Personality Differences between High and Low Dogmatism Groups of Catholic Seminarians and Religious Sisters

Abstract

Catholics, especially Catholic seminarians and religious sisters, have frequently been viewed as dogmatic and closed-minded, presumably as a counterpart to their commitment to a religious community which emphasizes that certain in-group attitudes be maintained. However, even among highly ego-involved religious persons, important individual differences may exist with regard to dogmatism and its correlates. Gilmore (1969), for example, demonstrates this among Pentecostals. This study demonstrates the variability of dogmatism and the relationship between dogmatism and selected personality characteristics among a group of highly egoinvolved religious persons (i.e., Catholic seminarians and nuns). Dogmatism was assessed with Form E of Rokeach's dogmatism scale (1960), personality characteristics with the Omnibus Personality Inventory, Form F (Heist and Yonge 1968). It was predicted that the open-minded person, when compared with the closed-minded person, would be more flexible, liberal, and nonauthoritarian in his thinking, would express more skepticism of conventional religious beliefs, especially those that are orthodox and fundamentalistic, would be more tolerant of ambiguities and uncertainties, would admit to fewer behaviors and attitudes that characterize socially alienated or emotionally disturbed persons, and would more frequently admit having feelings or symptoms indicative of anxiety-i.e., score higher on the following OPI scales: complexity, autonomy, religious orientation, personal integration, and anxiety level. Instruments were mailed to 100 seminarians (Augustinian order) and religious sisters; 60 subjects (40 males and 20 females) returned completed forms. High and Low dogmatism groups were established by selecting the upper and lower quartiles (N = 15 in each group) of all dogmatism scores obtained. The means of the two groups were 147.7 and 121.6, respectively. The latter is similar to reported means of other low-dogmatism groups (Rokeach 1960:90). The mean of the high group is substantially higher than high-dogmatism college groups reported by Rokeach. The table shows that OPI scores differed in the expected direction, three of them significantly so.