The present study examined the relationship between fundamentalism and cognitive complexity. Fundamentalism was viewed from a single dimension as well as multivariately, in order to compare predictive ability. Fundamentalism was analyzed as a single dimension by using the revised Fundamentalism Scale (Martin & Westie, 19595 revised by Edgington, 1987) under the heading "fundamentalism/orthodoxy," due to the fact that the orthodoxy component is that which is measured by the scale. Fundamentalism was also analyzed multivariately, combining fundamentalism/orthodoxy, religiosity, authoritarianism, and dogmatism into a composite variable to give a "richer" definition of "fundamentalism," and to enhance predictive ability in regard to cognitive complexity.This study also sought to confirm findings reported among more diverse populations in the more restrictive population of fundamentalist seminarians. Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients were used.There were 98 fundamentalist seminary students from a midwestern seminary who participated in the study. Each one completed the revised Fundamentalism Scale (Martin & Westie,1959; Edgington, 1987), the Religiosity Scales (Faulkner & DeJong, 1965), the F- (Authoritarianism) Scale (Adorno, FrenkelBrunsivick Levinson, & Sanford, 1950), the D- (Dogmatism) Scale (Rokeach, 1960), and the Paragraph Completion Test (PCT) by Hunt and Dopyera (1966) using the coding system developed by Schroder, Driver and Streufert (1967).The findings of this study indicated that the fundamentalism/orthodoxy construct (revised Fundamentalism Scale) was an effective predictor of cognitive complexity, accounting for 17% of the variation (p < .01). The correlation coefficient between fundamentalism/orthodoxy and cognitive complexity was -.41, revealing that higher levels of fundamentalism/orthodoxy correlated significantly (p < .01) with lower levels of cognitive complexity.Viewed multivariately, "fundamentalism" accounted for 23% of the variation on cognitive complexity, significant at the .01 level. This composite or synthetic variable labeled "fundamentalism" consisted of the fundamentalism/orthodoxy component and the authoritarianism (F-Scale) component. These two variables could be "trusted" to add something unique in predicting level of cognitive complexity. Dogmatism and religiosity could not; therefore, they were not added to the regression equation. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/176011 |
| Date | January 1988 |
| Creators | Edgington, Thomas J. |
| Contributors | Hutchinson, Roger L. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | iii, 119 leaves ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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