Carolyn Wilcox

Religion and gender orientation

Abstract A sample of 79 male and 80 female students in Wales completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity together with the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The data indicate that the well attested finding that women are more religious than men can be adequately explained in terms of differences in the personality dimensions of gender orientation.

Religiosity and Femininity: Do Women Really Hold a More Positive Attitude Toward Christianity?

Two samples of adolescents, comprising 340 males and 347 females between the ages of 13 and 15 years, and 59 males and 233 females between the ages of 16 and 18 years completed the Bem Sex Role Inventory together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The vast majority of subjects in both samples were from white Anglo-Saxon backgrounds. Among both age groups, females recorded a more positive attitude toward Christianity than males. At the same time there was a positive correlation between femininity and attitude toward Christianity among both age groups. Multiple regression analysis indicated that among the older group individual differences in gender orientation explained all the variance in attitude toward Christianity between males and females. Among the younger age group, sex still explained additional variance in attitude toward Christianity after taking gender orientation into account.

SELF-ESTEEM: COOPERSMITH AND ROSENBERG COMPARED

A sample of 802 16-yr.-olds in the UK completed the Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. The modest intercorrelation of .52 between the two instruments suggests that the scales may assess similar but not identical aspects of self-esteem.

Prayer, Church Attendance, and Personality Revisited: A Study among 16- to 19-Yr.-Old Girls

A sample of 236 16- to 19-yr.old female A level students studying in the north east of England completed the short form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire together with indices of prayer and church attendance. The data support the view that psychoticism is correlated with self-reported church attendance (r = –.15) and self-reported prayer (r = –.15), while scores on neither extraversion nor neuroticism are correlated with these indices of religiosity.

Attitude Toward Christianity and Psychological Type: A Survey Among Religious Studies Students

A sample of 367 students studying religion at A-level completed the Keirsey Temperament Sorter together with the Francis Scale of Attitude Toward Christianity. The data demonstrated that sensing types hold a more positive attitude toward Christianity than intuitive types and that judging types hold a more positive attitude toward Christianity than perceiving types. No significant differences in attitude toward Christianity were found either between extroverts and introverts, or between thinking types and feeling types.

The relationship between Eysenck's personality dimensions and Bem's masculinity and femininity scales revisited

Abstract A sample of 86 male and 93 female students in Wales completed the short form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire together with the Bem Sex Role Inventory. The data indicate that high scores on the scale of masculinity are associated with high extraversion and low neuroticism, but unrelated to either psychoticism or the lie scale, while high scores on the scale of femininity are associated with low psychoticism, high neuroticism and high lie scale scores, but unrelated to extraversion.

Beyond gender stereotyping: Examining the validity of the BEM sex-role inventory among 16- to 19-year old females in England

Abstract A sample of 236 adolescent women between the ages of 16 and 19 in England replicated the process by which the masculinity, femininity and buffer items were selected for inclusion in the Bem Sex-Role Inventory. According to the replication study only three of the 20 masculinity items and three of the 20 femininity items continued to satisfy criteria for inclusion. The implications of this finding are discussed for the future use and interpretation of the Bem Sex-Role Inventory in England.

Distinguishing between Aims and Methods in RE: a Study among Secondary RE Teachers

Although current debates concerning the theory of religious education in Britain make a clear distinction between the aims and the methods of the subject, little is known regarding the way in which practising religious educators apply different methods to achieve specific aims. The present study, therefore, invited 210 secondary RE teachers to assess the effectiveness of 27 different methodological components in respect of the five aims for RE drawn from the SCAA Model Syllabuses. The findings demonstrate that religious educators perceive a clear link between methods and aim. The paper includes a detailed analysis of the teachers’ views on the effectiveness of different methods of RE for fulfilling different aims.

The Relationship between Christian Commitment and Motivation to Study Religion at A-level: A Preliminary Investigation

A SAMPLE OF 304 A-level religious studies students completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity together with an index of motivations to study religion. The findings suggest that at A-level there is more interest in the religious studies approach than in the approach of theology. However, the students who are considering studying religion at degree level are much more likely to be motivated by faith-based considerations.

Personality and Sex Role Orientation Among 17–19 Year Old Females in England

A sample of 233 female students between the ages of seventeen and nineteen years completed the short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire together with the Bern Sex Role Inventory. The data indicate that high scores on the scale of masculinity are associated with high extraversion, high psychoticism and low neuroticism, while high scores on the scale of femininity are associated with high neuroticism and low psychoticism but unrelated to extraversion.