by daystar 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I've often wondered whether the wtbts produces jws, or whether jws produce the wtbts
I think it takes two types
I haven't found the link I was looking for, but here are interesting links, related to Myers-Briggs:
http://www.personalitypage.com/high-level.html
http://www.discoveryourpersonality.com/newsletter28.html
"social types value religion"
http://www.draftymanor.com/bart/h_quigl1.htm
A few books from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0806651466/002-8362570-0491252?v=glance&n=283155
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/068701705X/ref=pd_sim_b_1/002-8362570-0491252?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0896223213/ref=pd_sim_b_2/002-8362570-0491252?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155
There is a correlation. There are books on the psychology of religion, and spiritual counseling that deal with this.
Apocalyptic sects tend to correlate with pessimism. Legalistic sects correlate with obsessive-compulsive traits.
Sects develop to answer a need that mainstream religion does not address and which has been lost sight of.. Thus sects serve a positive function, which is often overlooked. However, they are often unbalanced, and they can mature by incorporating mainstream aspects as time goes on. This does not always happen. Often sects because they are unbalanced do not promote mental health.
Hi, Daystar
Very little actual scholarly research has been done in regards to the psychological trends of Jehovah's Witnesses, primarily because to do so requires a lot of data, especially things like statistics from psychiatric wards, private psychologists practices, suicide reports, etcetera, which are simply not there, mainly because JWs go to such lengths to avoid "worldly" disciplines like psychology. Another problem, along the same lines, is that it would be impossible to convince an adequate number of active Jehovah's Witnesses to participate in an experimental study. One could try to conduct an experiment without obtaining their consent, but this kind of research would be shot down immediately in the scholarly world as unethical.
You also have the option of trying to find enough willing ex-JWs to participate in a study, but again, you will have trouble with the validity of your hypothesis and conclusion because you'll be gathering data from those people who have left, not those who have chosen to stick it out with the WTS. Something about those with the strength to leave is fundamentally different from those who choose to stay, so the only conclusions you could draw would be about what an active JW might NOT be.
So.... that leaves you with case studies, which are fascinating, but since they are simply portraits of individuals or small groups of individuals, and don't involve any sort of hypothesizing end testing of the hypothesis' prediction, isn't scientific and can't be generalized to the larger JW population.
Not all hope is lost, though! Several very good scholarly studies in the field of sociology have been done on Jehovah's Witnesses, which might actually be more informative because anyone who has been around JWs or the WTS knows that they tend to think and act not as individuals, but as a group, and since Sociology is about studying group processes, it works!
Check out "Jehovah's Witnesses: Portait of a Contemporary Religous Movement" by Andrew Holden. It touches lightly on personality trends that the researcher noted in his field studies. It also contains a long bibliography of other great works from the past. This book is the most contemporary that I've been able to find, published I think in 2002.
Sorry to be so long-winded! Hope this helps...
Daystar - I remember years ago in our large territory whilst witnessing I would come across members of a certain Pentecostal group and just about invariably the lived in homes that were filthy and untidy yards ,cars were junk boxes ,kids with snotty noses ,wives unkempt with thick lensed old fashioned glasses ,and the men were ratty little men that were bearded and untidy. It made me wonder back then if religions attracted certain types of people even in their physical body types so I'm glad you brought this up.
Yeakley has done research into cults and found that cults change a persons personality towards the leader or group personality. No personality type was attracted to cults, but rather people change once in a cult.
Yeakley's research was done on the Boston Church of Christ , Church of Scientology, the Hare Krishnas, Maranatha Ministries, the Children of God, the Unification Church (Moon organization), and The Way.
Each participant rated him/herself on the MBTI according to:
1) Prior to membership or five years before if they were long term members;
2) How they viewed themselves at the present time;
3) How they thought they would be in the future.
The results of the first administration of the MBTI showed that all participants had a normal range of personality variations. However, on the second and third taking of this test, they dramatically shifted to the same personality type whereas those in mainline churches continued to show normal variations. For example, when member of this International Churches of Christ took the MBTI a second time, 97% of the members who rated themselves as extroverts on the first administered MBTI remained extroverts on the second one as well, while 95% of those who rated themselves as introverts the first time “changed” to extroverts the second time.
