Ralph W. Hood

Ralph W. Hood, PhD
Born 18 July 1942
Denver, Colorado, USA
Nationality United States
Alma mater University of Nevada, Reno (PhD)
Known for Psychology of mysticism
Scientific career
Fields Psychology of Religion
Institutions University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Doctoral advisor Paul Secord

Ralph Wilbur Hood (born 1942) is a professor of psychology at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Biography

Hood was born on 18 July 1942 in Denver, Colorado.[1]

Academic career

Hood received his BS at University of California, Los Angeles, an MS at California State College at Los Angeles (1966), and a PhD at University of Nevada, Reno (1968).[2]

Hood is a former editor of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (1995–1999), and has been coeditor of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion (1992–1995) and Archiv für Religionpsychologie (2005–).

Research topics

Hood's "Mysticism scale," based on Walter Stace's distinction between "introverted" and "extroverted" mysticism, was developed in the 1970s, and is a well-known research instrument for mystical experiences.

Hood is also well known for researching snake handling in the Appalachian Mountains.

Criticism

Stace's work in mystical experience has received strong criticisms, for its lack of methodological rigueur and its perennialist pre-assumptions.[3][4][5][6][web 1] Major criticism came from Steven T. Katz in his influential series of publications on mysticism and philosophy,[note 1] and from Wayne Proudfoot in his Religious experience (1985).[7]

In defense of Stace, Hood (2001) cites Forman, who argues that introverted mysticism is correctly conceptualized as a common core, since it lacks all content, and is the correct basis for a perennial philosophy.[8][note 2] Hood notes that Stace's work is a conceptual approach, based on textual studies.[7] He posits his own work as a parallel approach, based on an empirical approach, thereby placing the conceptual claims in an empirical framework,[9] assuming that Stace is correct in his approach.[10]

Jacob van Belzen criticized Hood, noting that Hood validated the existence of a common core in mystical experiences, but based on a conceptual framework which presupposes the existence of such a common core:

[T]he instrument used to verify Stace's conceptualization of Stace is not independent of Stace, but based on him."[6]

Belzen also notes that religion does not stand on its own, but is embedded in a cultural context, which should be taken into account.[11] To this criticism Hood et al. answer that universalistic tendencies in religious research "are rooted first in inductive generalizations from cross-cultural consideration of either faith or mysticism,"[12] stating that Stace sought out texts which he recognized as an expression of mystical expression, from which he created his universal core. Hood therefor concludes that Belzen "is incorrect when he claims that items were presupposed."[12][note 3]

Publications

Articles

Hood has published numerous articles on the psychology of religion and spirituality in professional journals.[2]

  • Hood, Ralph W. (1975), "The Construction and Preliminary Validation of a Measure of Reported Mystical Experience", Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 14 (1): 29, doi:10.2307/1384454

Books (author)

  • Hood, Ralph W. (2001), Dimensions of Mystical Experiences: Empirical Studies and Psychological Links, Rodopi
  • Hood, Ralph (2005). The Psychology of Religious Fundamentalism. New York, NY: the Guilford Press. ISBN 1593851502. , coauthored with Peter C. Hill and W. Paul Williamson. The book covers fundamentalism in different Christian sects, varying from Amish to Pentecostal and also investigates Islam. The authors seek to provide an experientially-based but empirically-minded psychological viewpoint on the concept of religious fundamentalism.
  • Hood, Ralph (2005), Handling Serpents, Mercer University Press . Jimmy Morrow, a church leader and serpent handler for more than 25 years, explores his lifetime of experiences from this unique form of Christian worship and reveals its history, previously unknown outside of the small communities where these rites are practiced. Hood shares insights into the social power of these practices and explains them from within a social psychological framework.
  • Hood, Ralph (2008). Them That Believe. london england: university of california. ISBN 9780520231474. . Hood has spent 15 years, along with W. Paul Williams, with snake handlers in Appalachia, learning about their belief systems, and has used this research to help build a psychological viewpoint on the phenomena of fundamentalism in religion.

Books (editor)

  • Spilka, Bernard; Hood, Ralph W.; Gorsuch, Richard L. (1985). The psychology of religion: An empirical approach (1st ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-736398-2.
  • Hood, Ralph W.; Streib, Heinz; Keller, Barbara; Klein, Constantin (2015). "The Contribution of the Study of "Spirituality" to the Psychology of Religion: Conclusions and Future Prospects". In Sreib, Heinz; Hood, Ralph W. Semantics and Psychology of Spirituality: A Cross-Cultural Analysis. Springer.

