Psychological type and work-related psychological health among clergy in Australia, England and New Zealand.

Francis, Leslie J. ; Robbins, Mandy ; Kaldor, Peter 等

Over the past three decades a number of books, reporting serious research drawing on the disciplines of practical theology and health-related psychology, have documented in a variety of ways a series of issues concerned with the work-related psychological health of clergy. Generally the titles of these books have focused clearly on the negative aspects of the research findings, as evidenced by Ministry Burnout (Sanford, 1982), Clergy Stress: The Hidden Conflicts in Ministry (Coate, 1989), Clergy Under Stress: A Study of Homosexual and Heterosexual Clergy (Fletcher, 1990), Burnout: Stress in Ministry (Davey, 1995), Between Two Worlds: Understanding and Managing Clergy Stress (Irvine, 1997), Burnout in Church Leaders (Kaldor & Bullpitt, 2001), The Cracked Pot: The State of Today's Anglican Parish Clergy (Warren, 2002), and Clergy Burnout (Lehr, 2006). The debate, however, is far from settled, since a range of other empirically-driven research studies consistently point to the clergy as displaying high levels of job satisfaction. For example, Sales and House (1971) found clergy ranking high in job satisfaction alongside scientists and university teachers. Rose (1999), using data from the British Household Panel Survey, found clergy sharing the second highest level of satisfaction with their job, coming only behind medical secretaries. A survey of Church of England clergy commissioned by the Archbishops' Council (2001) found that 25% rated their current job satisfaction as excellent, 49% as good, 18% as adequate, and only 6% as poor and 1% as very poor.

Against the background of this wider debate the present study addresses two specific issues: the definition and assessment of ministry burnout, and the extent to which individual differences in levels of ministry burnout can be predicted from fundamental differences in personality. Both issues are approached from novel perspectives, in terms of the operationalisation of ministry burnout, and in terms of the model of personality utilised.

Assessing Ministry Burnout

Within the broader context of the caring professions, the model of burnout proposed by Christina Maslach and operationalised in the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach & Jackson, 1986) has emerged as of central importance. According to this model, burnout is identified by high scores on two dimensions defined as emotional exhaustion and as depersonalisation and by low scores on a third dimension defined as personal accomplishment. In the Maslach Burnout Inventory, emotional exhaustion is assessed by a nine-item subscale. The items describe feelings of being emotionally overextended and exhausted by one's work. The item with the highest factor loading on this dimension is one referring directly to burnout, "I feel burned out from my work." Depersonalisation is assessed by a five-item subscale. The items describe an unfeeling and impersonal response toward the individuals in one's care. An example item on this dimension is "I feel I treat some recipients as if they were impersonal objects." Personal accomplishment is assessed by an eight-item subscale. The items describe feelings of competence and successful achievement in one's work with people. An example item on this dimension is "I feel I'm positively influencing other people's lives through my work."

The Maslach Burnout Inventory has been used in several studies among clergy, including Warner and Carter (1984), Strumpfer and Bands (1996), Rodgerson and Piedmont (1998), Stanton-Rich and Iso-Ahola (1998), Virginia (1998), Evers and Tonic (2003), Golden, Piedmont, Ciarrocchi and Rodgerson (2004), and Raj and Dean (2005), although some of the items are not particularly well suited to the clerical profession.

Rutledge and Francis (2004) proposed a modification of the Maslach Burnout Inventory in order to make the instrument more appropriate for research among clergy. With permission from the Consulting Psychologist Press, existing items were shaped to reflect the experience and language of the clerical profession and new ideas were developed to bring the three subscales to the same length of ten items each. A series of studies has reported findings employing this modified form of the Maslach Burnout Inventory in the United Kingdom among Roman Catholic priests engaged in parochial ministry (Francis, Louden, & Rutledge, 2004; Francis, Turton, & Louden, 2007) and among Anglican parochial clergy (Francis & Rutledge, 2000; Francis & Tur ton, 2004a, 2004b; Randall, 2004, 2007; Rutledge, 2006; Turton & Francis, 2007). The modified Maslach Burnout Inventory for use among clergy has been further modified and refined by Hills, Francis, and Rutledge (2004).

