Personality, Prayer, and Church Attendance in a Sample of Male College Students in the USA

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that, within Eysenck's dimensional model of personality, psychoticism rather than extraversion or neuroticism is fundamental to both positive religious attitude and frequency of religious practice. 1995 data of Maltby were further analysed to examine the relationship between the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised-Abbreviated and frequency of personal prayer and church attendance among 100 male college students in the USA. A significant negative association was found between scores on the Psychoticism scale and frequency of personal prayer, with lower Psychoticism scores being associated with greater frequency in personal prayer. However, no significant association was found between scores on the Psychoticism scale and frequency of church attendance or between frequency of personal prayer and frequency of church attendance. These findings therefore only partly replicate those of Maltby among female students in the USA and lend some further support to the view that psychoticism is fundamental to religiosity.