William K. Kay

The Relationship between Neuroticism and Religiosity among English 15-and 16-Year-Olds

Summary The Junior version of the Eysenck scale of neuroticism and the Francis scale of attitude towards religion Form ASC4B were administered to 1088 15- and 16-year-old English school boys and girls in order to examine two conflicting psychological accounts of the relationship between religiosity and stability. The positive significant correlation found between religiosity and neuroticism is shown to be an artifact caused by the fact that women are both more neurotic and more religious than men. The data support neither the hypothesis that religiosity is an expression of instability nor the hypothesis that religiosity fosters stability.

ARE RELIGIOUS CHILDREN BIGGER LIARS

1,088 fourth and fifth year English Secondary School pupils completed a scale of attitude towards religion, Form ASC4B, and the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory. A positive relationship was found between Lie scale scores and religiosity scores. The results are discussed in relation to the various interpretations of the Lie scale.

Personality and attitude toward Christianity among committed adult Christians

Abstract A sample of 29 men and 32 women highly committed to Christianity and attending an adult Christian study programme completed the Francis scale of attitude toward Christianity together with the abbreviated form of the Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. The data confirm that psychoticism is the dimension of personality fundamental to individual differences in attitude toward religiosity.

Are introverts still more religious

Abstract The JEPQ and a religious attitude scale, ASC 4B, were completed by 1715 school children aged 11–17 yrs. Attitude to religion was found to decline across the age range, girls were found to be more religious than boys, and introverts more religious than extraverts. The relationship between introversion and religiosity is consistent with previous research and the present study adds substance to this relationship with the use of a more recent E scale on an extended age range.

The personality characteristics of pentecostal ministry candidates

Abstract The Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was completed by 259 male and 105 female Pentecostal ministry candidates attending the British Assemblies of God and Elim bible colleges. The data demonstrate that both male and female Pentecostal ministry candidates score significantly lower than the population norms for the neuroticism scale. They are more stable than men and women in general. The female Pentecostal ministry candidates do not differ from women in general on the dimensions of extraversion, psychoticism and the lie scale. While the male Pentecostal ministry candidates do not differ from men in general on the dimension of extraversion, they score significantly lower on the psychoticism scale and significantly higher on the lie scale. These findings are set within the context of three sets of theories concerned with the relationships between personality and religion in general, personality and Christian ministry, and personality and the experience of glossolalia, a defining characteristic of Pentecostal ministry candidates.

Religious Terms and Attitudes in the Classroom (Part 1)

This article presents the results of a survey of 2,879 Year 9 pupils in 22 schools in the maintained sector in England and Wales in three different English local education authorities. Pupils were asked how many religions they had studied and, as part of a lengthy questionnaire, given a number of religious terms to connect with a particular world religion. The mistakes made by pupils were compared with the number of religions they had studied and the evidence showed that pupils who had studied five or more religions were more likely to make mistakes than pupils who had studied between two and four religions. A separate questionnaire to teachers in participating schools identified whether a systematic, thematic or mixed approach to world religions was used. Confusion was shown to be significantly linked with the mixed approach however many religions pupils had studied. The second part of this article will report on further findings of this investigation by comparing the attitudes of pupils to various religions.

Role Conflict and British Pentecostal Ministers

Church ministers often face the challenges of multiple, conflicting, and ambiguous roles, thus incurring job-related stress based upon the expectations of others and individual personality dynamics. Following the procedures utilized by L. J. Francis and R. Rodger (1994), the relationship of perceived role conflict and personality dynamics was investigated in 930 British Pentecostal ministers. These clergy completed a demographic survey, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (H. J. Eysenck & S. B. G. Eysenck, 1975), and the prioritization of 20 ministerial roles in terms of personal values and the perceived expectations of others. The results of this study indicate that ministers who endorse traits associated with neuroticism tend to experience role conflict more than those endorsing other personality profiles.

Suicidal ideation among young people in the UK: Churchgoing as an inhibitory influence?

After considering suicide from four theoretical perspectives—sociology, psychology, social-psychology and theology—a database of 33,135 young individuals (aged 13–15) in England and Wales was interrogated to discover whether churchgoing provides protection against suicidal ideation. Following the Durkheimian notion that suicide is associated with social isolation and making use of the Eysenckian three-dimensional model of personality, analysis indicated a statistically significant protection offered by churchgoing. Further analysis concentrated on vulnerable pupils. In this instance, vulnerable pupils are those who have been bereaved by the loss of at least one parent. After taking personality variations into account, church attendance is shown to offer significant protection against suicide, while the protective effects of team sports are insignificant.

Psychological type preferences of female Bible College students in England

A sample of 122 female students attending a Pentecostal Bible College in England completed Form G (Anglicised) of the Myers‐Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The data demonstrated preferences for extraversion over introversion, for sensing over intuition, for feeling over thinking, and for judging over perceiving. The predominant type was ISFJ (16%), followed by ESFJ (12%). Comparison with the population norms demonstrated an over‐representation of intuitives among this sample of Bible College students.

Attitude toward Christianity and the Transition to Formal Operational Thinking

Using a sample of 6,098 pupils in Scotland aged between 11 and 15 years, this paper tests the hypothesis that attitude toward Christianity will be significantly affected by the transition from concrete operational to formal operational thinking. Since churchgoing and gender are known to influence attitude toward Christianity and since ability has been shown to influence the emergence of formal operational thinking, male and female churchgoing and non‐churchgoing pupils drawn from selective and non‐selective schools are tested separately. The data give no evidence to support the hypothesis that the transition to formal operational thinking affects attitude toward Christianity in any way.