Psychological type profile of clergywomen and clergymen serving in the New York metropolitan area of the Reformed Church in America

Abstract

This study of the psychological types of clergymen and clergywomen in the Reformed Church in America (RCA) extends the body of research to an additional mainline American denomination. It uses a sample of 89 RCA clergymen and 26 RCA clergywomen from two synods in the New York metropolitan area who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales as part of a study of clergy stress. The 16 psychological types were calculated separately for men and women. The type distributions were compared with US population norms by gender and with those of Presbyterian (PC(USA)) clergymen and clergywomen. Like the PC(USA) clergy, RCA clergy had psychological types differing significantly from those of the population at large. Similar to other clergy, the majority preferred intuition, feeling, and judging. However, clergymen in the RCA were about equally divided in preferring extraversion to introversion, and clergywomen were more likely to prefer introversion and about equally likely to prefer thinking and feeling in their judging process. These findings generally are similar to those found among Presbyterian clergy.

Keywords:

• clergy
• psychological type
• religion
• the Reformed Church in America