Awards and commendations

University: Teaching and research

  • Distinguished Psychology Professor, 1980
  • SGA Ten Outstanding Professors 1986
  • SGA Outstanding Professor 1989
  • Teaching Excellence Seminar, 1991
  • Distinguished Teaching Professorship -1991-1993
  • Faculty of Scholars (founding committee and member since inception)
  • UTC Alumni Outstanding University Professor, 2006

National and international

  • Fellow, American Psychological Association, Division 36, 1980
  • William James Award, American Psychological Association, 1985 - (for sustained and distinguished research in the psychology of religion)
  • Nominated outstanding article SSSR, 1991
  • Mentor Award, American Psychological Association, Division 36, 1996
  • Fellow, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, 1994
  • Distinguished Service Award, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, 2000[15]

Notes

  1. ↑
    • Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis (Oxford University Press, 1978)
      * Mysticism and Religious Traditions (Oxford University Press, 1983)
      * Mysticism and Language (Oxford University Press, 1992)
      * Mysticism and Sacred Scripture (Oxford University Press, 2000)
  2. ↑ According to critics, Forman over-emphasizes the centrality of what he calls "pure conscious events" in mystical traditions, and also misunderstands its meaning in those traditions.[web 1]
  3. ↑ Robert Sharf has criticised the idea that religious texts describe individual religious experience. According to Sharf, their authors go to great lengths to avoid personal experience, which would be seen as invalidating the presumed authority of the historical tradition.[13][14]

References

  1. ↑ Hood 2012, p. 108,110.
  2. 1 2 Faculty page for Ralph Hood Archived June 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine. (accessed June 17, 2010).
  3. ↑ Moore 1973, p. 148-150.
  4. ↑ Masson & Masson 1976.
  5. ↑ Katz 1978, p. 22-32.
  6. 1 2 Belzen 2010, p. 97.
  7. 1 2 Hood 2001, p. 32.
  8. ↑ Hood 2001, p. 32-33.
  9. ↑ Hood 2001, p. 33.
  10. ↑ Hood 2001, p. 33-34.
  11. ↑ Belzen 2010, p. 50.
  12. 1 2 Hood 2015, p. 467.
  13. ↑ Sharf & 1995-B.
  14. ↑ Sharf 2000.
  15. ↑ "Ralph Hood Vita" (PDF). 2010. Retrieved 2014-10-27.

Sources

Printes sources

  • Belzen, Jacob van (2010), Towards Cultural Psychology of Religion: Principles, Approaches, Applications, Springer Science & Business Media
  • Hood, Ralph W. (2001), Dimensions of Mystical Experiences: Empirical Studies and Psychological Links, Rodopi
  • Hood, Ralph W. (2012), "Psychology of religion: A personal narrative", in Belzen, Jacob A., Psychology of religion autobiographical accounts, New York: Springer, pp. 107–131, ISBN 9781461416029, OCLC 773924284
  • Hood, Ralph W.; Streib, Heinz; Keller, Barbara; Klein, Constantin (2015). "The Contribution of the Study of "Spirituality" to the Psychology of Religion: Conclusions and Future Prospects". In Sreib, Heinz; Hood, Ralph W. Semantics and Psychology of Spirituality: A Cross-Cultural Analysis. Springer.
  • Katz, Steven T. (1978), "Language, Epistemology, and Mysticism", in Katz, Steven T., Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis, Oxford university Press
  • Masson, J. Moussaieff; Masson, T.C. (1976), "The Study of Mysticism: A Criticim of W.T. Stace", Journal of Indian Philosophy, 4: 109–125
  • Moore, Peter G. (1973), "Recent Studies of Mysticism: A Critical Survey", Religion, 3: 146–156, doi:10.1016/0048-721x(73)90005-5
  • Sharf, Robert H. (1995-B), "Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience" (PDF), NUMEN, 42 Check date values in: |year= (help)
  • Sharf, Robert H. (2000), "The Rhetoric of Experience and the Study of Religion" (PDF), Journal of Consciousness Studies, 7 (11–12): 267–87

Web-sources

  1. 1 2 Jerome Gellman, Mysticism, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Further reading

  • Hood, Ralph W. (1975), "The Construction and Preliminary Validation of a Measure of Reported Mystical Experience", Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 14 (1): 29, doi:10.2307/1384454
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