Nationality United States Fields Psychology of Religion | Doctoral advisor Paul Secord Name Ralph Hood | |
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Dr ralph w hood margin of excellence lecture at henderson state
Ralph Wilbur Hood (born 1942) is a professor of psychology at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
Contents
- Dr ralph w hood margin of excellence lecture at henderson state
- Biography
- Academic career
- Research topics
- Criticism
- Articles
- Books author
- Books editor
- University Teaching and research
- National and international
- References
Biography
Hood was born on 18 July 1942 in Denver, Colorado.
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).
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. Major criticism came from Steven T. Katz in his influential series of publications on mysticism and philosophy, and from Wayne Proudfoot in his Religious experience (1985).
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. Hood notes that Stace's work is a conceptual approach, based on textual studies. He posits his own work as a parallel approach, based on an empirical approach, thereby placing the conceptual claims in an empirical framework, assuming that Stace is correct in his approach.
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."
Belzen also notes that religion does not stand on its own, but is embedded in a cultural context, which should be taken into account. 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," 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."
Articles
Hood has published numerous articles on the psychology of religion and spirituality in professional journals.