This open access book, updating a 1999 volume, is a resource for researchers who study religion and spirituality either as an interest in its own right (e.g., psychologists of religion) or in relation to some other variable such as physical or mental health (e.g., medical researchers). In the past few decades the study of religion in psychological terms has grown exponentially. Over this time, many measures have been developed, but are often difficult to find or have not been published at all. This volume offers a comprehensive listing and review of over 300 empirically valid measures that makes them easily accessible for scientific use. Belief systems are regarded as a critical factor in the health, both mentally and physically, of most individuals. This book provides a rich array of solidly researched means of assessing religiosity that can provide a scientific basis for psychological, sociological, and medical studies. It will serve researchers and clinicians alikein better assessing beliefs that are essential to an individual's health and behavior.
Author Biography:
Peter C. Hill
Peter C. Hill, Ph.D. (Social Psychology), Professor of Psychology at the Rosemead School of Psychology and Director of the Office of Academic Research and Grants, Biola University, is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and is a past president of APA’s Division 36 (Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality). His research interests include positive psychological virtues such as humility (both intellectual and otherwise), forgiveness, and gratitude, particularly as they relate to religious experience. Other interests include religious/spiritual measurement, religious fundamentalism, and the role of affect in religious and spiritual experience. He is co-author or co-editor of several books including the 1999 edition of Measures of Religiosity (co-edited with Ralph Hood) and The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach (5th ed., Guilford Press).
Ralph W. Hood Jr.
Ralph W. Hood, PhD is Professor of Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and UT Alumni Association Distinguished Service Professor. He is a past president of Division 36 of the American Psychological Association and a recipient of its William James award for research in the psychology of religion. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Brill series, Psychology and Religion and is co-editor of Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion. His research interests include conceptual and empirical issues in the study of both mysticism and fundamentalism. and is currently involved in extensive mixed-methods longitudinal research with Henz Streib on faith development. He continues to digitally document the serpent-handling tradition of Appalachia, archived in the special collections of the Lupton library of UTC.
Jonathan Jong
Jonathan Jong, PhD. (Psychology) is Assistant Professor at the Centre of Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University, and an Associate Member of the Department of Theology and Religion and a Research Affiliate of the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of the International Society for Science and Religion. He is the editor of the Cambridge Elements in Psychology of Religion book series, and serves on the editorial board of the APA journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. His research interests revolve around supernatural beliefs of various kinds, their natures and functions, causes and consequences. Experimenting with Religion (Oxford University Press) is his latest book.
Kevin A. Harris
Kevin A. Harris, PhD, LP, HSP is a licensed psychologist in private practice at Algos Behavioral Health Services in San Antonio, Texas. He specializes in psychological testing, psychotherapy, and the assessment and measurement of the psychology of religion and spirituality. He was previously an assistant professor of psychology in the psychology programs at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas and the University of Texas of the Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas — both of which had students who contributed to this volume. He has more than 20 years of experience as a former professor at two Texas universities, an addictions counselor in Florida, and a community mental health care provider in Florida and Indiana. His research interests include the psychology of religion and spirituality, clinical judgment, sexual violence awareness and prevention, and music psychology. He is also a co-editor of the book Assessing Spirituality in a Diverse World.
