Psychological types of male and female Bible College students in England

A sample of 278 male and 213 female Bible College students in England completed Form G (Anglicized) of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The data demonstrated clear preferences for introversion over extraversion, for sensing over intuition, and for judging over perceiving among both male and female Bible College students. Among females there was also a clear preference for feeling over thinking. The two predominant types among female Bible College students emerged as ISFJ (23%) and ESFJ (17%). The two predominant types among male Bible college students emerged as ISTJ (15%) and ISFJ (13%).     

Psychological Types of Male Evangelical Missionary Personnel Training in England: A Role for Thinking Type Men?

A sample of 92 male evangelical missionary personnel completed Form G (Anglicised) of the MBTI. The two predominant types among this group were ESTJ (24%) and ISTJ (15%). In the group as a whole there were clear preferences for extraversion over introversion, for sensing over intuition, for thinking over feeling, and for judging over perceiving.     

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.     

Safeguarding Tradition: Psychological Type Preferences of Male Vergers in the Church of England

The current study explores the psychological type profile of vergers within the Church of England. A sample of 42 male vergers completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Form G). The study shows that vergers tend to prefer introversion over extraversion, sensing over intuition, thinking over feeling, and judging over perceiving. The type preferences of vergers are compared and contrasted with the type preferences of clergy and laity. These findings are explored within the context of the role of the verger within the Church of England.     

Psychological type preferences of Roman Catholic priests in the United Kingdom

This study explores the psychological type profile of Roman Catholic priests. A sample of 79 priests completed the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (Form G). The study shows that Roman Catholic priests tend to prefer introversion over extraversion, feeling over thinking and judging over perceiving. Near equal preferences are shown for sensing and intuition. The type preferences of Roman Catholic priests in the UK are compared and contrasted with the type preferences of Roman Catholic priests in the USA and Protestant clergy in the UK. These findings are explored within the context of the role of the priest within the Roman Catholic Church.     

Dogmatism,Religion, and Psychological Type

A sample of 422 female undergraduate students, attending a university-sector college in Wales specialising in teacher education and liberal arts subjects, completed the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator together with the Troldahl-Powell Dogmatism Scale. The data demonstrated that higher dogmatism scores are most clearly associated with sensing rather than intuition. Higher dogmatism scores are also associated with extraversion rather than introversion, and with judging rather than perceiving. No significant difference in dogmatism scores were found between thinking and feeling.     

The Scale Properties of the Adolescent Form of the Francis Psychological Type Scales (FPTSA) Among Canadian Baptist Youth

A sample of 755 religiously committed young people between the ages of 12 and 18 attending Tidal Impact (a weeklong youth mission and service event sponsored by the Convention of Atlantic Baptist Churches in Eastern Canada) completed a trial 80-item form of the Francis Psychological Type Scales designed for use among adolescents. These data were employed to refine four ten-item forced-choice scales to distinguish between preferences for the two orientations (extraversion and introversion), the two perceiving processes (sensing and intuition), the two judging processes (thinking and feeling) and the two attitudes (judging and perceiving). The scale properties of the new instrument commend the 40-item Adolescent form of the Francis Psychological Type Scales (FPTSA) for future use.     

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.     

Psychological Type Profile of Roman Catholic Priests: An Empirical Enquiry in the United States

This study explores the psychological type profile of Roman Catholic priests serving in the United States, drawing on data provided by 55 priests who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The data demonstrated clear preferences for introversion (67 %), sensing (64 %), and judging (91 %), and for a balance between thinking (49 %) and feeling (51 %). A very high proportion of priests reported preferences for ISTJ (27 %), compared with 16 % of men in the U.S. population. Implications of these findings are discussed for ministry in the Roman Catholic Church.     

Rethinking communication apprehension: a Myers-Briggs perspective

This study is an examination of relationships between Myers-Briggs personality type preferences, based on Jungian theory, and communication apprehension. Results showed that participants who preferred introversion or sensing reported significantly higher levels of communication apprehension in general and across the group, dyadic, meeting, and public contexts than did participants who preferred extraversion or intuition. In addition, participants who preferred feeling reported higher levels of communication anxiety in the public context than those who preferred thinking. Findings support the assumption that communication apprehension is biologically based, suggest that the Myers-Briggs type preference framework offers an alternative way of understanding communication apprehension, and point out the need for new approaches to understanding the phenomenon of communication apprehension.     