While Christina Maslach's model of burnout preferred to operate in terms of three factors (emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and lack of personal accomplishment), Francis, Kaldor, Robbins, and Castle (2005) argued that a more empirically economic and theoretically coherent model of clergy work-related psychological health could be developed from Bradburn's (1969) classic notion of 'balanced affect', meaning that positive affect and negative affect are not opposite ends of a single continuum, but two separate continua. According to this model it is totally reasonable for individual clergy to experience at one and the same time high levels of positive affect and high levels of negative affect. According to this model of balanced affect, warning signs of poor work-related psychological health occur when high levels of negative affect coincide with low levels of positive affect. In terms of the work-related experiences of clergy, Francis, Kaldor, Robbins, and Castle (2005) translated negative affect into emotional exhaustion and positive affect into ministry satisfaction. These two work-related constructs were then operationalised by separate 11-item scales: Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry (SEEM), first reported by Francis, Kaldor, Shevlin, & Lewis (2004), and Satisfaction in Ministry Scale (SIMS). These two scales provide assessment of clergy work-related psychological health in the present study.

Locating Professional Burnout Within Eysenck's Model of Personality

A major debate in the literature regarding the aetiology of work-related psychological health concerns the relative importance of internal factors (including personality variables) and external or contextual factors (including aspects of the job). Within the branches of psychology concerned with personality and individual differences a number of different models of personality have been proposed, including the model of Sixteen Personality Factors established by Cattell, Eber, and Tatsouka (1970) and the Big Five Factor model established by Costa and McCrae (1992). Among these various models, Eysenck's Three Dimensional Model has been particularly fruitful in establishing personality predictors of work-related psychological health and professional burnout.

Eysenck's dimensional model of personality, as discussed for example by Eysenck and Eysenck (1985), maintains that individual differences in personality can be most adequately and economically summarised in terms of three higher order orthogonal dimensions. This model also takes the view that neurotic and psychotic disorders are not discontinuous from normal personality but occupy the extreme end of two different continua which describe individual differences in normal personality. Eysenck's three dimensional model of personality has been operationalised in a series of instruments designed for use among both adults and young people, including the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975), and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised (Eysenck, Eysenck, & Barrett, 1985). These instruments also routinely include a lie scale alongside the three established measures of extraversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism.

Eysenck's dimensional model of personality has been used alongside the Maslach Burnout Inventory among a range of occupational groups, including teachers by Capel (1991) and Goddard, o'Brien, and Goddard (2006), child-care workers by Manlove (1993), employment service case managers by Goddard, Creed and Patton (2001) and Goddard, Patton, and Creed (2004), and nurses by Buhler and Land (2004). Eysenck's model has been used alongside the modified Maslach Burnout Inventory among 1,468 Roman Catholic parochial clergy by Francis, Louden, and Rutledge (2004), among 1,071 Anglican parochial clergy by Rutledge and Francis (2004) and among 1,278 Anglican clergy by Francis and Turton (2004b). The major consensus to emerge from these studies is that, compared with those who score low on the extraversion scale and high on the neuroticism scale, stable extraverts record significantly lower scores on the scale of emotional exhaustion, significantly lower scores on the scale of depersonalisation, and significantly higher scores on the scale of personal accomplishment. Moreover, the correlation coefficients demonstrate that these relationships are far from trivial. For example, the study of Anglican clergy reported by Francis and Turton (2004b) recorded the following correlation coefficients: emotional exhaustion with neuroticism (r = .55) and with extraversion (r = -.16); depersonalisation with neuroticism (r = .36) and with extraversion (r = -.07); personal accomplishment with neuroticism (r = -.37) and with extraversion (r = .39).

Reflecting on this body of research, Francis, Kaldor, Robbins, and Castle (2005) concluded that the finding that major dimensions of personality provide good predictions of susceptibility to poor work-related psychological health carries major practical implications for church leaders and denominational managers. If poor work-related psychological health and professional burnout lead to more general psychological and physical health-related problems, if routine psychological testing can identify the individuals most vulnerable to poor work-related psychological health, and if identification of vulnerability could lead to health-enhancing intervention strategies, then church leaders and denominational managers may well be thought to have the responsibility of a proper duty of care to implement such processes of psychological screening and to alert susceptible individuals to appropriate intervention procedures.

Eysenck's dimensional model of personality is not, however, the only model that is likely to generate insight into individual differences in clergy work-related psychological health. A second model likely to be particularly attractive to clergy and church leaders is the model of psychological type. The advantage for this model is that the underlying theory has already been quite widely applied within other areas of practical theology (see, for example, the books by Michael & Norrisey, 1984; Osborn & Osborn, 1991; Duncan, 1993; Baab, 1998; Francis, 2005).

