The influence of personality on clergy role prioritization, role influences, conflict and dissatisfaction with ministry

Abstract

The short form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire was completed by 170 male full-time stipendiary parochial clergy within one Anglican diocese, together with indices of role prioritization, role influences, role conflict and dissatisfaction with ministry. The data demonstrate that Eysenck's three major dimensions of personality (extraversion, neuroticism and psychoticism) are able to account for significant individual differences in all these key areas of ministry performance and assessment. In particular, it is those clergy who score high on neuroticism and high on psychoticism who show most signs of dissatisfaction with ministry and are most likely to entertain thoughts of seeking alternative forms of employment. The implications of these findings are assessed both for the development of the clerical profession and for the structuring of further research into the relationship between personality theory and the selection, training and deployment of clergy.