Personal Beliefs Scale Redux: A Model for Hypothesis Testing

Abstract

Data obtained from the Personal Beliefs Scale of Embree and Embree were used to develop an analysis of variance model for mind-body belief which emphasized a distinction between “conventional” and “unconventional” mind-body beliefs. By means of this model a critically important distinction between high scoring second-order psychosomaticism subjects was achieved. It was proposed that subjects low in unconventional/high conventional tend to employ classical logic when rating mind-body belief items and that subjects high in unconventional/high conventional mind-body belief characteristically engage in fuzzy logic. Possible applications of the model in research were discussed.