Locating Professional Burnout Within Jung's Model of Psychological Type

The Jungian model of psychological type proposes a very different theoretical framework of personality and individual differences from that proposed by Eysenck (see Jung, 1971). This framework is entirely concerned with normal personality and has been operationalised through a set of psychometric instruments, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (Myers & McCaulley, 1985), the Keirsey Temperament Sorter (Keirsey & Bates, 1978), and the Francis Psychological Type Scales (Francis, 2005). At its core psychological type theory suggests that individuals differ in terms of four bipolar preferences: two orientations, two perceiving preferences, two judging preferences, and two attitudes toward the outer world.

The two orientations are defined as introversion (I) and extraversion (E). Introverts draw their energy from the inner world of ideas, while extraverts draw their energy from the outer world of people and things. Extraverts are energised by people and drained by too much solitude, while introverts are energised by solitude and drained by too many people.

The two perceiving processes are defined as sensing (S) and intuition (N). Sensers perceive their environment through their senses and focus on the details of the here and now, while intuitives perceive their environment by making use of the imagination and inspiration. Sensers are distrustful of jumping to conclusions and of envisioning the future, while intuitives are overloaded by too many details and long to try out new approaches.

The two judging processes are defined as thinking (T) and feeling (F). Thinkers reach their judgements by relying on objective logic, while feelers reach their judgements by relying on subjective appreciation of the personal and interpersonal factors involved. Thinkers strive for truth, fairness, and justice, while feelers strive for harmony, peace, and reconciliation.

The two attitudes toward the outer world are defined as judging (J) and perceiving (P). Judgers use their preferred judging process (either thinking or feeling) to deal with the outside world. Their outside world is organised, scheduled, and planned. Perceivers use their preferred perceiving process (either sensing or intuition) to deal with the outside world. Their outside world is flexible, spontaneous, and unplanned.

Taken together, these four bipolar preferences generate 16 discrete psychological types. The combination of the four bipolar preferences also enables individuals' strongest or 'dominant' psychological function to be identified, as sensing, intuition, feeling or thinking emerges as their strongest preference. For introverts, the dominant function is exercised in their inner world, whereas for extraverts the dominant function is exercised in their outer world.

A significant and useful body of research has been undertaken to document the psychological type profile of clergy. The foundations for this research tradition were established during the 1980s in the United States of America through studies summarised by Macdaid, McCaulley, and Kainz (1986) in their Atlas of Type Tables and by Myers and McCaulley (1985) in their Manual for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. This research tradition has more recently been extended to the United Kingdom with studies reported among Anglican clergy (Francis, Payne, & Jones, 2001; Francis, Craig, Whinney, Tilley, & Slater, 2007), Roman Catholic priests (Craig, Duncan, & Francis, 2006), Bible College students (Francis, Penson, & Jones, 2001; Kay, Francis, & Craig, 2008), Evangelical church leaders (Francis & Robbins, 2002), interdenominational church leaders (Craig, Francis, & Robbins, 2004), missionary personnel (Craig, Horsfall, & Francis, 2005), youth ministers (Francis, Nash, Nash, & Craig, 2007), and Evangelical seminarians (Francis, Craig, & Butler, 2007). Two main conclusions can be drawn from this developing body of research. First, it is clear that there are some significant differences in the profiles of clergy recorded across different denominations. Second, in spite of these significant differences, clergy overall tend to prefer introversion over extraversion, sensing over intuition, feeling over thinking, and judging over perceiving. This general clergy profile is well displayed, for example, by the study of 427 Anglican male clergy in Wales reported by Francis, Payne, and Jones (2001) in comparison with the UK norms for men reported by Kendall (1998). According to these data, 59% of the clergymen preferred introversion (compared with 53%), 57% preferred sensing (compared with 73%), 69% preferred feeling (compared with 35%) and 68% preferred judging (compared with 55%). Clearly according to this study, clergy project a highly distinctive psychological profile. However, as yet no attempts have been made to link this research tradition to studies concerned with clergy work-related psychological health.

