Perceived Professional Characteristics as Correlates of Success Potential Among the Catholic Priests in Selected Dioceses in South-West Nigeria

Abstract

The modern day priesthood is not just about preaching or meeting the spiritual need, but also the ability to competently attend to the physical and psychological needs of the congregants. A priest is expected to discharge assigned duties in such a way that optimum success is achieved. However, while priest are being theologically prepared, there is the need to also examine some of the psychological traits that could help priests to be successful in the work of the gospel. Hence, this study examined perceived professional characteristics as correlates of success potential of Catholic Priests in selected Dioceses in Southwest Nigeria. The professional characteristics used in the study are genuineness, unconditional positive regard, empathic understanding and reflective listening. The study adopted the descriptive research design of correlational type. Simple random sampling was used to select three Catholic dioceses in the Southwest of Nigeria while, all population sampling technique was used to select 203 priests that formed the respondents of this study. Questionnaire was used to collect data for the study which include Success Potential Scale (α = 0.85), Empathy Scale (α = 0.79), Reflective Listening Scale (α = 0.89) and Unconditional Positive Regard Scale (α = 0.81). Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) and Multiple Linear Regression were used for data analysis at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study shows that genuineness (r=.503, p<0.01), unconditional positive regard (r=.776, p<0.01), empathic understanding (r= .746, p<0.01) and reflective listening (r=.746, p<0.01) had positive relationship with success potential of the priests. The independent variables had significant joint contribution of 65.4% to success potential of the respondents. In addition, reflective listening (β= 0.427, t= 4.919, p <.01), unconditional positive regard (β= 0.264, t= 2.521, p <.05), empathic understanding (β= 0.155, t= 2.431, p <.05) and genuineness (β= 0.112, t= 2.188, p <.05) had significant relative contribution to success potential of the Priests. Based on this study, it was concluded that genuineness, unconditional positive regard, empathic understanding and reflective listening are professional characteristics that correlate with success potential of Catholic Priests in Selected Dioceses in Southwest Nigeria. Keywords: Success potential, professional characteristics, genuineness, unconditional positive regard DOI: 10.7176/DCS/10-3-04 Publication date: March 31 st 2020