James Murphy

James Murphy

James Murphy

PhD Student

School: Psychology and Life Scienecs

Campus: Canterbury

Profile summary

James Murphy is a researcher in the Psychology department whose work focuses on the relationship between experiences and beliefs. He is interested in both how experiences alter beliefs and how beliefs affect the interpretation of experiences. As an undergraduate he read Theology at Kings’ College London before completing an MA in the Psychology of Religion at Heythrop College, University of London.

Within CCCU he is a member of several research groups including ‘Society and Environment’, ‘Health and Wellbeing’, and the ‘Intersectional Centre for Inclusion and Social Justice’ (INCISE). He is also a member of the International Association for the Psychology of Religion, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion and the British Association for the Study of Religions.

Research topic

The Self and the Sacred: A psychological examination of the relationships between believers and their gods.

Supervisory team 

  • Dr Chris Pike (1st Supervisor)
  • Dr Fergal Jones (2nd Supervisor)
  • Professor Paul Camic (Chair)

Research outline

Using multi-perspectival Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, James’ work explores the lived experiences of individuals from a range of different faith traditions in contemporary Britain. His work examines the interplay between beliefs, practices and personal experiences. 

Recent Publications:

Murphy, J. (2019). Three approaches to teaching secularism in religious studies.  Implicit Religion, 22(1), 50-57.

Murphy, J. (2018). Theory, method, and implicit religion. Implicit Religion, 21(1), 112-118.

Murphy, J. (2017). Beyond “religion” and “spirituality”: Extending a “meaning systems” approach to explore lived religion. Archive for the Psychology of Religion, 39(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1163/15736121-12341335.

Research outputs

Murphy, J.P.S. (2016, September). The consequences of a ‘meaning systems’ understanding for the study of ‘religion’ and ‘nonreligion’. Paper presented at the British Association for the Study of Religions Annual Conference: Religion Beyond the Textbook, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom.

Further information

 

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Last edited: 23/11/2020 09:31:00