In a wider context, Reid (1999) reviewed a series of four unpublished doctoral dissertations and one published study which had assessed the relationship between psychological type and scores recorded on the Maslach Burnout Inventory, including studies among nursing personnel of trauma centre emergency departments and among community college counsellors. The stable finding across four of these five studies was that individuals with a preference for extraversion appeared to be less prone to burnout than people with a preference for introversion. Reid's own study, however, among 189 elementary school teachers failed to replicate this finding. More detailed findings reported by Lemkau, Purdy, Rafferty, and Rudisill (1988) from a study among 67 residents in four family practice training programmes noted that extraverts recorded significantly higher scores on personal accomplishment than introverts, that thinkers recorded significantly higher scores on depersonalisation than feelers, and that judgers recorded significantly higher scores on emotional exhaustion than perceivers. Detailed findings reported by Myers, McCaulley, Quenk, and Hammer (1998, p. 238) in the MBTI manual from a study among 82 employees at a large hospital noted that introverts recorded significantly higher scores than extraverts on emotional exhaustion and on depersonalisation.

A very different approach to assessing the relationship between psychological type and burnout was taken by Garden (1985, 1988, 1989, 1991) who argued that burnout needed to be conceptualised in different ways for different psychological types and that consequently it was not coherent to assess the relationship between psychological type and scores recorded on a standard measure of burnout. Notwithstanding Garden's caveat, the view taken by the present study is that there remains considerable benefit in interrogating scores on the Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry and on the Satisfaction in Ministry Scale against psychological type profiles.

Method

Procedure

The data were collected as part of the 2001 National Church Life Survey carried out by National Church Life Survey Research and partner organisations in Australia, England, and New Zealand. In parallel with an attender survey, the senior minister, pastor or priest in each congregation was invited to complete a leader survey. All told data were received and processed from 7,306 such leaders across the three nations. While all leaders completed a core set of questions, different versions of the questionnaire included different additional questions. These different versions were distributed randomly across the sample. The present study is based on those respondents who completed versions of the questionnaire including both measures of work-related psychological health and measures of psychological type.

Measures

Work-related psychological health was assessed by the two scales reported by Francis, Kaldor, Robbins, and Castle (2005): the Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry (SEEM) and the Satisfaction in Ministry Scale (SIMS). Each scale comprised 11 items assessed on a five-point scale: agree strongly (5), agree (4), not certain (3), disagree (2), and disagree strongly (1). Example items from SEEM include: "I feel drained in fulfilling my functions here", and "I am less patient with people here than I used to be". Example items from SIMS include, "I feel very positive about my ministry here", and "I am really glad that I entered the ministry". The 11 items from the SEEM and the 11 items from the SIMS were presented alternately and prefaced by the single description: "The following questions are about how you feel working in your present congregation."

Psychological type was assessed by the Francis Psychological Type Scales (Francis, 2005). This instrument proposes 40 forced choice items to distinguish between the two orientations (E or I), the two perceiving processes (S or N), the two judging processes (T or F) and the two attitudes toward the outside world (J or P). Extraversion and introversion are distinguished by ten questions like: Are you energised by others (E) or drained by too many people (I). Sensing and intuition are distinguished by ten questions like: "Do you tend to be more concerned for meaning (N) or concerned about detail (S)". Thinking and feeling are distinguished by ten questions like: "Are you warm-hearted (F) or fair-minded (T)". Judging and perceiving are distinguished by ten questions like: "Do you tend to be more happy with routine (J) or unhappy with routine (P)."

Sample

of the 7,306 clergy who participated in the project, a total of 3,715 completed the measures of work-related psychological health and the measure of psychological type. This subgroup comprised 2,972 men, 720 women and 23 participants of undisclosed sex; 1,715 participants from Australia, 1,741 from England, and 259 from New Zealand. of the total respondents, 70 were under the age of thirty, 537 were in their thirties, 1,102 were in their forties, 1,199 were in their fifties, 664 were in their sixties, 137 were aged seventy or over, and 6 failed to disclose their age.

Results

Tables 1 and 2 present the scale properties of the SEEM and the SIMS in terms of the item rest-of-test correlations, together with the alpha coefficient, and the item endorsement as the sum of the agree strongly and agree responses. These data demonstrate that both scales function with a high level of internal consistency reliability, achieving alpha coefficients well in excess of DeVellis' (2003) recommended threshold of .65. The item endorsements suggest that overall the clergy display a high level of satisfaction in ministry, coupled with significant indicators of emotional exhaustion in ministry. For example, while 86% maintained that they are really glad that they entered ministry, 35% reported that they feel drained in fulfilling their ministry functions in their present context.

