ABSTRACT
The beliefs and conceptual frameworks that guide students’ thinking are often inconsistent with or contradictory to what we know from study of the physical, biological, and social sciences. Students may also hold “naïve theories” about the nature of reality that are often formed during childhood (Resnick, 1983). As a result, many students enter college with a wide variety of beliefs about putative paranormal and other “extraordinary” phenomena. (In this chapter, when such phrases
as “paranormal phenomenon” are used, this means putative paranormal phenomenon.) They also believe that they “know things” about these phenomena, often based on personal experiences and what they are exposed to in public media. The introductory psychology course is an ideal forum to address paranormal claims and students’ beliefs and understanding of them, because these phenomena are fundamentally psychological in nature (cf. Zusne & Jones, 1989).
