Discuss Methodological Issues in the Study of Psychokinesis

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Discuss methodological issues in the study of psychokinesis (4 marks + 6 marks) There are many methodological issues with research into psychokinesis, one being that it’s highly fraudulent. Many times which individuals who claim to be able to do psychokinesis tend to not be able to show their ‘powers’ when put in controlled settings. The existence of macro-PK should be able to be easily demonstrated under controlled conditions however, till this date, no compelling evidence has been produced and hence a great focus is put on micro-PK, frankly because it can easily be shown through trickery. An example of fraud in psychokinesis is Uri Geller, who was the most well-known person for psychokinesis abilities and claimed to have powers that he used to bend spoons, stop clocks, be telepathic etc. Gellar, however, would never be able to reproduce his powers when asked to perform on the spot. And when James Randi (famous magician and skeptic) told him to bend spoons (which he had no contact with) he failed to complete the task saying that ‘he did not feel strong tonight) clearly showing evidence of him being a big fraud. A study conducted by Levy (1974) where he ‘proved’ that the rats had psychokinetic abilities as the pleasure score resulted in being higher, 54% when the electrical shocks where set to be given 50% of the time (4% higher), was proved to be fraudulent as investigations by Levi’s own research assistants showed that he tampered with the results. He was apparently, pulled the plug for the machine so it ‘shocked’ more often and when a new machine was installed, the results fell back to 50%. This study is accused of deception, as by manipulating the data, Levy deceives the people that are going to read the study by technically lying to them. The use of animals also arise a few points too such as, just the idea of trying to identify psychokinesis in animals.

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