The Francis Psychological Type Scales generated the following alpha coefficients: extraversion and introversion, .80; sensing and intuition, .74; feeling and thinking, .68; perceiving and judging, .79. All of these alphas are in excess of DeVellis' (2003) recommended threshold of 0.65. The psychological type literature has developed a highly distinctive method for displaying type data in the format of type tables. The present data are presented in this way in Table 3 in order to facilitate clear comparison with other studies in the field. According to these data, the present sample of clergy show clear preferences for introversion (62%) over extraversion (38%), for sensing (61%) over intuition (39%), for feeling (59%) over thinking (41%), and for judging (77%) over perceiving (23%). In terms of dominant type, 38% of the clergy projected the practical profile of sensing, 24% the humane profile of feeling, 23% the imaginative profile of intuition, and 15% the logical profile of thinking. The two most strongly represented types were ISFJ and ISTJ which accounted for 19% and 15% of the clergy respectively. In other words, dominant introverted sensing was preferred by one in every three of these clergy.

Table 4 examines the relationship between the dichotomous type preferences and scores recorded on the SEEM and the SIMS. In accordance with the findings of the previous research discussed above, the orientations generate the strongest prediction of individual differences in the work-related psychological health of the clergy. According to these data introverts recorded higher scores than extraverts on the index of emotional exhaustion in ministry, while extraverts recorded higher scores than introverts on the index of satisfaction in ministry. Second, the judging process emerged as a significant predictor of scores on both indices. According to these data, thinkers recorded higher scores than feelers on the index of emotional exhaustion in ministry, while feelers recorded higher scores than thinkers on the index of satisfaction in ministry. Third, the perceiving process emerged as a significant predictor of scores on one of the indices. According to these data, intuitives recorded higher scores than sensers on the index of satisfaction in ministry, while there were no significant differences between sensers and intuitives on the index of emotional exhaustion in ministry. Fourth, the attitude toward the outer world emerged as unimportant in predicting individual differences in the work-related psychological health of the clergy. According to these data, between judgers and perceivers there was no significant difference on the index of satisfaction in ministry and only marginal difference (p < .05) on the index of emotional exhaustion in ministry.

Table 5 takes the analysis one step further by rank ordering scores on the two indices according to dominant type preferences. According to these data, dominant feelers enjoy the highest level of work-related psychological health among the clergy, recording the lowest mean score on the index of emotional exhaustion in ministry and the highest mean score on the index of satisfaction in ministry.

Discussion and Conclusion

Drawing on a rich vein of data generated by the 2001 National Church Life Survey conducted in Australia, England and New Zealand among the senior minister, pastor or priest in charge of participating congregations, the present paper has focused on three specific issues: mapping work-related psychological health, mapping psychological type, and examining the relationship between these two factors. The following scientific conclusions may be drawn from these data, leading to practical recommendations.

Work-Related Psychological Health

The study set out to examine and to apply a model of work-related psychological health based on Bradburn's (1969) classic notion of balanced affect. Positive affect in this context was defined as satisfaction in ministry and operationalised through the Satisfaction in Ministry Scale (SIMS). Negative affect in this context was defined as emotional exhaustion in ministry and operationalised through the Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry (SEEM). The data supported the high level of internal consistency reliability of both instruments, commending the two scales for further application in other projects. The data also confirmed the view that, overall, the clerical profession manages to combine very high levels of positive affect with what may be interpreted as unacceptably high levels of negative affect.

Good levels of positive affect are indicated by the ways in which 87% of clergy gained a lot of personal satisfaction from working with people in their current context; 86% felt that their pastoral ministry has a positive influence on people's lives; 86% were really glad that they had entered ministry; 83% felt that their ministry is really appreciated by people; 82% gained a lot of personal satisfaction from fulfilling their functions in their current context; and 80% felt that their teaching ministry has a positive influence on people's faith. Unacceptable levels of negative affect are indicated by the ways in which: 35% of clergy felt drained in fulfilling their functions in their current context; 32% felt frustrated in their attempts to accomplish tasks important to them; and 28% reported that fatigue and irritation are part of their daily experience. Such negative feelings are then reflected in the ways in which: 19% of clergy found themselves spending less and less time with attenders; and 15% were less patient with people in their current context than they used to be.

Psychological Type

The study set out to examine and to apply Jung's model of psychological type, as operationalised by the Francis Psychological Type Scales (FPTS), to profile those engaged as senior ministers, pastors or priests. The dataset is particularly useful for this purpose since it not only embraces a range of different denominations, but also covers three nations. The data supported among this population the high level of internal consistency reliability of the eight scales contained within the FPTS, commending the instrument for further application in other projects of this nature. The data also confirmed the view that, overall, the type profile of clergy prefers introversion, sensing, feeling and judging, as suggested by the review of previous literature presented above. The implications of this profile are worth examining in greater detail.