Rethinking Communication Apprehension: A Myers-Briggs Perspective

This study is an examination of relationships between Myers-Briggs personality type preferences, based on Jungian theory, and communication apprehension. Results showed that participants who preferred introversion or sensing reported significantly higher levels of communication apprehension in general and across the group, dyadic, meeting, and public contexts than did participants who preferred extraversion or intuition. In addition, participants who preferred feeling reported higher levels of communication anxiety in the public context than those who preferred thinking. Findings support the assumption that communication apprehension is biologically based, suggest that the Myers-Briggs type preference framework offers an alternative way of understanding communication apprehension, and point out the need for new approaches to understanding the phenomenon of communication apprehension.     

Psychological Types of Male Evangelical Church Leaders

A sample of 57 male evangelical church leaders completed a measure of psychological type. The data demonstrated that between one-quarter and one-third (28%) displayed a preference for sensing, feeling, and judging as either ESFJ or ISFJ. This is consistent with findings from other recent studies concerned with the personality profile of clergy.     

Exploring personality preferences in relation to psychological career resources among managerial staff in the Western Cape fast food industry

The study explored the relationship between individuals' personality preferences (as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Form M) and their psychological career resources (as measured by the Psychological Career Resources Inventory) and whether the personality types differed significantly in terms of their psychological career resources. The participants were a non-probability sample (N?=?81; females?=?74%, blacks?=?78%) of managerial-level staff from five fast food franchise restaurants in the Western Cape, South Africa. Quantitative statistical procedures were used to explore the association between the participants' personality preferences and psychological career resources. Findings suggest introverted and extraverted personality type preferences to be significantly associated with the participants' psychological career resources. Major differences were observed for the introverted sensing feeling perceiving (ISFP), extraverted sensing feeling judging (ESFJ), introverted sensing feeling judging (ISFJ), extraverted sensing thinking judging (ESTJ) and introverted sensing thinking judging (ISTJ) personality types in their relationship to the career preference of variety/creativity, need for career growth/development, their self/other skills and social connectivity.     

Linking clergy psychological type profile and church growth in the Diocese of Chester: a pilot study

Two recent studies (one in England and one in Australia) have linked church growth and church decline with the psychological type profile of church leaders. The present study, conducted within the Diocese of Chester, compares the psychological type profile of two groups of clergy who had served in the same parishes for five years or more: 29 leading declining churches and 19 leading growing churches. The data found a significantly higher preference for perceiving among those leading growing churches, although there were no significant differences in terms of the orientations, the perceiving process, or the judging process.     

Psychological Type and Attitude towards Celtic Christianity among Committed Churchgoers in the United Kingdom: An Empirical Study

This article takes the burgeoning interest in Celtic Christianity as a key example of the way in which churches may be responding to the changing spiritual and religious landscape in the United Kingdom today and examines the power of psychological type theory to account for variation in the attitude of committed churchgoers to this innovation. Data provided by a sample of 248 Anglican clergy and lay church officers (who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales together with the Attitude toward Celtic Christianity Scale) demonstrated that intuitive types, feeling types, and perceiving types reported a more positive attitude towards Celtic Christianity than sensing types, thinking types, and judging types. These findings are interpreted to analyse the appeal of Celtic Christianity and to suggest why some committed churchgoers may find this innovation less attractive.     

Creativity and Intuition Revisited

This study used the recently revised Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and a variety of validated creativity measures to replicate a classic finding — that sensing‐intuition predicts creativity — and to evaluate whether the other MBTI scales add to the prediction of creativity. 94 undergraduates completed the MBTI (form M self‐scorable) and criterion measures including the Creative Personality Scale, an abbreviated Creative Behavior Inventory (self‐reported past accomplishments) and the Test of Creative Thinking‐Drawing Production (creative product ratings using consensual assessment). Results showed that intuition predicted all three criteria but that, contrary to expectation from past research, judging‐perceiving did not add to the prediction model. Thinking‐feeling emerged as a possible suppressor variable. We suggest that judging‐perceiving predicts creativity as an artifact of its relation with intuition and that the combination of intuition and feeling best characterizes high scorers on a composite creativity measure.     

