Personality type, spirituality, and locus-of-control in an older adult population.

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the relationships among spirituality, personality preferences, and locus of control. Subjects, aged 50 and over, completed four self-report instruments in small group sessions. The instruments included a biographical information questionnaire, an abbreviated version of Rotter's Internal Versus External Control of Reinforcement Scale, the Spiritual Perspective Scale, and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Form G (shortened version). Data were collected in one-hour sessions. One hundred sixty-one Caucasian men and women from varied socioeconomic levels were involved in the study. Initial data analysis indicated that there was only one significant relationship among the sociodemographic variables and the main study variables. Subjects rated their financial situation using a 4-item scale ranging from just enough money to enough money and substantial savings. Reported higher income level correlated with internal locus of control. An analysis of locus of control scores and spirituality scores using a t-test for mean differences indicated that there was no significant difference between the mean scores of men and of women on either instrument. The mean locus of control scores and the mean spirituality scores of subjects aged 50-64 and those of subjects aged 65-83 likewise did not differ significantly. To analyze the relationships between personality preferences and locus of control, or personality preferences and spirituality, a one-way analysis of variance using least significant difference for multiple comparisons for all the groups was used. Results indicated that one study combination of personality preferences, NT (intuition with thinking), had significantly lower (more internal) locus of control scores than two of the other groupings, ST (sensing with thinking) and SF (sensing with feeling). Results from analyses of the spirituality scores indicated that all groupings containing the feeling (F) dimension had significantly higher scores on spirituality than the other groupings. Comparison of locus of control and spirituality scores showed no relationship. An analysis of the relationships of physical variables, personality variables, and social variables to internal locus of control revealed that only the function group of NT (intuition with thinking) showed a slight, but significant, relationship to internal locus of control.