Cattell's personality model and attitude toward Christianity

Abstract

A sample of 491 male and 354 female secondary school pupils between the ages of 13 and 15 years completed the Cattell High School Personality Questionnaire alongside the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The aim of the study was to extend previous research by concentrating on a narrow age range in order to safeguard against spurious associations between religiosity and personality resulting as artefacts of age differences. The data demonstrate that a positive attitude toward Christianity is significantly correlated with five of Cattell's first-order personality factors and with three of the four second-order personality factors. Regarding the first-order personality factors, a positive attitude toward Christianity is associated with high scores on factor G (conformity), factor I (tendermindedness), and factor Q3 (self-discipline), and with low scores on factor E (submissiveness) and factor F (sobriety). Regarding the second-order factors, a positive attitude toward Christianity is associated with low scores on extraversion (indicating a relationship with introversion), with low scores on tough-poise (indicating a relationship with emotionality) and with low scores on independence (indicating a relationship with a lack of independence).