First, 62% of the clergy prefer introversion, compared with 38% who prefer extraversion. introverts may bring many strengths to ministry, including the ability to work by themselves on tasks, to invest time in reading and in preparation, to welcome one-to-one encounters in counselling and in spiritual direction, and to develop an inward life of prayer and spirituality. on the other hand, introverts may be drained by many of the social expectations of ministry, working with large groups of people, remembering names, visiting strangers and assuming a high profile in the local congregation and the wider local community.

Second, 61% of the clergy prefer sensing, compared with 39% who prefer intuition. Sensers may bring many strengths to ministry, including a fine awareness of the environment in which they serve and of the church in which they lead worship, and a concern for the detail within the services they conduct and for the facts on which judgments and choices are made. on the other hand, sensers may find it more difficult to formulate a vision for their church's future, to welcome change and experimentation in liturgy, or to see new and imaginative solutions to old problems.

Third, 59% of the clergy prefer feeling, compared with 41% who prefer thinking. Feelers may bring many strengths to ministry, including the desire to affiliate with others, the gifts of empathy and sympathy, a commitment to harmony, a deep understanding of people, and a respect for interpersonal values. On the other hand, feelers may find it more difficult to take tough decisions which affect other people's lives, to chair troublesome meetings, to be assertive on points of truth and justice, and to put other people in their place.

Fourth, 77% of the clergy prefer judging, compared with 23% who prefer perceiving. Judgers may bring many strengths to ministry, including the ability to organise their own lives, to organise the life of their parishes, to arrange services and events well in advance, to keep on top of administration, and to manage local affairs. On the other hand, judgers may become too inflexible and restricted by their own strategies, plans and routines; too unwilling or unable to abandon their plans in order to respond to unexpected crises, emergencies or opportunities; or too bound to the present structure to embrace new ideas and possibilities.

Not only are the preferences for introversion, sensing, feeling and judging clear when the dichotomous types are considered separately, but ISFJ is the most frequently represented clergy type among the 16 discrete types. According to Myers (1998, p. 7) the following characteristics are associated with ISFJ:

 Quiet, friendly, responsible and
 conscientious. Work devotedly to meet
 their obligations. Lend stability to any
 project or group. Thorough, painstaking,
 accurate. Their interests are usually
 not technical. Can be patient
 with necessary details. Loyal, considerate,
 perceptive, concerned with
 how other people feel.

In many ways this description may reflect an ideal model of Christian ministry, but it is also a model which may find many of the practicalities associated with ministry tough, daunting and debilitating.

Psychological Type and Work-Related Psychological Health

This study set out to examine whether psychological type profiling could predict individual differences in the work-related psychological health of clergy. The data demonstrated that this was indeed the case. Overall, better quality of work-related psychological health was experienced by extraverts rather than introverts and by feelers rather than thinkers. In other words, higher levels of emotional exhaustion in ministry and lower levels of satisfaction in ministry were experienced by introverts and thinkers than by extraverts and feelers. At the same time, intuitives enjoyed a higher level of satisfaction in ministry than that experienced by sensers. These findings may say something in general about the relationship between psychological type and well-being and something more specific about the experiences of ministry.

The finding that extraverted clergy enjoy a higher level of work-related psychological health than introverted clergy is consistent with the wider findings concerning the relationship between psychological type and professional burnout among other professional groups. By very definition introverts tend to find prolonged engagement within the outer world more draining and more tiring. According to Jungian theory, introverts may be no less adept at undertaking such activities, but they require more opportunities to re-energise after such engagement by withdrawing into their inner space.

The finding that feeling clergy enjoy a higher level of work-related psychological health than thinking clergy is less consistent with the wider findings among other professional groups. This finding, therefore, may reflect something more related to the nature of the clerical profession. Not only are clergy expected to function as one of the 'caring professions', they are also expected to reflect a 'Christ-like' approach to other people, displaying gospel qualities of unlimited forgiveness, open acceptance, turning the other cheek, and loving sacrifice. such qualities by definition sit more comfortably with a preference for feeling than with a preference for thinking. According to Jungian theory, in order to display such qualities, thinking clergy may find themselves operating outside their preferred function, with consequent loss of energy, growing tiredness and mounting frustration.

