Psychology / Medicine

Aerts, D., S. Aerts. ''Applications of Quantum Statistics in Psychological Studies of Decision Processes." Foundations of Science 1 (1995) 85.

Birch, Charles. "A biological basis of human purpose." Zygon 8, 3-4 (1973) 244-260.

Byrd, Randolph. "Positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in a coronary care unit population." Southern Medical Journal, 81 (1988) 826-829.
Perhaps the most extraordinary scientific study of the efficacy of intercessory prayer. The cardiologist conducted a double-blind clinical trial in the coronary care unit at San Francisco General Hospital that involved 393 patients.

Cushman, Philip. ''Why the Self Is Empty: Toward a Historically Situated Psychology." American Psychologist 45 (1990) 599.
Describes how postmodernism has fundamentally altered how persons see themselves. Rather than seeing self and reality as stable and enduring, we have instead begun to see self as comprised of social roles, and reality as socially constructed and subjective.

Dossey, Larry. ''Prayer and Medical Science: A Commentary on the Prayer Study by Harris et al. and a Response to Critics." Archives of Internal Medicine 160, 12 (2000) 1735-8.

De Quincey, Christian. ''Past Matter, Present Mind: A Convergence of World Views." Journal of Consciousness Studies C, 1 (1999) 91-106.
Follows De Quincey's review of Giffith's Unsnarling the World-Knot: Consciousness, Freedom, and The Mind-Body Problem and argues that all the problems are resolved by panpsychism.

Ekman, P. ''Are There Basic Emotion?" Psychological Review 99, 3 (1992) 550-553.

Flack, J. C., F. B. M. deWaal. ''Any Animal Whatever: Darwinian Building Blocks of Morality in Monkeys and Apes." Journal of Consciousness Studies 7 (2000) 1-29.

Heilig, J. S., Dalmen Mayer, James W. Larrick. ''Testing the Power of Belief." Science 276 (1997) 881-2.

Idler, E. L., S. V. Kasl. ''Religion among Disabled and Nondisabled Elderly Persons, II: Attendance at Religious Services as a Predictor of the Course of Disability." Journal of Gerontology 52B (1997) 306-316.
This is a 12-year prospective study of 2,812 elders in New Haven, CT (part of the NIA's Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies in the Elderly or EPESE program done at Yale University). Frequent religious attendance predicted lower disability throughout the follow-up period.

Koenig, H. G., L. K. George, B. L. Peterson. ''Religiosity and Remission from Depression in Medically Ill Older Patients." American Journal of Psychiatry 155 (1998) 536-542.
The research finds that intrinsic religiousness is associated with more rapid recovery from depression in medical settings. This is independent of other patient characteristics at baseline, including level of social support, severity of depression, and level of functional disability.

Koenig, H. G., H. J. Cohen, D. G. Blazer. ''Religious Coping and Depression in Elderly Hospitalized Medically Ill Men." American Journal of Psychiatry 149 (1992) 1693-1700.
The authors find that religious coping is a powerful factor enabling medical patients to better adapt to their medical conditions.

Miller, William R. ''Rediscovering Fire: Small Interventions, Large Effects." Psychology of Addictive Behaviors 14 (2000) 6-18.
A review article, synthesizing a set of puzzling findings about human change, and invoking the concept of agape love as a possible common factor in these unexpected observations.

Popper, Karl. "Natural Selection and the Emergence of Mind." Dialectica. 32 (1978) 339-355.

Propst, L. R., R. Ostrom, P. Watkins. ''Comparative Efficacy of Religious and Nonreligious Cognitive-behavior Therapy for the Treatment of Clinical Depression in Religious Individuals." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 60 (1992) 94-103.
This ia a clinical trial that examined the effectiveness of a religion-based psychotherapy (RCT), compared to traditional secular psychotherapy (CBT), ordinary pastoral counseling (PCT), and no treatment (WLC). The study finds that only religious psychotherapy resulted in significantly lower post-treatment depression scores, compared with control patients.

Rottschaefer, William A., David Martinsen. ''The Insufficience of Supervenient Explanations of Moral Actions: Really Taking Darwin and the Naturalistic Fallacy Seriously." Biology and philosophy 6, 4 (1991) 439-445.

Stevens, Anthony. ''Thoughts on the Psychobiology of Religion and the Neurobiology of Archetypal Experience." Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 21, 1 (1986) 9-29.

Thomson, Keith Stewart. ''The Revival of Experiments on Prayer." American Scientist 84 (1996) 532-534.

Wallace, J. M., T. A. Forman. ''Religion's Role in Promoting Health and Reducing the Risk among American Youth." Health Education and Behavior 25 (1998) 721-741.
The authors examined the effects of religion on high risk behaviors among 5,000 students. Not only was religiousness associated with less drug and alcohol use, but it was also positively related to positive health behaviors.

Webb, Eugene. ''Ernest Becker and the Psychology of Worldviews." Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 33, 1 (1998) 71-86.

Weintraub, Ruth. ''The Spatiality of the Mental and the Mind-body Problem." Synthese 117, 3 (1998) 409-417.
Since materialism requires mental events to be localized and dualism requires they be non-local, proof of localization would prove materialism. But there is no way to implement the strategy for either alternative.

Woods, T. E., M. H. Antoni, G. H. Ironson. ''Religiosity Is Associated with Affective and Immune Status in Symptomatic HIV-infected Gay Men." Journal of Psychosomatic Research 46 (1999) 165-176.
Investigators conducted a study of 106 HIV+ gay men. Results indicated that religious activities were associated with significantly better health and higher survival rate.