Healthy schizotypy in a population of paranormal believers and experients

This study aimed to investigate which of a fully dimensional and a quasi-dimensional model for schizotypy would be supported in a population of 129 paranormal believers and experients. It also aimed to investigate which, if any, of the previous cluster structures (Goulding, 2004 and Loughland and Williams, 1997) would be replicated. An agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis and a subsequent k-means cluster analysis of the Unusual Experiences (UE), Cognitive Disorganisation (CD), and Introvertive Anhedonia (IA) sub-scales of the Oxford–Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences (O-LIFE; Mason, Claridge, & Jackson, 1995) were performed. Three separate clusters, labelled Introvertive Anhedonia (IA), Low Schizotypy (LS), and Cognitive Disorganisation (CD), were identified. An analysis of variance showed that the clusters did not differ with regard to paranormal beliefs and experiences, measured by the Australian Sheep–Goat Scale (ASGS; Thalbourne & Delin, 1993); all clusters had high scores. Another analysis of variance showed that the LS cluster scored significantly higher on the health-related Sense of Coherence (SOC; Antonovsky, 1991) Scale than both the other clusters. The results of this study support the Loughland and Williams (1997) O-LIFE four-cluster solution and the notion of healthy schizotypy and therefore also the fully dimensional model of schizotypy.