Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ABOUT MINISTERIAL AND NON-MINISTERIAL WORK AS A MODERATOR OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSON-ENVIRONMENT FIT AND COLLEGE MAJOR SATISFACTION

Benoit, Michael

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, Counseling Psychology.
This research sought to examine the influence of religious beliefs on work related behavior among religiously committed college students. Specifically, this research intended to measure the extent to which individuals maintained a belief in the differing significance of ministerial work and non-ministerial work (ordinary work) and the effect of this belief on the relationship between person-environment congruence and college major satisfaction. Anecdotal evidence exists (Schuurman, 2004) that among some committed Christians, there is a subtle devaluation of ordinary work in favor of privileging ministry occupations based on the understanding that God is best served only in the latter. Additionally, there is in the history of Christianity, disagreement about the role of ordinary work and its divine importance (Placher, 2005; Schuurman, 2004; Veith, 2002), which may be taught in a church or educational environment and may influence students’ thinking about the value of their intended work. It was therefore hypothesized that for those religiously committed Christian students who were not preparing for the ministry, greater devaluation of ordinary work would result in weaker associations between fit with their college major environment (congruence) and satisfaction with their major. Major congruence was measured by Euclidian distance and angular distance between a student's UNIACT (Swaney, 1995) and ICA-R (Tracey, 2002; Tracey & Ward, 1998) interest inventory scores and the location of their college major on the World of Work Map (Swaney, 1995). College major satisfaction was measured by a modification of Hoppock's Job Satisfaction Blank (1935) and a single-item measure of college major satisfaction. Significant congruence to satisfaction correlations were observed in the sample of men while no support for a congruence to satisfaction relationship was observed in the sample of women. Additionally, no moderation effect was evident for either gender. However, devaluation of ordinary work in relation to ministerial work was found to have a small but significant negative effect on college major satisfaction for both genders. Suggestions for future research and implications for career counseling with a Christian college population are discussed.
Linda Subich (Advisor)
163 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Benoit, M. (2007). RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ABOUT MINISTERIAL AND NON-MINISTERIAL WORK AS A MODERATOR OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSON-ENVIRONMENT FIT AND COLLEGE MAJOR SATISFACTION [Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1195051417

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Benoit, Michael. RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ABOUT MINISTERIAL AND NON-MINISTERIAL WORK AS A MODERATOR OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSON-ENVIRONMENT FIT AND COLLEGE MAJOR SATISFACTION. 2007. University of Akron, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1195051417.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Benoit, Michael. "RELIGIOUS BELIEFS ABOUT MINISTERIAL AND NON-MINISTERIAL WORK AS A MODERATOR OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSON-ENVIRONMENT FIT AND COLLEGE MAJOR SATISFACTION." Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1195051417

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)