Im a little disappointed that psychology seems to have neglected spiritual concerns. Why is that?
Ironically, the early years of psychology focused quite a bit on spiritual and religious matters but we have been through the domination of several popular perspectives that discouraged studying phenomena that were hard to measure. However, we have seen a resurgence of interest in this area as the result of the increased popularity of the cognitive and sociocultural perspectives. Both approaches promote the study of a wider array of behavior than earlier approaches. Youll find more about the psychological study of religion in a later chapter in the book. 7. When I ask simple questions about why some behaviors happen, my psych prof always starts her answer, It depends on… and then tells me about five or six things that might influence the behavior. This is so frustrating. Why cant we get straight answers to questions like that? Psychologists tend to see this challenge as far from simple. The fun of psychology is trying to identify all the different factors or variables that may play a
