Personality and religion among female university students in France

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The short-form Revised Eysenck Personality questionnaire was completed by 462 female university students between the ages of 18 and 30 in France, together with the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The findings are consistent with those from a series of studies employing the same measure of religiosity among school pupils and adults in England and Wales, thus adding to the cross-cultural evidence concerning the stability of the association between personality and religion. According to these findings there is an inverse relationship between psychoticism and religiosity, while neither neuroticism nor extraversion is either positively or negatively related to religiosity. These findings are discussed in terms of Eysenck's theory relating personality to social attitudes and in light of discrepant findings proposed by other studies conducted among adult samples. Keywords: Eysenck, France, personality, religion. Personalidad y religión entre los estudiantes del sexo femenino en universidades de FranciaRESUMEN: 462 jóvenes francesas de entre 18 y 30 años cumplimentaron la forma abreviada y revisada del cuestionario de personalidad de Eysenck junto con la escala de actitudes hacia el Cristianismo de Francis. Los resultados son equivalentes a una serie de resultados de estudios utilizando la misma escala de religión entre estudiantes y adultos en Inglaterra y Gales. Según estos resultados, existe una relación inversa entre el psicoticismo y la religión, aunque ni el neuroticismo ni la extraversión tienen una relación positiva o negativa con la religión. Se habla de estos resultados en términos de la teoría de Eysenck que relaciona la personalidad con las actitudes sociales y teniendo en cuenta los resultados discrepantes propuestos por otros estudios con muestras adultas.

Parental and Peer Influence on Church Attendance among Adolescent Anglicans in England and Wales

“…In terms of personality factors, higher levels of church attendance are significantly correlated with lower psychoticism scores, but independent of both extraversion scores and neuroticism scores. This finding is consistent with the view advanced by Francis (1992) that psychoticism is the dimension of personality fundamental to individual differences in religiosity and supported by a large number of subsequent studies (see Lewis and Francis, 2014). In terms of parental religious identity, high levels of church attendance are significantly correlated with having parents (both mother and father) who are Anglicans, and with having parents (both mother and father) for whom their religious identity is important.…”

Sustaining churchgoing young Anglicans in England and Wales: Assessing influence of the home

“…In terms of personality factors, higher levels of church attendance are significantly correlated with lower psychoticism scores (r = -.13, p < .001), but independent of extraversion scores (r = .02, ns) and almost independent of neuroticism scores (r = .04, p < .05). This finding is consistent with the view advanced by Francis (1992) that psychoticism is the dimension of personality fundamental to individual differences in religiosity and supported by a large number of subsequent studies (see Lewis & Francis, 2014). In terms of parental religious practice, levels of church attendance are significantly correlated with both mother's (r = .67, p < .001) and father's (r = .54, p < .001) levels of church attendance.…”

Retaining young catholics in the church: assessing the importance of parental example

“…In terms of personality factors, higher levels of church attendance are significantly correlated with lower psychoticism scores, lower extraversion scores, and higher neuroticism scores. The stronger correlation with psychoticism is consistent with the view advanced by Francis (1992) that psychoticism is the dimension of personality fundamental to individual differences in religiosity and supported by a large number of subsequent studies (see Lewis & Francis, 2014).…”

“…The first dimension progresses from introversion through ambiversion to extraversion; the second dimension progresses from emotional stability through emotional lability to neurotic disorders; and the third dimension progresses from tendermindedness through toughmindedness to psychotic disorders. In the late 1970s Francis and colleagues began a systematic programme of research to test the connections between these three dimensions and individual differences in religiosity, beginning with studies reported by Kay (1981a, 1981b), Kay (1983a, 1983b), Francis and Pearson (1985a, 1985b concluded from the growing body of evidence that psychoticism was the 'dimension of personality fundamental to religiosity' (p. 645) and subsequent research has tended to confirm that position (for review see Lewis & Francis, 2014).…”