Emyr Williams

Understanding cathedral visitors: psychological type and individual differences in experience and appreciation.

This article examines the experience and appreciation of 381 visitors to St Davids Cathedral in West Wales through the lens of Jungian psychological type theory. The data demonstrate that St Davids Cathedral attracts more introverts than extraverts, more sensers than intuitives, and more judgers than perceivers, but equal proportions of thinkers and feelers. The data also demonstrate that different aspects of the visitor experience appeals to different psychological types. Sensers are more attracted than intuitives by the facts, information, and data they encounter on their visit. Feelers are more attracted than thinkers by the atmosphere and wider ambience generated by the cathedral during their visit. The implications of these findings are discussed for understanding and developing the way in which cathedrals may develop the visitor experience.

Visitor experiences of St Davids Cathedral: the two worlds of pilgrims and secular tourists

Abstract The remote and rural St Davids Cathedral in west Wales receives a steady flow of visitors throughout the year. In order to develop its ministry in this field, a sample of 514 visitors completed a detailed questionnaire designed to explore their experiences of the cathedral, together with a measure of their personal church attendance. The data demonstrated clear differences between the experiences of pilgrims (defined as visitors who attend church services weekly) and the experiences of secular tourists (defined as visitors who never attend church services). The implications of these findings are discussed for cathedral ministry more generally.

Applying psychological type theory to cathedral visitors: a case study of two cathedrals in England and Wales.

ABSTRACT This study uses Jungian psychological type theory to profile visitors to Chester Cathedral in England and St Davids Cathedral in Wales. Psychological type theory offers a fourfold psychographic segmentation of visitors, distinguishing between introversion and extraversion, sensing and intuition, thinking and feeling, and judging and perceiving. New data provided by 157 visitors to Chester Cathedral, considered alongside previously published data provided by 381 visitors to St Davids Cathedral, demonstrated that these two cathedrals attract more introverts than extraverts, more sensers than intuitives, and more judgers than perceivers, but equal proportions of thinkers and feelers. Comparison with the population norms demonstrated that extraverts and perceivers are significantly underrepresented among visitors to these 2 cathedrals. The implications of these findings are discussed both for maximizing the visitor experiences of those already attracted to these cathedrals and for discovering ways of attracting more extraverts and more perceivers to explore these cathedrals.

Measuring religious social capital: the scale properties of the Williams Religious Social Capital Index (WRSCI) among cathedral congregations

The theoretical construct of social capital remains contested in terms of conceptualisation and measurement. The present paper follows the convention of distinguishing between trust, bonding, bridging and linking social capital, to conceptualise how religious communities promote and develop social capital within a specifically religious cohort. Developing this construct of religious social capital further, this paper proposes a measure for use specifically among religious communities to assess individual‐level social capital. The Williams Religious Social Capital Index (WRSCI) provides a unidimensional construct of religious social capital taking into consideration the four elements highlighted. A sample of 720 members of six cathedral congregations in England and Wales completed a battery of items concerning social capital. Factor analysis procedures produced a 12‐item index of religious social capital. Reliability analyses demonstrated that this index achieved satisfactory levels of internal reliability consistency. Construct validity was supported by the clear association between frequency of attendance and levels of assessed religious social capital.

The internal consistency reliability and construct validity of the New Indices of Religious Orientation (NIRO) among cathedral worshippers in the United Kingdom

Building on the work of Francis among a sample of students, this study examined the psychometric properties of The New Indices of Religious Orientation among 432 worshippers in five Anglican cathedrals in England and Wales. The data demonstrated that all the indices achieved satisfactory alpha coefficients for both the full scale (extrinsic, 0.79; intrinsic, 0.76; and quest, 0.75) and the short form (extrinsic, 0.70, intrinsic, 0.79; and quest, 0.70). The construct validity of the New Indices of Religious Orientation was supported by examination against self-reported frequency of personal prayer. These findings suggest that the scales provide a satisfactory measure of religious orientation among a religious sample.

