Dissociation, Paranormal Belief, and Quality of Life in Older People

The measurement of religiosity in current health-related literatureis mostly based on the traditional Christian belief system. It has been argued that sucha measurement approach may misrepresent the true degree of religiosity in Taiwanesepeople. In this study, religiosity was measured in two ways: self-reported religion typeand a qualitatively derived index of religious piety based on principles as suggested byGries, Su, and Schak to be used in the Taiwanese context. Their effects on dissociation,paranormal belief, and quality of life were juxtaposed for comparison. In addition, thebeneficial effect of religious piety was examined in the framework of McClenon’s ritualhealing theory. A total of 266 healthy older adults across Taiwan were interviewed byfour trained assistants over a 4-month period. Factor scores were used to represent thedissociative tendencies (depersonalization/derealization, forgetfulness, amnesia, andpsychological absorption) and paranormal belief facets (precognition, psi power, otherforms of life, traditional religious belief, superstition, and telepathy). The resultsshowed that older people of high religious piety display better quality of life profilesthan their counterparts in the low religious piety group. The effects of self-reportedreligion type were mainly seen with paranormal beliefs compatible with their religiousbeliefs, whereas the effects of religious piety were more pronounced in relation toquality of life than dissociation and paranormal belief. The beneficial advantage ofdissociation hypothesized by ritual healing theory did not receive empirical support inthe nonclinical sample of this study