Practical Recommendations

On the basis of these findings three practical recommendations can be offered to those who hold responsibility for the pastoral care of the clergy, whether bishops within a Catholic ecclesiology or presbytery within a reformed ecclesiology. Such recommendations properly belong to the disciplines of practical and empirical theology rather than to the disciplines of the social scientific study of religion.

The first recommendation is not to allow the very high levels of satisfaction in ministry expressed by clergy to mask or to eclipse the unacceptable incidence of emotional exhaustion in ministry also expressed by clergy. Both the initial education and training of clergy and the continuing professional development of clergy may need to give more attention to equipping clergy with proper understanding of and effective strategies for coping with work-related negative affect in general and emotional exhaustion in particular.

The second recommendation is to assess the apparent type biases that are reflected among current generations of church leaders. It is theologically coherent to maintain that god calls a disproportionate number of some types into ministry? Or is it likely that current church structures, current congregations from which leaders are recruited, or current selection processes discriminate positively in favour of some types and negatively against other types?

The third recommendation is to be alert to the ways in which routine psychological profiling may help to identify those clergy most susceptible to or most vulnerable to poor work-related psychological health. once such vulnerability has been identified, then those who hold responsibility for the pastoral care of clergy can be better equipped to implement appropriate intervention procedures.

Since earlier research has already demonstrated the power of Eysenck's dimensional model of personality to predict individual differences in clergy work-related psychological health and the present study has drawn attention to the power of Jung's model of psychological type to perform a similar function, further research is now needed to test the two models concurrently and to do so by employing the continuous scale scores generated by type indicators as well as the discrete type categories.

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Leslie J. Francis

Mandy Robbins

University of Warwick, UK

Peter Kaldor

Keith Castle

NCLS Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Leslie J Francis (Ph.D., Cambridge 1976, Sc.D., Cambridge 1997, D.D., Oxford 2001, D. Litt, Wales 2007) is Professor of Religions and Education at the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, University of Warwick, UK, associate editor of Journal of Beliefs and Values and review editor of Archive for the Psychology of Religion. Dr. Francis' research interests include the psychology of religion, empirical theology and religious education.

Mandy Robbins (Ph.D. in Theology, University of Wales, Bangor, 2002) is Senior Research Fellow in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, University of Warwick. Dr. Robbins is a qualified MBTI practitioner. Her interests include personality theory and religion, religious beliefs and attitudes of young people.

Keith Castle is a former researcher with NCLS Research, a research agency funded by a range of denominations in Australia.

Peter Kaldor is a former Director and Senior Researcher with NCLS Research, a research agency funded by a range of denominations in Australia. He has spent a lifetime exploring church life and the relationship between churches and the communities they are part of. He is also involved with leadership development, and in exploring changing patterns of spirituality and well-being in the wider Australian community.

Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to The Revd. Canon Professor Leslie J. Francis, Ph.D., The Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. leslie.francis@warwick.ac.uk

Table 1
Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry (SEEM):
Item rest-of-test correlations (r) and item endorsements (%)

 r %

I feel drained in fulfilling my functions here 0.59 35
Fatigue and irritation are part of my daily experience 0.64 28
I am invaded by sadness I can't explain 0.55 7
I am feeling negative or cynical about the people with 0.61 8
 whom I work
I always have enthusiasm for my work * 0.43 66
My humour has a cynical and biting tone 0.37 8
I find myself spending less and less time with 0.38 19
 attenders
I have been discouraged by the lack of personal 0.55 13
 support here
I find myself frustrated in my attempts to accomplish 0.59 32
 tasks important to me
I am less patient with people here than I used to be 0.55 15
I am becoming less flexible in my dealings 0.54 7
 with attenders
alpha 0.85

* Note this item has been reverse coded to compute the
correlations, but not the percentage endorsement.

Table 2
Satisfaction in Ministry Scale (SIMS): Item rest of test
correlations (r) and item endorsements (%)

 r %

I have accomplished many worthwhile things 0.50 78
 in my ministry here
I gain a lot of personal satisfaction from working 0.59 87
 with people here
I deal very effectively with the problems of the 0.47 51
 people here
I can easily understand how the people here feel 0.34 64
 about things
I feel very positive about my ministry here 0.69 77
I feel that my pastoral ministry has a positive 0.51 86
 influence on people's lives
I feel that my teaching ministry has a positive 0.42 80
 influence on people's faith
I feel that my ministry is really appreciated by people 0.57 83
I am really glad that I entered the ministry 0.56 86
The ministry here gives real purpose and meaning 0.65 77
 to my life
I gain a lot of personal satisfaction from fulfilling 0.68 82
 my functions here
alpha 0.86

