Psychological type, religion, and culture: Further empirical perspectives (Part IV)

Introduction

This Special Issue of Mental Health, Religion & Culture marks Part IV of a series entitled Psychological type, Religion, and Culture: Further empirical perspectives …  (Lewis, 2012a, 2012b, 2015a, 2015b, 2018; Lewis, 2021a, 2021b). This series has been a somewhat occasional fixture in the content of Mental Health, Religion & Culture. However, recently, there has been a concerted effort to make this series more frequent (Lewis, 2021a, 2021b), and in doing so, becoming a more established resource for researchers and practitioners alike.

This series (Lewis, 2012a, 2012b, 2015a, 2015b, 2018, 2021a, 2021b) aims to provide a dedicated forum for researchers and practitioners interested in examining the relationship between psychological type theory and religiosity, with a particular reference to culture. Indeed, the contribution success of these previous collections on psychological type has served as the impetus for extending that work further.

Within this collection, psychological type is generally measured by the 40-item Francis Psychological Type Scales (FPTS; Francis, 2005), with the exceptions of the Adolescent form of the FPTS (Fawcett et al., 2011) and the Visitor Expectations Type Scales 2.0 (Francis, Mansfield, et al., 2021). The FPTS is now well established in the literature in the psychology of religion for measuring psychological type (for a review, see Francis, 2009).

In addition to this Editorial, this Special Issue comprises eight empirical articles that have employed a range of different samples. Francis, Mansfield, et al. (2021) report on a sample of 1,278 visitors to five cathedrals in England and Wales using the Visitor Expectations Type Scales 2.0. Hall and Hall (2021) report on a sample of 536 participants of an online community interested in Celtic Christianity using the FPTS. Francis and Giordan (2021) report on a sample of 581 students enrolled in undergraduate sociology of religion course at Padua University, Italy, using the Italian version of the FPTS. Francis, Fawcett, et al. (2021) report on a sample of 299 12- to 18-year-old Baptists attending a week-long summer programme of the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, Canada, using the Adolescent form of the FPTS (Fawcett et al., 2011). Shabtai (2021) reports on a sample of 16 Orthodox Jewish females using the FPTS. Thanissaro (2021) report on a sample of 1032 students of Dhammakāya meditation at Buddhist centres in the UK and US using the FPTS. Payne et al. (2021) report on a sample of 364 Anglican clergy serving in the Church in Wales using the FPTS. Lewis et al. (2021) report on a sample of 263 Methodist churchgoers in England using the FPTS.

This Special Issue of Mental Health, Religion & Culture has illustrated the richness of contemporary research currently being undertaken in psychological type, religion, and culture. This collection, along with the previous three Special Issues (Lewis, 2012a, 2012b, 2015a, 2015b, 2018, 2021a, 2021b), clearly attest to the ongoing momentum of this specific research tradition.

This Special Issue would not have been possible without the assistance of many people. We wish to acknowledge the authors who provided stimulating articles and efficient revisions and reviewers for their judicious and insightful evaluations of the manuscripts submitted. We are particularly grateful to the regular Co-Editors of Mental Health, Religion & Culture for their continued enthusiasm for this ongoing initiative.