Rejection of Darwinian Evolution Among Churchgoers in England: The Effects of Psychological Type

Rejection of Darwinian evolution (implying rejection of the common origin of all species, including humans) was assessed among 1,100 churchgoers from a range of Christian denominations in England. The main predictors of rejecting evolution were denominational affiliation and attendance. Individuals from Pentecostal or evangelical denominations were twice as likely to reject evolution compared with those from Anglican or Methodist churches. In all denominations, higher attendance was associated with greater rejection of evolution. Education in general, and theological education in particular, had some effect on reducing rejection, but this was not dependent on having specifically scientific or biological educational qualifications. Psychological type preferences for sensing over intuition and for thinking over feeling also predicted greater rejection, after allowing for the association of type preferences and general religiosity. Reasons for the association between psychological type and rejection of evolution are discussed in the light of the known characteristics of different function preferences.     

Life in the Eucharistic Community: An Empirical Study in Psychological Type Theory and Biblical Hermeneutics Reading John 6:5–15

This study employs psychological type theory to analyse the ways in which a group of 13 newly ordained Anglican priests (in priest’s orders for 3 or 4 months) reflected on the Eucharistic imagery of the Johannine feeding narrative. In the first exercise, the priests worked in two groups distinguished according to their perceiving preference (7 sensing types and 6 intuitive types). In the second exercise, the priests worked in three groups distinguished according to their judging preferences (4 thinking types, 4 feeling types, and 5 feeling types). The data supported the significance of psychological type in shaping the hermeneutical process (the theory underpinning the SIFT method of biblical hermeneutics and liturgical preaching). Sensing types grappled with the plethora of detail within the text. Intuitive types looked for the bigger picture and identified major themes. Thinking types looked for and organised the major issues raised by the passage. Feeling types focused on the human and relational implications of the narrative.     

Sheldon's physical-psychical typology revisited

In order to clarify some of the general findings in the literature with respect to relationships between body type and the personality dimension extraversion/introversion, typical experimental paradigms common to this field were replicated but using the first-order factors (from the R. B. Cattell, H. W. Eber, & M. M. Tatsuoka (1970, Handbook for the sixteen personality factor questionnaire, Windsor: N.F.E.R.) analysis) that load on this continuum rather than the continuum itself. Use was made of standard statistical procedures as well as discriminant analysis. The most noteworthy finding was that subjects were able to utilize the first-order factor structure for the continuum extraversion/introversion in a discriminating manner and to assign such factors in a fairly clear-cut way to three extreme body types. Personality appraisals of the mesomorphic body type and an ideal type (composed by the subjects) were shown to be virtually identical. The most positive extravert characteristics were assigned to the endomorph body build and the most positive introvert characteristics to the ectomorph. No differences in personality appraisals by male (n = 50) and female (n = 50) subjects with the exception of factor Q₂ by the ectomorphic body type were found. Both male and female subjects showed a preference for the (male) mesomorphic body type although significant differences between male and female subjects in the pattern of their distribution of preferences over the three body types were found. While the results confirm previous findings, they also extend them by the use of a first-order factor structure for the continuum extraversion/introversion and by the introduction of the explanatory concepts “extravert of affect” and “extravert of action.”     

Associational social capital and psychological type: an empirical enquiry among cathedral Friends in England

A sample of 1131 members of the Friends associations of six English cathedrals (616 women and 515 men) completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales (FPTS) and a modified version of the Williams Religious Social Capital Index (WRSCI). The data demonstrated that higher levels of religious social capital were found among extraverts (compared with introverts), sensing types (compared with intuitive types), and feeling types (compared with thinking types). No significant differences were found between judging types and perceiving types. The finding that extraverts displayed higher levels of religious social capital poses a challenge for the cathedrals, given that introverts outnumbered extraverts by nearly 2:1 in the Friends groups. Since religious social networks are known to influence generosity with time and money, it is suggested that cathedrals not only develop strategies to recruit more extravert Friends but also devise novel ways of encouraging introvert types to participate in associational activities where social capital will be generated.