Living in Sin? Religion and Cohabitation in Britain 1985–2005

Frequency of cohabitation among 13,703 adults from the British Social Attitudes data set for 1985–2005 peaked at around 26–30 years of age and increased significantly over the period of study. Cohabitation frequency was compared between those of no religious affiliation and Christian affiliates who (a) attended church at least once a month, (b) attended church but less than once a month, and (c) never attended church. Active Christians were 3.2 times less likely to cohabit than nonaffiliates, and rates of cohabitation have remained stable over time in this group. Christian affiliates who never attended church were 1.2 times less likely to cohabit than nonaffiliates, suggesting that even affiliation without attendance may indicate greater affinity to Christian moral attitudes compared with nonaffiliates.

The psychological type profile of practising Greek Orthodox churchgoers in London

Within the psychology of religion, there is growing interest in the theoretical and empirical contributions of psychological-type theory. For example, a series of studies, conducted using different measures of psychological type in several different cultural contexts, have begun to chart the psychological-type profile of practising Christian churchgoers. The aim of the present study was to profile a sample of practising Greek Orthodox Christians in London. A sample of 105 practising Greek Orthodox churchgoers (49 males and 56 females) completed the Francis Psychological-Type Scales. The sample showed a preference for introversion over extraversion, for sensing over intuition, for thinking over feeling, and for judging over perceiving. Just under a third of the sample reported as being ISTJ (27% of men and 29% of women). While earlier research has revealed over-representation of feeling types among male Anglican churchgoers, the present study revealed over-representation of thinking types among female Orthodox churchgoers.

Contacting the Spirits of the Dead: Paranormal Belief and the Teenage Worldview.

A number of previous studies have examined both the overall level of belief expressed by young people in the paranormal and the major demographic predictors of such belief. Building on this research tradition, the present study examines how one specific paranormal belief concerning contact with the spirits of the dead integrates with the wider teenage worldview. Data provided by 33,982 pupils age 13 to 15 years throughout England and Wales demonstrated that almost one in three young people (31%) believed that it is possible to contact the spirits of the dead. Compared with young people who did not share this belief, the young people who believed in the possibility of contacting the spirits of the dead displayed lower psychological wellbeing, higher anxiety, greater isolation, greater alienation, less positive social attitudes, and less socially conforming lifestyles. Overall, paranormal beliefs seem to be associated with a less healthy worldview, in both personal and social terms.

Personality, conventional Christian belief and unconventional paranormal belief : a study among teenagers

A sample of 10,851 pupils (5493 males and 5358 females) attending Year 9 classes (13‐ to 14‐year‐olds) and a sample of 9494 pupils (4787 males and 4707 females) attending Year 10 classes (14‐ to 15‐year‐olds) in non‐denominational state‐maintained secondary schools in England and Wales completed questions concerned with conventional Christian belief and unconventional paranormal belief, alongside the short‐form Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The data demonstrated that conventional Christian belief and unconventional paranormal belief occupy different locations in relation to the Eysenckian model of personality in respect of the psychoticism scale and the lie scale. While conventional Christian belief is associated with lower psychoticism scores and higher lie scale scores (greater social conformity), unconventional paranormal belief is associated with higher psychoticism scores and lower lie scale scores (lower social conformity).

Introducing the modified paranormal belief scale: distinguishing between classic paranormal beliefs, religious paranormal beliefs and conventional religiosity among undergraduates in Northern Ireland and Wales

Previous empirical studies concerned with the association between paranormal beliefs and conventional religiosity have produced conflicting evidence. Drawing on Rices (2003) distinction between classic paranormal beliefs and religious paranormal beliefs, the present study proposed a modified form of the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Belief Scale to produce separate scores for these two forms of paranormal belief, styled ‘religious paranormal beliefs’ and ‘classic paranormal beliefs’. Data provided by a sample of 143 undergraduate students in Northern Ireland and Wales, who completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity alongside the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Belief Scale, demonstrated that conventional religiosity is positively correlated with religious paranormal beliefs, but independent of classic paranormal beliefs. These findings provide a clear framework within which previous conflicting evidence can be interpreted. It is recommended that future research should distinguish clearly between these two forms of paranormal beliefs and that the Tobacyk Revised Paranormal Beliefs Scale should be routinely modified to detach the four religious paranormal belief items from the total scale score.