台灣主要宗教信徒人格特質與信仰成熟度之差異性比較研究

An Exploratory Investigation of Differences in Personality Traits and Faith Maturity Among Major Religions in Taiwan

本研究的目的是在探討信仰成熟度對於人格特質，心理社會發展，以及利社會行為之影響。除了一般個人信仰的宗教分類之外，顧及信仰有各種層面，除了區分信仰之不同，研究者以「對人之愛」為水平向量，「對神之愛」為垂直向量，形成四個分象限，第一象限為整合信仰者（integrated faith），第二象限為虔誠神論者（verticals），第三象限為未發展的信仰者（undeveloped Faith），第四象限為無神論者（horizontals）。研究假設認為以這四種信仰成熟類型去分類比個人信仰的宗教去分類，較容易區分其人格特質、心理社會發展、和利社會行為上之差異；並且假設信仰成熟類型之不同在人格特質和社會行為上會有顯著的差異。研究對象以台灣15所大專院校之544位學生為研究樣本，與之施測信仰成熟度量表（faith maturity scale）、NEO人格測驗－修訂版（NEO personality inventory revised，NE0 PI-R）、心理社會發展評量表（measures of psychosocial development，MPD）、和利社會行為量表（prosocial behavior inventory）。並且根據他們認為自己的宗教信仰分為佛教、天主教、基督教、道教、以及沒有宗教信仰五類。研究結果支持研究假設，發現以信仰成熟類型去分類相較於受試者所宣稱的宗教去分類較為有意義。信仰成熟類型對於人格特質、心理社會發展、與利社會行為諸變項上有顯著的差異，而這些變項在受試者所自稱的宗教信仰分類上並未展現出顯著差異。

This study seeks to investigate the effects of religion on personality traits, positive and negative facets of psychosocial development, and prosocial behaviors. To control for the extent of religiousness, we applied a four-fold typology to classify individuals into different faith types in addition to their religious affiliations. This typology distinguishes an integrated religious faith from other types of faith. We hypothesized that people of different faith types would display significantly different patterns of personality traits and prosocial behaviors, and that the differences among faith types will be greater than those seen among the self-reported religious affiliations. The Chinese versions of NEO Personality Inventory - Revised, Measures of Psychosocial Development, Prosocial Behavior Inventory, and Faith Maturity Scale were administered to 544 students from 15 colleges and universities in Taiwan. Five major religious groups were identified according to their self-reported religious affiliations: Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, Taiwanese folklore follower, and No-religion. The Taiwanese folklore group consisted of those who claimed to be Taoists, I-Kuan-Dao, and those who worship deities that were originally good people as so portrayed in the Taiwanese legends. The empirical results supported our research hypotheses. Specifically, the effect of faith type surpassed the self-professed religious affiliation and faith types differed significantly with respect to profiles of their personality, psychosocial development, and prosocial behaviors. In particular, the integrated faith type showed significantly better profiles than other faith types in relation to socially desirable personality traits and prosocial behaviors.