Psychological type and psychological temperament differences between worshipers at new churches and established ones

ABSTRACT

Studies using psychological type theory have found that some churches attract people with types that are underrepresented in many churches. In this study, psychological type profiles of 1,034 worshipers were collected from 33 mainline congregations in the United States using the Francis Psychological Type Scales. Established churches were compared with Anglican churches in the United Kingdom; churches started since 2006 were compared with established ones and also with Fresh Expression churches in the United Kingdom. Type and temperament profiles of established churches were similar to each other. New churches differed markedly from established ones, with fewer worshipers with Epithemean temperaments, and more worshipers preferring intuition and perceiving. The Promethean temperament was more common among Fresh Expressions churches than among new Reformed churches. Otherwise the types and temperaments were similar. These results suggest that characteristics of new churches attract people with types that are not commonly found in established churches.

KEYWORDS:

• Congregational studies
• psychological type
• new churches
• Reformed Church in America
• United Church of Christ

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 From the Myers-Briggs Foundation website http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/my-mbti-results/how-frequent-is-my-type.htm?bhcp=1.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Constant H. Jacquet Research Award from the Religious Research Association.