Self‐Acceptance in a Catholic Male Religious Congregation

John D. Moulds, Marita P. McCabe*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    1 Citation (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Self‐acceptance as a description of the self represents a phenomelogical perspective associated with the client‐centered clinical paradigm. It is the feeling attached by the individual to the discrepancy between the perceived self and the ideal self. Therapists involved with clients in religious vocations have recently reported finding low levels of self‐acceptance among them. It seems that this may have resulted from the vast changes following Vatican Council II in conjunction with wider social changes. This study measured self‐acceptance in the members of a male religious congregation of Brothers (N = 196) residing in New South Wales and Queensland. Differences in self‐acceptance were related to personal, social‐relational, and sociodemographic variables important in the lives of the Brothers. Self‐acceptance was found to be closely related to perceived self‐image, perceived evaluation by others, community satisfaction, self‐disclosure, and commitment to religious life. It was also related to the sociodemographic measures of education, number of Brothers in respondent's religious community, whether the respondent was in a position of responsibility, and latest marital situation of parents. The influence of social desirability was highly significant. A reduced regression model predicting self‐acceptance contained social desirability, perceived evaluation by others, education, size of the local community, perceived self‐image, and number of years in the juniorate. Possible implications of the findings for the future of religious congregations are discussed. 1991 Australian Psychological Society

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)197-202
    Number of pages6
    JournalAustralian Psychologist
    Volume26
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1991

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