The Relationships of Paranormal Beliefs and Locus of Control among Students of Medical College, Delhi

Abstract

Background: The phenomenon of Paranormal beliefs has puzzled scientific community. Studies on this subjecthave been hindered by conceptual and methodological issues. There is little evidences found between locus ofcontrol and paranormal. This constituted rationale of current study. We studied relationships between paranormalbeliefs, as measured by Paranormal Belief Scale (Tobacyk& Milford, 1983) and locus of control as measured byROT-IE scale among medical students of Delhi.Methodology: The study population consists of medical undergraduate students in Delhi who were enrolled atcollege during the time of the study. All undergraduate students who gave consent were included in study. A pretestedand predesigned questionnaire asking their socio-demographic information and relationship between theirsense of personal control(locus of control measured by the ROT-IE scale) and paranormal beliefs(using revisedform of the Paranormal Belief Scale) was administered. Chi-square test and Pearson’s correlation test were usedto test significanceResults: Means and standard deviations for the PBS-R and the IELOC Scales were reported separately for sociodemographicparameters. Females scored higher than males on all subscale except extraordinary life formsand precognition but it was statistically significant. Bi-variate correlation between locus of control and revisedparanormal belief scale revealed that as persons tend towards internal locus of control, their paranormal beliefbecome low.Conclusion: In our study it was shown that there was significant relationships among paranormal beliefs and locusof control.