ABSTRACT
Pace the radical behaviourists, psychologists are interested in mental states. We want to know how people are feeling and what they are thinking. Often, our interests are more specific: we want to know how people feel about certain things, and what they think about certain things. We want to know how some stimulus makes them feel; when they are more likely to believe what someone is telling them; what kinds of faces they like. And of course, psychologists who study religion are interested in such things too, in a specific context. We’re interested in how people feel when they pray; what influences their beliefs in supernatural agents; their attitudes toward their gods. Above and beyond religious behaviours, we are interested in religious cognition and emotions. But those of us interested in such things are immediately faced with the problem of measurement. How can we access (and assess) what people are feeling and thinking?
