Tommy Poling, Ph.D., Professor
Courses Instructed
- 2300 – Psychology and the Human Experience
- 3340 – Meditation Techniques (team taught, interdisciplinary)
- 3360 – Abnormal Psychology
- 3363 – Psychology of Religion (team taught, interdisciplinary)
- 4310/5310 – Counseling Psychology
- 4370 – Psychology of Personality
- 4460/5460 – Psychological Tests
- 7360 – Deviant Behavior
- 7385 – Clinical Methods
Research Interests
The focus of my research has been in the area of personality theory and measurement. In collaboration with faculty and student colleagues, I have investigated the influence of personality characteristics on a variety of variables, including religious conversion and denominational affiliation, deity conceptualization, moral reasoning, creativity, leadership style and language use.
Selected Publications and Presentations
Poling, T., & Kenney, J. (1986). The Hare Krishna Character Type: A Study of the Sensate Personality. Lewiston, NY : Edwin Mellen Press.
Poling, T.H. (1985). Personality and religious affiliation: A study of Hare Krishnas and Unitarian Universalists. Presented at the Southwest Conference on Asian Studies.
Poling, T.H., Kenney, J.F., & Lipman, M.J. (1988). God concepts: A factor analytic assessment. Presented at the American Psychological Association Conference.
Poling, T.H., Kenney, J.F., & Johnson, J. (1990). God concepts and denominational affiliation. Presented at the American Psychological Association Conference.
Poling, T. (1994). Psychology of religion, Jungian theory, and type. Bulletin of Psychological Type, 17, 4.
Poling, T., & Johnson, J. (1995). The TDI, Eysenck’s Dimensions of Personality and the Five Factor Model. In Newman, J. (Ed.), Measures of the Five Factor Model and Psychological Type: A Major Convergence of Research and Theory. Kansas City, MO. International Association for Psychological Type.
Faucett, J., Morgan, E., Poling, T., & Johnson, J. (1995). MBTI Type and Kohlberg’s post-conventional studies of moral reasoning. Journal for Psychological Type.
Poling, T., & Kenney, J. (1995). The psychology of meditation: An interdisciplinary approach. Presented at the American Psychological Society Conference in New York, NY.
Poling, T., Johnson, J., & Kenney, J. (1995). Anthropomorphic, deistic, and omni deity images: The influence of psychological type. Presented at the International Association of
Psychological Type Conference in Kanasas City, MO.
Poling, T., Sherman, A., Simonton, S., & Faucett, J. (1997). Self-regulation and immune changes in healthy subjects: A comparison of relaxation, meditation and imagery. Presented at the American Psychological Society Conference, Washington, D.C.
Poling, T., Faucett, J., & Belden, A. (2000). Personality variables influence academic performance. Presented at the American Psychological Society Conference, Miami, FL.
Sherman, A., Simonton, S., Adams, D., Latif, U., Plante, T., Burris, K., & Poling, T. (2001). Measuring religious faith in cancer patients: Reliability and construct validity of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire. Psycho-Oncology , 10, 436-443.