Subjective well-being, religious involvement, and psychological type among Australian churchgoers

Abstract

Personality and religiosity have consistently been found to be related to subjective well-being. However, the relative impact of these factors has not been clear. This quantitative study of 1855 church attenders from 20 denominations in the 2011 Australian National Church Life Survey found that their psychological type profile confirmed patterns found in other church-going populations, with high proportions of introverts, sensing types, feeling types, and judging types. Results also showed that positive relationships were found between extraversion and well-being, but not for the predominant psychological types (sensing and judging). Religiousness and well-being were also positively related; however, denominational affiliation made no difference. In terms of the relative contribution of psychological type and religiosity to well-being, the results confirmed that both made a similar unique and significant contribution. It was concluded that both factors should be taken into account.

Keywords:

• National Church Life Survey
• Christianity
• quality of life
• well-being
• personality
• psychological type