Religion in the Introductory Psychology Textbook: A Comparison of Three Decades

In this research, 98 introductory psychology textbooks from the 1980s were examined for religious content. The were then compared with 40 texts from the 1950s and 160 from the 1970s. A major increase in religious-related material was observed for the 1980s texts over those of the 1970s; however, both the number of citations and citation length were reduced in 1980s texts over those of previous decades, and these citations continued to be primarily of a non-research, discussion nature. Although evaluation of the religious material by text authors was largely unbiased, the main examples chosen often presented religion in a negative light. Additionally, research in the psychology of religion was rarely present, and references were frequently to popular writers and well-known books. Indirect evidence is present of either author bias against religion in introductory texts or failure to look beyond mainstream psychology.