Three of the groups shifted towards ESFJ, 2 groups were shifting towards ENTJ, and one towards ENTJ. Generally they shift towards the personality of the leader, or to the group norm. Yeakley wrote “there is nothing wrong with any of these three types. The problem is with the pressure to conform to any type. It is the shifting which is negative, not the type toward which the shifting takes place”. Yeakley concluded that "they are producing conformity in psychological type" which he deemed to be "unnatural, unhealthy, and dangerous."
The same tests were conducted on five mainline denominations – Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian, with no significant changes in personality type. In Christianity, this phenomenon is most prevalent in some but not all churches related to fundamentalism, very conservative evangelicalism and in some of the churches in the charismatic movement or Pentecostalism.
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http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/books/rtb2.htm
As I looked back at my involvement with the Moonies, Lewin's three terms -- unfreezing, changing, and refreezing -- struck a chord in me. When I was first recruited, I experienced a meltdown of my personality. During indoctrination, I underwent a radical personality change. When my identity refroze, it was as if I had become a clone of our leader, Sun Myung Moon.
This aspect of cult indoctrination was scientifically demonstrated by Dr. Flavil Yeakley, a well-respected psychologist and a member of the mainline Church of Christ. He administered the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Inventory Test to 800 members of The Boston Church of Christ, a cult group led by Kip McKean. At that time, this cult was trying to recruit members of the mainline Church of Christ. I suppose the leaders agreed to participate because they may have thought they could gain credibility with the two million member mainline Church of Christ Churches.
The Myers-Briggs Inventory describes sixteen basic personality types. Whatever your type, it should remain the same throughout your lifetime. The major categories are Introvert/Extrovert, Sensing/Intuitive, Feeling/Thinking, and Judging/Perceiving. A questionnaire is filled out that reveals a person's preferences and disposition. For example, Extroverts are outgoing and feel comfortable with others. Introverts prefer to be with books, computers, and by themselves. People who are more Sensing are more practical (realistic), while Intuitives can be described as more innovative (following hunches). Other categories are Thinking (making objective, impersonal judgements) and Feeling (emotional, personal). Those who are considered to be Perceiving tend to keep things open ended and wait until the last minute to make a decision, while those who are deemed Judging like to reach closure quickly by choosing as soon as possible.
Yeakley did something that was very creative. He had the members fill out the Personality Type Inventory Test three times. They were instructed to:
1. Answer each question the way they would have before they joined the group;
2. Fill it out as present members of the group; and
3. Fill it out projecting five years into the future.
When Yeakley correlated the data of the first test, he found that before members joined the group, they varied widely in their personality types. In the second test, the members were moving towards one personality type. They were beginning to match the personality type of the cult leader of The Boston Church of Christ. The third test showed even an almost universal move toward the leader's personality type. As a comparison group, Yeakley administered this test to members of Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian churches and mainline Churches of Christ. There was no personality change before, during, or after they joined their churches. Yeakley published the results of this study in his book, The Discipling Dilemma, which is available free on the Internet.
Everyone has an authentic self. Although a healthy individual will grow and mature over time, his personality type should never change. Changes in personality type often indicate unhealthy social pressure that forces a person to act as if he were someone else. The results of Yeakley's study showed that cults create this kind of pressure. It also verified the existence of a cult identity which binds and gags the authentic self like a straitjacket. In my opinion, Yeakley statistically demonstrated the effects of destructive mind control techniques.
I wondered, too. Or even more, I wonder if religious feelings are something that is a physical thing in the brain. Why?
I know that in Homoeopathy some medications help "against" religious feelings. (I know personally. A family member of me was totally crazy pioneering. He went to his Homeopathic doctor, and after taking this meds. the religious feeling was totally GONE. No guilt, no fear, nothing. Quit pioneering. Quit Truth.) (for example Lilium Tigrinum) http://www.abchomeopathy.com/r.php/Lil-t (When you search in this www.abchomeopathy.com, you can look for the word "religious" and find medications that are against religious feelings.)
That makes me wonder if religion/faith is some physical difference/disease in the brains. That would explain to me how some people have NO religious feelings at all, and others are so strong religious.
So I do think that it is a certain type of person that is attracted to JWs. It's the kind of person that already is damaged in the past.The person that needs love and think he will get it there. The person that has been under pression in his youth, and thinks it is NORMAL to live under pression - that's why he feels safe with JW's.
Awesome link Blondie!
P.S. Good thing there were never any Moonies around my area. The way those lovelies dressed would have pulled me in on the spot.
