Abstract

PARRA, Alejandro. Unusual perceptual experiences, anomalous/paranormal experiences and proneness to schizotypy. Univ. Psychol. [online]. 2012, vol.11, n.1, pp.269-278. ISSN 1657-9267.

There seems to be similarities between schizotypal personality and paranormal experiences, in fact, some of the symptoms of PTSD in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) match a number of anomalous/paranormal experiences. Positive schizotypy, including magical thinking, hallucinations and other unusual perceptual experiences, has also been associated with paranormal experiences and beliefs. However, paranormal experiences differ from psychotic experiences in nonclinical populations. In order to establish differences between positive and negative symptoms of schizotypy, we compared a group of believers in the paranormal (N = 121) and a sample of undergraduate students (N = 588). The hypothesis that believers would have higher scores in schizotypy positive symptoms was confirmed. There was a significant difference in positive symptoms of schizotypy among the group of students with and no experiences, although not significant for negative symptoms.

Keywords : Paranormal experience; positive schizotypy; paranormal beliefs; positive and negative symptoms; unusual perceptual experiences; Schizotypy; unusual perceptual experiences; anomalous/ paranormal experiences; hallucination.

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