Different personality factors  Extroverts  Introverts  Neuroticism  Creativity  Schizotypy

Extroverts and introverts  Extroverts are people with an outgoing personality who are generally more talkative and relaxed.  Introverts are shy people who can be impatient and withdrawn.

Neuroticism  People with neurosis are people who experience negative moods and emotion.  It is often associated with high levels of stress.

Schizotypy  People with schizotypy have milder forms of schizophrenia.  The symptoms include; hallucinations and/or bizarre interpretation of events such as magical thinking.

ESP and personality traits  Correlation between personality traits and ESP tests  Tested a group of early adolescent high- school students in India.  Positive ESP scores= More talkative, emotional and relaxed.  Negative ESP scores= Shy, withdrawn, suspicious and frustrated. Ramakrishna, 2001

ESP and extroversion  Meta-analysis  Investigated link between ESP and extroversion  Found that in over ¾ of the studies, extroverts scored higher on ESP tasks than introverts.  Had low ecological validity  May be other variables affecting it-not just extroversion/introversion. Honorton, 1998

Neuroticism and paranormal belief  Some studies support the view that paranormal belief is associated with higher neuroticism scores E.g.  Wiseman and Watt (2004) questionnaires-general population- Found that those who scored highly on neuroticism were more likely to endorse positive and negative superstitious belief.  Quesnell (2000)- found a positive correlation between neuroticism scores and paranormal belief-studies 3,432 young people in the Czech Republic  However, other studies support the view that there is no significant correlation between neuroticism and paranormal belief e.g.  Lester (1993)- 51 Undergraduate students-belief in life after death, hell, UFO, heaven, ghosts and life on other planets correlated with psychoticism but that paranormal beliefs were ‘independent of neuroticism’.  Willging and Lester (1997)-94 adolescents-belief in life after death was negatively correlated with psychoticism but that none of the four aspects of paranormal belief included in the studies were associated with neuroticism.

Other studies  There are correlations with positive psychological states (e.g. creativity) and paranormal belief and experience (Irwin and Watt, 2007).  Many studies have shown a correlation between schizotypy and paranormal belief/experience.