Table 3
Type Distribution for Church Life Survey Leaders
N = 3,715 + = 1% of N

 The Sixteen Complete Types Dichotomous Preferences

ISTJ ISFJ INFJ INTJ E n = 1428 (38.4%)
n = 572 n = 702 n = 280 n = 286 I n = 2287 (61.6%)
(15.4%) (18.9%) (7.5%) (7.7%)
+++++ +++++ +++++ +++++ S n = 2273 (61.2%)
+++++ +++++ +++ +++ N n = 1442 (38.8%)
+++++ +++++
 ++++ T n = 1517 (40.8%)
 F n = 2198 (59.2%)
 J n = 2885 (76.9%)
 P n = 860 (23.1%)
ISTP ISFP INFP INTP Pairs and Temperaments
n = 52 n = 114 n = 187 n = 94 IJ n = 1840 (49.5%)
(1.4%) (3.1%) (5.0%) (2.5%) IP n = 447 (12.0%)
+ +++ +++++ +++ EP n = 413 (11.1%)
 EJ n = 1015 (27.3%)

 ST n = 929 (25.0%)
 SF n = 1344 (36.2%)
 NF n = 854 (23.0%)
ESTP ESFP ENFP ENTP NT n = 588 (15.8%)
n = 27 n = 115 n = 201 n = 70
(0.7%) (3.1%) (5.4%) (1.9%) SJ n = 1965 (52.9%)
+ +++ +++++ ++ SP n = 308 (8.3%)
 NP n = 552 (14.9%)
 NJ n = 890 (24.0%)

 TJ n = 1274 (34.3%)
 TP n = 243 (6.5%)
 FP n = 617 (16.6%)
ESTJ ESFJ ENFJ ENTJ FJ n = 1581 (42.6%)
n = 278 n = 413 n = 186 n = 138
(7.5%) (11.1%) (5.0%) (3.7%) IN n = 847 (22.8%)
+++++ +++++ +++++ ++++ EN n = 595 (16.0%)
++ +++++ IS n = 1440 (38.8%)
 + ES n = 833 (22.4%)

 ET n = 513 (13.8%)
 EF n = 915 (24.6%)
 IF n = 1283 (34.5%)
 IT n = 1004 (27.0%)

Jungian Types (E)
 n %

E-TJ 416 11.2
E-FJ 599 16.1
ES-P 142 3.8
EN-P 271 7.3

Jungian Types (I)

 n %

I-TP 146 3.9
I-FP 301 8.1
IS-J 1274 34.3
IN-J 566 15.2

Dominant Types

 n %

Dt. T 562 15.1
Dt. F 900 24.2
Dt. S 1416 38.1
Dt. N 837 22.5

Leslie J Francis, Mandy Robbins, Peter
Kaldor and Keith Castle

Psychological type and work-related
psychological health among clergy in
Australia, England and New Zealand

Table 4
Mean Scores of Emotional Exhaustion and Satisfaction in Ministry by
Dichotomous Type Preferences

comparisons mean sd N F P <

Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry

extraversion 24.6 6.3 1428
introversion 26.9 6.5 2287 106.4 .001
sensing 25.9 6.5 2273
intuition 26.1 6.3 1442 0.9 NS
thinking 26.7 6.8 1517
feeling 25.5 6.3 2198 28.2 .001
judging 25.9 6.5 2855
perceiving 26.4 6.5 860 4.7 .05

Satisfaction in Ministry Scale

extraversion 44.4 4.7 1428
introversion 42.5 5.0 2287 137.4 .001
sensing 43.0 5.0 2273
intuition 43.6 5.0 1442 15.9 .001
thinking 42.8 5.2 1517
feeling 43.5 4.8 2198 20.3 .001
judging 43.2 5.0 2885
perceiving 43.3 5.0 860 0.2 NS

Table 5
Mean Scores of Emotional Exhaustion and Satisfaction in Ministry by
Dominant Type Preferences

dominant mean sd N F P<

Scale of Emotional Exhaustion in Ministry

 intuition 26.6 6.6 837
 sensing 26.5 6.5 1416
 thinking 25.8 6.8 562
 feeling 24.7 6.2 900 17.2 .001

Satisfaction in Ministry Scale

 sensing 42.5 5.0 1416
 intuition 43.4 5.0 837
 thinking 43.6 5.0 562
 feeling 44.1 4.8 900 22.2 .001