Confirming the psychological type profile of Anglican clergymen in Wales: a ministry for sensing types

Within the psychology of religion, there is growing interest in the theoretical and empirical contributions of psychological type theory. For example, a series of studies has explored the psychological type profile of religious professionals. The present study examined the psychological type profile of Anglican clergymen serving within the Church in Wales. A sample of 268 clergymen completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. The data demonstrated a group of clergymen who prefer introversion (65%) over extraversion (35%), sensing (57%) over intuition (43%), feeling (68%) over thinking (32%), and judging (78%) over perceiving (27%). The three predominant types among this group of clergymen were ISFJ (22%), ISTJ (13%), and ESFJ (11%). These findings are discussed to illuminate two problems: the significant difference between the psychological type profile of Anglican clergymen in Wales and the UK male population norms, and the contrast between the preference for sensing among Anglican clergymen in Wales and the preference for intuition demonstrated by earlier research among Anglican clergymen in England.