Religious motivation and personality traits of the Sisters of Our Lady of Fatima, India: a correlation study

• Main Author: Fernandez, Florence Joseph
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1989
• Subjects: Monastic and religious life of women; Nuns > Psychology
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/1217
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study investigated the relationship between religious motivation and eight personality traits of the Sisters of Our Lady of Fatima, India. One hundred and thirty-eight religious sisters were the subjects of this study. The instruments used were the Religious motivation index and Comrey's personality scale which assessed the level of religious motivation and eight personality traits, respectively. The study included the descriptive analyses of religious motivation and the profile of the personality of these sisters. Moreover, eight personality traits were correlated with total motivation index. Correlational analyses showed that there is a high significant correlation between religious motivation and selected personality traits such as trust, orderliness, social conformity, activity, emotional stability, extroversion, masculinity (tough mindedness) and empathy, tested at 0.01 level of significance. Trust was found to be the best predictor of religious motivation. The four personality traits which were predictive of religious motivation, clearly demonstrated the need for religious communities to consider personality as a criterion for admission into religious life, particularly the traits such as trust, empathy, masculinity (tough mindedness) and extroversion.