The weak interaction between scientific psychology and study of religion is
only partly explained by the misconceptions about psychology among religious
scholars. We also need to consider why experimental psychologists have tended to
ignore religion as a domain of human cognition. A number of factors may have contributed
to this. To begin with, standard psychological education does not prepare
researchers for tackling specifically religious issues so that few psychology graduates
have clear ideas for research in this domain. Further, the terms “religion” and
“religious experience”, even when understood as mental states, are too broad to be
seen as translatable into operational definitions (which are an essential requirement
in psychological research).