Psychological type and the training relationship: an empirical study among curates and training incumbents

Abstract

This study draws on Jungian psychological type theory to illuminate the relationship between curates and training incumbents. During a three-day residential programme organised by an Anglican Diocese in England, 11 curate–incumbent pairs (and one additional incumbent) completed the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator and participated in four workshops organised, respectively, according to their scores recorded on the orientations (extraversion and introversion), on the perceiving process (sensing and intuition), on the judging process (thinking or feeling), and on the attitudes (judging and perceiving). The data generated from these four workshops illustrated the importance of individual differences in psychological type for shaping emphases in approaches to pastoral practice. The implications of these findings are discussed for the relationship between curates and their training incumbents.

Keywords:

• Anglican clergy
• pastoral sciences
• psychological type
• psychology of religion