarly sources to build your literature review. I suspect you will not need more than a total of 12 citations for a report of this size.

Clarke, D. (1995). Experience and other reasons given for belief and disbelief in paranormal and religious phenomena. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, 60, 371-84.

French, C. C. (1992). Factors underlying belief in the paranormal: Do sheep and goats think

differently? The Psychologist, 5, 295-299. 

Gallagher, C., Kumar, V. K., & Pekala, R. J. (1994). The Anomalous Experiences

Inventory: Reliability and validity. Journal of Parapsychology, 58, 402-428.

Glicksohn, J. (1990). Belief in the paranormal and subjective paranormal experience.

Personality and Individual Differences, 11, 675-683.

Irwin, H. J. (1993). Belief in the paranormal: A review of the empirical literature. Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 87, 1-39.

Thalbourne, M. A., & Delin, P. S. (1993). A new instrument for measuring the sheep-

goat variable: Its psychometric properties and factor structure. Journal of the Society

for Psychical Research, 59, 172-186.

Tobacyk, J. J., & Milford, G. (1983). Beliefs in paranormal phenomena: Assessment instrument development and implications for personality functioning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 1029-37.