Ralph W Hood Jr
Biographic Data
| ID | 321582 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ralph W Hood Jr |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ralph W |
| FAMILY NAME | Hood Jr |
| SIGNATURE | JR R W H |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 26 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Faith in Development
How has faith developed in the US and German societies across the last decades? In a three-wave longitudinal investigation of faith development, this study presents the changes of worldview and meaning-making that people associate with their religious, spiritual, agnostic and atheist identifications. For almost two decades, research teams in Chattanooga (USA) and Bielefeld (Germany) have invited and re-invited hundreds of people to participate in…
Portrait
As the first invitee to this portrait section trained as a scholar of religion and situated in a department of religious studies, I was interested to see how previous scholars trained in anthropology and sociology positioned themselves in relation to ‘religion’ as an object of study. It seems we all do so gingerly. Although my graduate work was in the history of Christianity with a focus on American religious history, since the early 1990s I have…
Religious fundamentalism and racial prejudice
We examined religious fundamentalism (RF) and racial prejudice (RP) using the implicit Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) and explicit Feeling Thermometer (FT). Ninety undergraduates (38 Blacks and 52 Whites) from a small southern USA university participated. We experimentally manipulated aggression/love Bible texts to study any influence on RP, but found that it had no effect on reducing pretest–posttest AMP scores. Analysis of AMP posttest d…
Mystical Experience Among Tibetan Buddhists
In the study of mysticism the debate has centered on whether a universal experiential core exists regardless of religious interpretation. The current investigation combines Jamesian empiricist and social constructivist perspectives to argue that stable experiential facets load variously on factors to construct local interpretations. Local interpretations reflect a family resemblance—a mystical common core experienced across cultures. Results of c…
The psychology of religion
"The authors synthesize classic and contemporary research on religious thought, belief, and behavior across the lifespan; the forms and meaning of religious experience; the social psychology of religious organizations; and connections to biology, morality, coping, and mental health. As in previous editions, the focus is on scientific work that is moving the psychology of religion into the mainstream of academic psychology, rather than broad inter…
Dimensions of the Mysticism Scale
In a mostly Christian American sample (N = 1,379), confirmatory factor analysis of Hood's (1975) Mysticism Scale verified the existence of Stace's (1960) introvertive and extrovertive dimensions of mystical phenomenology along with a separate interpretation factor. A second study confirmed the presence of these three factors in not only another group of Americans (N = 188), but also in a sample of Iranian Muslims (N = 185). Relationships of the i…
A Phenomenological Analysis of the Anointing among Religious Serpent Handlers
Holiness-Pentecostal sects that practice serpent handling do so out of compliance with a literal interpretation of Mark 16:17-18. To investigate the meaning of this practice from within its religious context, phenomenological interviews were conducted with 8 men and 3 women who focused on specific experiences of taking up serpents. Participants reported that serpents were taken up either by faith or by the anointing, but most often by the anointi…
Changing Views of Serpent Handling
Knowledge about serpent handling sects (SHS) even among social scientists and legislators has been largely influenced by biased media reports. Our own field research suggests that factual knowledge about SHS is effective in changing stereotypes about serpent handling and in altering views as to the rights of believers to handle serpents in church. In a quasi-experimental study, participants were pretested with respect to both prejudicial and reas…
The Corruption of Reality
Martin and Malcolm as Cultural Icons
Mysticism, Reality, Illusion, and the Freudian Critique of Religion
Freud's critique of religion cannot be fully understood if his ontogenetic perspective is explored outside of his phylogenetic perspective. The former allows for illusionistic thought processes that are orthogonal to reality claims. The latter requires consideration of empirical claims to truth within a social psychological perspective. It is only the phylogenetic perspective that allows Freud to maintain that religion is delusional, whether or n…
Male Commitment to the Cult of the Virgin Mary and the Passion of Christ as a Function of Early Maternal Bonding
Carroll's claim that the origin of the Catholic cult of the Virgin Mary can be at least partly illuminated by classical Freudian theory is tested empirically. Seventy-one non-Catholic males, selected for religious commitment, evaluated independently operationalized crucifixes and representations of the Vir- gin Mary. As predicted, an operational interactive measure of early maternal care and protection, assumed indicative of repression, best pred…
Dimensions of the Mysticism Scale
In a mostly Christian American sample (N = 1,379), confirmatory factor analysis of Hood's (1975) Mysticism Scale verified the existence of Stace's (1960) introvertive and extrovertive dimensions of mystical phenomenology along with a separate interpretation factor. A second study confirmed the presence of these three factors in not only another group of Americans (N = 188), but also in a sample of Iranian Muslims (N = 185). Relationships of the i…
Mystical Experience Among Tibetan Buddhists
In the study of mysticism the debate has centered on whether a universal experiential core exists regardless of religious interpretation. The current investigation combines Jamesian empiricist and social constructivist perspectives to argue that stable experiential facets load variously on factors to construct local interpretations. Local interpretations reflect a family resemblance—a mystical common core experienced across cultures. Results of c…
A Phenomenological Analysis of the Anointing among Religious Serpent Handlers
Holiness-Pentecostal sects that practice serpent handling do so out of compliance with a literal interpretation of Mark 16:17-18. To investigate the meaning of this practice from within its religious context, phenomenological interviews were conducted with 8 men and 3 women who focused on specific experiences of taking up serpents. Participants reported that serpents were taken up either by faith or by the anointing, but most often by the anointi…
