Download magical thinking

MAGICAL THINKING
PSYA4
MAGICAL THINKING YOU TUBE SHORT
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyyzfxtx2
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• Extension – look at other talks about magical
thinking e.g…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHezJeZdA
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Learning objectives
To be able to outline explanations for magical
thinking
AO1: What is magical thinking?
• Magical thinking is a clinical term used to
describe a wide variety of non-scientific &
sometimes irrational beliefs. These beliefs are
generally centred around correlations
between events
E.g. blowing on a dice for a ‘lucky throw’ or
owning something from your favourite
celebrity so you feel closer to them
Two possible explanations
• Psychodynamic explanations
• Dual processing theory
• Animism
• Nominal realism
• Law of contagion
This is far too much content wise so we will focus
on 2 – Psychodynamic & Law of contagion. You are
welcome to learn different ones.
AO1: Psychodynamic explanation
• Freud (1913) identified MT as a form
of childlike thought where children
project their inner feelings onto the
outer world. E.g. if you think badly
about a person it will hurt them.
• When adults exhibit such behaviour
it is a form of defence mechanism
(regression) where they regress to a
former child-like state as a way of
coping with anxiety.
AO1: Law of contagion
• This states that things that
have been in contact
continue to act upon one
another, even after physical
contact stops. Such as
believing that wearing
something from someone
special results in magical
powers i.e. you can sing like
Michael Jackson as you own
one of his gloves.
AO1: Law of contagion
• Rozin & Nemeroff (1994)
suggest this may be related to
our evolved fear of germs &
contagion. It would be adaptive
to avoid touching something
that had been in contact with a
diseased person and this leads
to an intuition that
psychological & physical
properties can pass between
people.
AO2  Benefits of MT
The Good
 MT may lead people to deal more confidently with
their environment because they expect good things to
happen as a result of their belief & actions
 Self-efficacy is one explanation (belief in own abilities).
Another is the placebo effect-MT acts like a placebo
creating a positive view & this alone accounts for
improvements
 Rosenthal & Jacobsen (68) showed that children’s IQ
scores increased over a period of a year as their
teachers were led to expect them to do better. This is a
self-fulfilling prophecy – things turn out as we expect
because of our expectation!
AO2  Lack of MT
The Bad
People who are depressed generally show less
MT, called depression realism
This suggests that a fully accurate assessment of
one’s own abilities may not be good for you
(Huston, 2008)
 Mohr et al (2005) have linked this lack of MT (as
well as anhedonia-inability to experience
pleasure) to low levels of dopamine
Dopamine is high in both schizophrenics &
believers
AO2  Costs of MT
The Ugly
MT is linked to mental disorders; too much is
not a good thing
MT is one of the characteristics of schizotypal
personality disorder & schizophrenia
(Weinberger & Harrison, 2011)
Youlmaz et al (2011) found that MT was a
critical factor in OCD. They found that people
with strong magical beliefs also reported more
checking symptoms
Exam question
• Outline & evaluate explanations of magical
thinking (4 + 6)
• You can use the article and a text book to help
you 