A Personality Comparison of Evangelical Seminarians, Catholic Nuns, and University Graduates in A Colombian Setting

Abstract

The recent observation that a large proportion of the evangelical population in Colombia is characterized by notable psychological and social distress (Goring, 1975) is further investigated by means of a comparison of personality profiles between groups of Colombian evangelical and Roman Catholic subjects. T-score elevations on the various scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory are compared between 21 male evangelical seminarians, 34 Catholic nuns, 52 male and 84 female university graduates. The results of an informal comparison show the evangelical seminarians to have the highest mean scores of all the groups on the following scales: F, Hs, D, Hy, Pd, Pt, and Sc. Social stress, poverty, Colombian sex role stereotypes, and deficient parenting are suggested as possible factors which contribute to the greater psychopathology observed in the evangelical seminarians. The need for Christian leaders to be trained in pastoral psychology and counseling, and the implied inappropriateness of some of the claims made for evangelical Christianity are also discussed.