Date of Award

6-1-1991

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The present investigation employed Wright's self-referent model of relationships in the examination of clerical friendships. It was hypothesized that the pedestal effect would be strongest for Catholic women, followed by Protestant women, Catholic men, and Protestant men, and that this variable would be inversely related to the total relationship index obtained from parishioners, the level of acquaintanceship as indicated by parishioners, and the total relationship index completed by clergy/controls toward their best friends. Hypotheses were offered regarding certain scales from the Acquaintance Description Form-Final (ADF-F). It was expected that utility and security values would tend to be high for clergy, and maintenance difficulty would be low for clergy.Research materials consisted of the Acquaintance Description Form-Final, The Survey of Personal Reactions, and a background information sheet. These materials were distributed to clergy, controls, and parishioners of several Catholic and Protestant parishes. Friendships of clergy were compared with those of controls. Comparisons were made for parishioners responding toward clergy/controls. These comparisons were computed by gender and denomination for responses on The Survey of Personal Reactions, and by denomination only for ADF-F responses. In addition, relationships between the pedestal effect and the total relationship index obtained by parishioners, the level of acquaintanceship as indicated by parishioners, and the total relationship index as completed by the clergy/controls toward their best friends were examined.The results indicated that there was a pedestal effect for clergy, and that men tended to report a higher pedestal effect than women. There were no significant denomination differences for the pedestal effect. Although the pedestal effect was inversely related to the level of acquaintanceship as reported by parishioners, there was no evidence of clergy having less fulfilling friendships than controls. Women tended to respond favorably toward clergy on almost all ADF-F variables, which seems to suggest that women perceived strong pastoral relationships. There was a trend for men to attribute greater maintenance difficulty toward clergy, and for Catholic men to report greater maintenance difficulty than Protestant men toward both clergy and controls.

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