The coverage of parapsychology in introductory psychology textbooks: 1990-2002

Journal of Parapsychology, The, Spring, 2003 by James McClenon, Miguel Roig, Matthew D. Smith, Gillian Ferrier

Our data suggest that introductory textbook discussions of parapsychology became more "balanced" during the 1990s but this tendency declined by 2002. We suspect that the poor quality of coverage stems, in part, from authors' unfamiliarity with the field of parapsychology and from a continued overreliance of secondary sources written by skeptical nonparapsychologists. The relatively rapid change in emphasis after 1999 appears to be the result of Milton and Wiseman's (1999) article.

The finding that recent introductory textbooks are focusing on only a small domain of parapsychological research in a manner that supports skeptical conclusions coincides with arguments from the sociology of science (Collins & Pinch, 1982; McClenon, 1984). Science is a political and rhetorical process. Although parapsychologists may feel that the evidence they generate supports belief in psi, political and rhetorical factors affect the treatment that this evidence receives.

TABLE 1

COVERAGE OF PARAPSYCHOLOGY IN INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY TEXTBOOKS

            No. of    No. (%)                  Extent of
Time        texts    providing             coverage in pages
period     reviewed  coverage    M         SD       Mdn        Range

1980-1989     62     39 (63%)   1.91      1.09      1.50      0.5-6.0
1990-1999     52     29 (54%)   2.73      3.31      2.00      0.5-18.0
2002          57     33 (58%)   2.39      1.71      1.75      0.4-8.0

TABLE 2

FREQUENCY OF TOPICS COVERED WITH TEXTS

                                              Time period
Topic                                1980s     1990s     2002

Zener cards/Rhine                     21         8        14
Ganzfeld/Honorton                      1        23        24
Other (remote viewing, PK influence    9         7         0
of random event generator, etc.)
Total no. of texts providing          39        28        33
coverage
No. of texts in sample                62        52        57

Note. Data for the sample of textbooks from the 1990s were adjusted to
reflect the criteria for selection of textbooks and for coverage used
for the sample of textbooks from the 1990s.

TABLE 3

AUTHORS CITED FIVE OR MORE TIMES IN 2002 TEXTS COVERING PARAPSYCHOLOGY

Authors           Times cited

Bern & Honorton       24
Milton & Wiseman      21
Hyman                 21
Randi                 15
Gallup & Newport      10
Blackmore              9
Hansel                 8
Alcock                 8
Marks                  7
Honorton               5
McConnell              5
Rhine                  5
Swets & Bjork          5
Messer & Griggs        5

TABLE 4

JOURNAL CITATIONS (5 OR MORE) PERTAINING TO ESP/PARAPSYCHOLOGY

Journal                        Times cited

Psychological Bulletin             63
Skeptical Inquirer                 58
Journal of Parapsychology          22
British Journal of Psychology      12
Teaching of Psychology              7
Journal of Psychology               6
Contemporary Psychology             5
American Psychologist               5