Personality dimensions of religious orientation

The aim of this study was to extend previous research on religiosity and personality among U.S. adults (J. Maltby, M. Talley, C. Cooper, & J. C. Leslie, 1995) by examining the relationship between several measures of those dimensions among non U.S. adults. Participants were 1,040 adults (436 men, 604 women) from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Correlational techniques (Pearson product-moment correlations and principal components analysis with oblimin rotation) revealed that psychoticism shared a significant negative association with, and loaded on the same component as, measures of personal orientation toward religion. Obsessional personality traits had significant, positive associations with measures of personal orientation toward religion. Obsessional symptoms shared a moderate, significant, positive correlation with an extrinsic orientation toward religion. However, neither of these obsessionality measures loaded on a component that contains measures of religiosity. It is argued that although psychoticism is negatively related to personal aspects of religion and has relevance to the psychology of religion, the relationship between obsessionality and religion is fragmented, moderate, and limited.