Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, First Edition

Raymond F. Paloutzian, PhD, is Professor of Experimental and Social Psychology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. Previously, he taught at the University of Idaho and was a visiting professor at Stanford University and a guest professor at Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Psychological Society, and the Western Psychological Association, Dr. Paloutzian is a past president of APA Division 36 (Psychology of Religion). He is the author of Invitation to the Psychology of Religion, Second Edition, and the editor of The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion.

Crystal L. Park, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Connecticut. Her research focuses on the roles of religious beliefs and religious coping in response to stressful life events, the phenomenon of stress-related growth, and people's attempts to find meaning in negative life events. She is associate editor of Psychology and Health and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology and The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion. A past president of APA Division 36, Dr. Park is also Principal Investigator on research projects funded by the Lance Armstrong Foundation (examining positive life changes in cancer survivors) and the Fetzer Foundation (examining changes in spirituality and well-being in patients with terminal heart failure).