Bibliography: p. 288-315. Electronic publication; Full text available in PDF format; abstract in HTML format. Describes a series of four experiments which were conducted to test the theory of psychopraxia. The thesis is an investigation of the theory from the perspective of paranormal phenomena only. It is argued that the theory of psychopraxia is important to the field of parapsychology because it offers (a) a philosophical critique on taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature of the paranormal, (b) relatively unambiguous terminology, and (c) a process-oriented approach to investigations of the paranormal by concentrating on conditions deemed necessary in bringing about paranormal effects. The thesis concludes that, in its current form, the psychopraxia model needs clarification of its most crucial concepts ("self", "pro-attitude" and "necessary conditions") before it can be regarded as a workable theory. Electronic reproduction.[Australia] :Australian Digital Theses Program,2001.

Life setting

The thesis examines the history of criticism and response in scientific parapsychology by bringing together the tools of history, rhetoric of science, and discursive psychology to examine texts generated in the heat of controversy. Previous analyses of the controversy at hand have been conducted by historians and sociologists of science, focusing on the professionalisation of the discipline, its philosophical and religious underpinnings, efforts of individual actors in the history of the community, and on the social forces which constrict and restrict both the internal substantive progress of the field and its external relations with the wider scientific community. The present study narrows the problem domain from the English-language literature ---- an extensive database of over 1500 books and articles ---- to the following: (1) a brief history of the development of the field in the U. K. and the U. S. that includes a survey of previous reviews of the controversy; (2) a specific controversy that extended over a 10-year period in the mid-twentieth century; and (3) a solicited debate on parapsychology with two target articles, 48 commentaries, and 3 responses published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences. The thesis is comprised of eight chapters. In Chapter 1, the goals and methods of the thesis are described, previous considerations of controversy and closure in science studies are reviewed, the notion of closure is discussed, and the thesis content is described. In Chapter 2, a brief history of the field is provided which emphasises the broad structure and content of the field rather than specific methodology, results, or theory. In Chapter 3, previous reviews of the controversy are examined to provide a sense of the controversy terrain and to examine the extent to which what Gilbert and Mulkay (1984) have called ‘‘contingent’’ and ‘‘empiricist’’ repertoires have been used in criticisms and response. In Chapter 4, case studies on parapsychology that appeared in the science studies literature are reviewed. Rhetoric of science is introduced as a domain from which analytic tools for the present research are drawn. In Chapter 5, a case study tests the hypothesis that differences in style and structure in the two volumes that bracket the most important controversy in the history of American experimental parapsychology may have contributed to the scope and persistence of the controversy. The controversy extended from 1934 to 1944, beginning with the publication of the monograph Extra-sensory Perception (Rhine, 1934) and ending with the publication of Extrasensory Perception After Sixty Years (Pratt, Rhine, Smith, Stuart & Greenwood, 1940). In Chapter 6, I justify a turn towards the methodology of discourse analysis by reviewing both the antecedents of modern discursive psychology, and methods that are currently in use. I also review Mulkay’s (1985) The Word and The World as a prelude to the case study in the next chapter. In Chapter 7, a subset of the methods available in discourse analysis, particularly the concepts of formulation, category entitlement and footing are used to analyse a target article, 48 commentaries and two responses to the commentaries that center on James Alcock’s contentions that parapsychology is the search for the soul and that dualism as a philosophical position is incommensurate with science. I show how Alcock’s use of the contingent repertoire in characterising science practise in parapsychology undermines his authority as a scientific interlocutor, and obscures, to some extent, the substantive message he intended his target article to carry. Chapter 8 concludes the thesis by restating the findings of the three methods used, examining the limited use of the methods in this thesis and outlining what a more extended study with the same and/or related materials would look like, while describing other potentially fruitful research that might be done. How these methods should and may contribute to science practise in parapsychology is also discussed with a particular emphasis on the multidisciplinary nature of the discipline and the need for a more complete reflexivity.

The purpose of the present study was to add to or take away from the support provided for three hypotheses (Cognitive Deficits Hypothesis, Social Marginality Hypothesis, and Worldview Hypothesis) formed regarding belief in paranormal phenomena. Participants (N = 55) filled out the Revised Sheep Goat Scale and a demographics questionnaire. No significant difference between means for women and for men in generalized paranormal belief was found. For all subjects, there was also no significant correlation found between scores on extent of religious belief and generalized paranormal belief. Further, significant correlations were found between generalized paranormal belief and the three sub-scales measuring paranormal experience. Also, significant correlations between scores on belief in life after death and belief in healing power and generalized Psi belief were found. All hypotheses were supported, suggesting supplementary support for the Worldview Hypothesis.

Inaug.-Diss.--Bonn. / Lebenslauf. "Schrifttum". p. 125-131.

Inaug.-Diss.--Bonn. / Lebenslauf. "Schrifttum". p. 125-131.

This work is an exercise in armchair ethnography. It aims to show, by examining certain data from the inexhaustible traditional Chinese literature on the subject of dreams and dreaming, some aspects of the dream life of the ancient Chinese. The first five chapters deal with the various ways in which dreams were regarded as significant in ancient China. Although my approach is primarily thematic, the data are presented in a more or less chronological order, so that some light may be thrown on the developmental dimension of the traditional Chinese thinking on dreams in the process. Chapters six and seven are concerned with the methodology of Chinese dream interpretation. Two distinct approaches to this are identified, which I term the corroborative and the associative. The Ricoeurian notion of "interpretation as recollection of meaning," with its emphasis on contextual understanding, is found compatible with the underlying principles of the Chinese oneirocritical practice. In the final chapter, I further label the corroborative approach "iconic" and the associative approach "symbolic." I conclude with the observation that the ancient Chinese owed their interest in dreams to their unremitting search for meaning in the cosmos, of which man, in the traditional concept, was an integral part. I find this interest indicative of the affective aspect of the Chinese mind, and conjecture that as long as the Chinese have hopes, fears, joys and sorrows, as do the rest of the world, they will continue to dream. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

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