biography
Doug Oman has been on the faculty at University of California, Berkeley (UCB) since 2001 and is an adjunct professor in the UCB School of Public Health. Oman received his PhD in Biostatistics from UCB and has also conducted a substantial independent research program since the 1990s on the influence of psychology and psychosocial factors on health. At UCB, he mentors public health doctoral, master’s, and undergraduate students in community health sciences, maternal and child health, and other public health areas, and also teaches a year-long course on spiritual and religious factors and public health.
Much of Oman’s research focuses on the impact of spirituality and related psychological factors such as compassion and other character strengths and virtues on health, on which he has published numerous empirical studies, reviews, book chapters, and a 2018 book, “Why Religion and Spirituality Matters to Public Health: Evidence, Implications, Resources”. He has also been the principal investigator of two randomized controlled trials of spiritually oriented meditation-based interventions in health professionals and students that promoted significant and meaningful gains on measures of compassion, forgiveness, and a number of related constructs.
Oman served as President (2016-2017) of the Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality (Division 36 of the American Psychological Association) and has published over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Oman serves as Associate Editor of the journal. Mindfulness and The Psychology of Religion and Spirituality He served as an editorial committee member of Journal of Health Psychology He is the author of a series of books, Religion, Spirituality, and Health: A Social Science Approach (Springer). His 1998 paper, “Religion and Mortality Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults,” won the Templeton Prize for exemplary articles in religion and medicine and the 2018 William C. Beer Award (from the Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality) for outstanding interdisciplinary research on issues in the psychology of religion and related fields.
field of study
- Mental and religious health factors: Evidence and implications for practice.
- Meditation, Mindfulness, and Wellness
- Professional empathy and skills for living in a religiously pluralistic society
Publication
Courses
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spring
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PBHLTH281
- Public Health and Spirituality
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