José Liht
Profile
José studied psychology in the Universidad de las Américas in
México City and then trained as an object relations oriented
therapist at the California State University, Sacramento. During
his clinical studies he became interested in the relationship
between marital satisfaction and Jewish religious observance. He
conducted a study comparing the effect of the subjective sense of
how religious people think they are and religiosity measured as
observance of religious practices in order to obtain his Master of
Arts. After returning to Mexico City, where he practiced as a
therapist, he decided to undertake doctoral studies on quantitative
research methodology and analysis at the Universidad
Iberoamericana, Santa Fe. After graduating, he was offered a post
within the psychology faculty in 2003 where he taught research
methods and quantitative analysis at both undergraduate and
graduate levels and became editor of the peer reviewed publication
Psicologia Iberoamericana. Since then José’s focus has been on the
measurement of thought complexity and its relationship to threat
and conflict. José became part of the Psychology and Religion
Research Group in January 2006.
Research Interests
José’s research interests relate to religious group identities
and intergroup relationships. He is particularly interested in how
intrinsic human existential challenges cause people to simplify
their thinking and adopt identities that result in a biased
perception of outgroup members. He is currently working on the
radicalisation of Muslim immigrants to Europe and militant atheism.
José study of atheists and Muslim immigrants draws comparisons with
regards to the sense of threat to their belief system that members
of both of these groups perceive and its effect on simplifying self
and other perceptions through the use of integrative complexity
coding. Drawing from a broad base of historical and sociological
data, his work attempts to provide insights into the experience of
Late Modernity by integrating phenomenological and functionalist
approaches to religiosity. José’s publications include
articles on thought complexity, intergroup conflict,
fundamentalism, multivariate analysis and the psychological
dimension of Jewish religiosity.
Publications
Liht, J., Conway, L. G., Savage, S., White,
W., & O’Neill, K. A. (under consideration). Religious
fundamentalism: An empirically derived construct and multi-cultural
measurement scale.
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
Liht, J. & Savage, S. (in press). Identity as it pertains
to human security. In M. Sharpe (Ed.)
Justice and security. NATO Science for Peace and Security
Series (42). Amsterdam: IOS Press.
Boyd-MacMillan, E., Savage, S., with Liht, J. (2009).
Conflict transformation among senior Christian leaders with
different theological stances. York, UK: FCL Publications.
Savage, S. & Liht, J. (2009). Do-it-yourself radical
religious speech: How to assemble the ingredients of a binary world
view. In E. Hare & J. Weinstein (Eds.)
Extreme speech and democracy. London: Oxford University
Press.
Savage, S. & Liht, J. (2009). Social psychological
research and the prevention of religiously motivated violence.
Archive for the Psychology of Religion.
Liht, J. & Savage, S. (2008). Identifying young Muslims
vulnerable to recruitment for terrorism: Psychological theory and
recommendations. In M. Sharpe (Ed.)
Suicide bombers: Psychological, religious and other
imperatives. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series (41).
Amsterdam: IOS Press.
Liht, J. (Ed.). (2006).
Temas selectos en orientación psicológica: Creando
alternativas [Selected topics in psychological orientation:
Creating alternatives] (Vol. 2). México: Editorial El Manual
Moderno.
Liht, J., Suedfeld, P., & Krawczyk, A. L. (2005).
Integrative complexity in face-to-face negotiations between the
Chiapas guerrillas and the Mexican Government.
Political Psychology, 26, 543-552.
Liht, J. (2005). Cuando la religión se vuelve incierta [When
religion becomes uncertain].
Nuestra Comunidad, 1, 1-18.
Liht, J. (2005). El análisis de factores y la validez de los
instrumentos psicométricos [Factor analysis and the validity of
psychometric instruments].
Psicología Iberoamericana, 13, 2-4.
Liht, J. (2004). La psicología política: ¿Es posible que la
psicología ayude a predecir una guerra? [Political psychology: Is
it possible for psychology to help predict a war?].
Psicología Iberoamericana, 12, 224-226.
Liht, J. (Ed.). (2004).
Temas selectos en orientación psicológica: Creando
alternativas [Selected topics in psychological orientation:
Creating alternatives] (Vol. 1). México: Editorial El Manual
Moderno.
Liht, J. (2004).
Normas complementarias para las opciones de titulación del
programa de maestría [Additional requirements for the master’s
degree culminating options]. México, Ciudad de México: Universidad
Iberoamericana, Departamento de Psicología.
Liht, J. (2004). Teoría y validez en la elaboración de
instrumentos psicológicos [Theory and validity in psychological
instrument construction]. En Facultad de Psicología, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México (Ed.).
2ª Feria Psicométrica Estudiantil. (pp. 10-14). México:
Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Liht, J. (2003). La Mikvah: Tina o manto espiritual [The
Mikvah: Tub or spiritual blessing].
Psicología Iberoamericana, 11, 41-44.