Mysticism, Reality, Illusion, and the Freudian Critique of Religion
Freud's critique of religion cannot be fully understood if his ontogenetic perspective is explored outside of his phylogenetic perspective. The former allows for illusionistic thought processes that are orthogonal to reality claims. The latter requires consideration of empirical claims to truth within a social psychological perspective. It is only the phylogenetic perspective that allows Freud to maintain that religion is delusional, whether or n…
Changing Views of Serpent Handling
Knowledge about serpent handling sects (SHS) even among social scientists and legislators has been largely influenced by biased media reports. Our own field research suggests that factual knowledge about SHS is effective in changing stereotypes about serpent handling and in altering views as to the rights of believers to handle serpents in church. In a quasi-experimental study, participants were pretested with respect to both prejudicial and reas…
Male Commitment to the Cult of the Virgin Mary and the Passion of Christ as a Function of Early Maternal Bonding
Carroll's claim that the origin of the Catholic cult of the Virgin Mary can be at least partly illuminated by classical Freudian theory is tested empirically. Seventy-one non-Catholic males, selected for religious commitment, evaluated independently operationalized crucifixes and representations of the Vir- gin Mary. As predicted, an operational interactive measure of early maternal care and protection, assumed indicative of repression, best pred…
Male Commitment to the Cult of the Virgin Mary and the Passion of Christ as a Function of Early Maternal Bonding
Carroll's claim that the origin of the Catholic cult of the Virgin Mary can be at least partly illuminated by classical Freudian theory is tested empirically. Seventy-one non-Catholic males, selected for religious commitment, evaluated independently operationalized crucifixes and representations of the Vir- gin Mary. As predicted, an operational interactive measure of early maternal care and protection, assumed indicative of repression, best pred…
Mysticism, Reality, Illusion, and the Freudian Critique of Religion
Freud's critique of religion cannot be fully understood if his ontogenetic perspective is explored outside of his phylogenetic perspective. The former allows for illusionistic thought processes that are orthogonal to reality claims. The latter requires consideration of empirical claims to truth within a social psychological perspective. It is only the phylogenetic perspective that allows Freud to maintain that religion is delusional, whether or n…
Martin and Malcolm as Cultural Icons
The Corruption of Reality
A Phenomenological Analysis of the Anointing among Religious Serpent Handlers
Holiness-Pentecostal sects that practice serpent handling do so out of compliance with a literal interpretation of Mark 16:17-18. To investigate the meaning of this practice from within its religious context, phenomenological interviews were conducted with 8 men and 3 women who focused on specific experiences of taking up serpents. Participants reported that serpents were taken up either by faith or by the anointing, but most often by the anointi…
Changing Views of Serpent Handling
Knowledge about serpent handling sects (SHS) even among social scientists and legislators has been largely influenced by biased media reports. Our own field research suggests that factual knowledge about SHS is effective in changing stereotypes about serpent handling and in altering views as to the rights of believers to handle serpents in church. In a quasi-experimental study, participants were pretested with respect to both prejudicial and reas…
Dimensions of the Mysticism Scale
In a mostly Christian American sample (N = 1,379), confirmatory factor analysis of Hood's (1975) Mysticism Scale verified the existence of Stace's (1960) introvertive and extrovertive dimensions of mystical phenomenology along with a separate interpretation factor. A second study confirmed the presence of these three factors in not only another group of Americans (N = 188), but also in a sample of Iranian Muslims (N = 185). Relationships of the i…
The psychology of religion
"The authors synthesize classic and contemporary research on religious thought, belief, and behavior across the lifespan; the forms and meaning of religious experience; the social psychology of religious organizations; and connections to biology, morality, coping, and mental health. As in previous editions, the focus is on scientific work that is moving the psychology of religion into the mainstream of academic psychology, rather than broad inter…
Mystical Experience Among Tibetan Buddhists
In the study of mysticism the debate has centered on whether a universal experiential core exists regardless of religious interpretation. The current investigation combines Jamesian empiricist and social constructivist perspectives to argue that stable experiential facets load variously on factors to construct local interpretations. Local interpretations reflect a family resemblance—a mystical common core experienced across cultures. Results of c…
Religious fundamentalism and racial prejudice
We examined religious fundamentalism (RF) and racial prejudice (RP) using the implicit Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) and explicit Feeling Thermometer (FT). Ninety undergraduates (38 Blacks and 52 Whites) from a small southern USA university participated. We experimentally manipulated aggression/love Bible texts to study any influence on RP, but found that it had no effect on reducing pretest–posttest AMP scores. Analysis of AMP posttest d…
Portrait
As the first invitee to this portrait section trained as a scholar of religion and situated in a department of religious studies, I was interested to see how previous scholars trained in anthropology and sociology positioned themselves in relation to ‘religion’ as an object of study. It seems we all do so gingerly. Although my graduate work was in the history of Christianity with a focus on American religious history, since the early 1990s I have…
Faith in Development
How has faith developed in the US and German societies across the last decades? In a three-wave longitudinal investigation of faith development, this study presents the changes of worldview and meaning-making that people associate with their religious, spiritual, agnostic and atheist identifications. For almost two decades, research teams in Chattanooga (USA) and Bielefeld (Germany) have invited and re-invited hundreds of people to participate in…
Philosophy (10 works) · Epistemology (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (6 works) · Theology (6 works) · Social Psychology (5 works) · History (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Psychoanalysis (4 works)