Church membership and personality: A longitudinal study

Groups of active churchmembers and nonchurchmemhers were examined for personality changes over a 5-year period. Personality assessment was obtained through use of the Sixteen Personality Factor (16PF) questionnaire. Results indicated that at both testing times the active churchmember group was significantly and consistently different on several personality dimensions. Specifically the active churchmembers tended to be more tender-minded, higher in super ego strength, lower in dominance, and more conservative than the nonchurchmember group. Over the 5-year period only the active churchmember group decreased significantly in guilt proneness and anxiety. These results were found to be consistent with other researches in the area and possible implications are suggested.