A survey of the distribution of temperament types amongst ministers in the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa as measured by the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II.

Abstract

Differences in psychological attitudes, functions, types and temperaments have been shown to have significant effects on the functioning of Christian ministers and their congregations. Knowledge of the distribution of these differences could facilitate more specifically targeted education, training and development programmes for ministers. In Post Academic Training programmes for ministers of the Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa (PCSA), the assumption is made that the distribution of attitudes, functions, types and temperaments among ministers of the PCSA is similar to that among clergy from various denominations in the USA and Presbyterian ministers in the USA. These results differed from the distribution of the general population represented by those tested on the World-Wide-Web. In order to investigate this assumption, a survey was conducted of the 310 ministers and licensed probationers of the PCSA in South Africa using the Keirsey Temperaments Sorter 11. There were 90 responses giving a response rate of 28.9%. As expected, the distribution of psychological attitudes, functions, types and temperaments among ministers of PCSA was different from the general population. Contrary to expectations, it was also significantly different from clergy from various denominations in the USA and Presbyterian ministers in the USA. The most notable difference was with the Sensing-Judging (SJ) temperament, which was preferred almost twice as much by PCSA ministers (58%) than either of the other clergy groups (34% and 29%). The temperament next most strongly preferred by PCSA ministers was Intuitive-Feeling (NF), although at 33% the distribution was similar to the other clergy groups (41 % and 44%). The implications of these, and other, findings for ministers, congregations and the education, training and development of ministers is discussed in detail.