The study was designed to investigate the theory that individuals who believe their environment to be compatible with their own self-concept will be happy and satisfied in that environment. Individuals who view their environment to be inconsistent with their self-concept will be dissatisfied and wish to leave that environment. A sample of Roman Catholic priests rated the concepts, self, ideal-self and the Church on an adapted semantic differential scale. Difference scores were cal-culated for each subject for three concept pairs: self-ideal-self, self-church, and ideal-self-church. In addition the subjects responded to three measures of adjustment; a sentence completion form, a standardized self-actualization scale, and a specially designed question-naire, they also answered a series of questions measuring their opinion of the church and their satisfaction with the priesthood.
The subjects were subdivided into four developmental categories: developed, developing, underdeveloped and maldeveloped, on the basis of a clinical interview conducted by trained psychologists they were again divided into three groups according to large, small, or moderate self-ide•l-self difference scores. Pearson product-moment correlations were calculated between self-ideal-self differences and the three measures of adjustment and between the self-church and ideal-self-church differences and the measures of satisfaction with the Church and priesthood.
When all the subjects were taken as a group only the sentence completion form as a measure of adjustment was substantially correlated with self-ideal-self differences. However, when the subjects were divided into the four developmental groups, the indicator of self-actualization was substantially correlated with self-ideal-self differences for the developing and maldeveloped subjects.
When the subjects were divided into groups according to the degree of self-ideal difference, the subjects in the moderate difference group showed the strongest correlation with the measure of self-actualization. This supported pre-vious findings which suggested that both low and high self-ideal differences correlate less well with measures of adjustment than do the moderate self-ideal differences. When all of the subjects were taken together the self-church and ideal-self-church differences did not correlate well with any of the indicators of satisfaction with the priesthood. However, it was shown that developed priests who saw a similarity between themselves and the Church saw the church to be a more traditional institution, while maldeveloped subjects seeing a similarity between the self and the Church wanted the Church to be a more person-oriented agent for social reform.
","abstract_html":"<p>The study was designed to investigate the theory that individuals who believe their environment to be compatible with their own self-concept will be happy and satisfied in that environment. Individuals who view their environment to be inconsistent with their self-concept will be dissatisfied and wish to leave that environment. A sample of Roman Catholic priests rated the concepts, self, ideal-self and the Church on an adapted semantic differential scale. Difference scores were cal-culated for each subject for three concept pairs: self-ideal-self, self-church, and ideal-self-church. In addition the subjects responded to three measures of adjustment; a sentence completion form, a standardized self-actualization scale, and a specially designed question-naire, they also answered a series of questions measuring their opinion of the church and their satisfaction with the priesthood.</p> <p>The subjects were subdivided into four developmental categories: developed, developing, underdeveloped and maldeveloped, on the basis of a clinical interview conducted by trained psychologists they were again divided into three groups according to large, small, or moderate self-ide•l-self difference scores. Pearson product-moment correlations were calculated between self-ideal-self differences and the three measures of adjustment and between the self-church and ideal-self-church differences and the measures of satisfaction with the Church and priesthood.</p> <p>When all the subjects were taken as a group only the sentence completion form as a measure of adjustment was substantially correlated with self-ideal-self differences. However, when the subjects were divided into the four developmental groups, the indicator of self-actualization was substantially correlated with self-ideal-self differences for the developing and maldeveloped subjects.</p> <p>When the subjects were divided into groups according to the degree of self-ideal difference, the subjects in the moderate difference group showed the strongest correlation with the measure of self-actualization. This supported pre-vious findings which suggested that both low and high self-ideal differences correlate less well with measures of adjustment than do the moderate self-ideal differences. When all of the subjects were taken together the self-church and ideal-self-church differences did not correlate well with any of the indicators of satisfaction with the priesthood. However, it was shown that developed priests who saw a similarity between themselves and the Church saw the church to be a more traditional institution, while maldeveloped subjects seeing a similarity between the self and the Church wanted the Church to be a more person-oriented agent for social reform.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Rueth, Thomas W"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Psychology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":1973,"date_issued":"1973-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"1973-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:56:46Z","subjects":["Psychology"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1507","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Rueth, Thomas W"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["1970-01-01T11:44:07Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Psychology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Psychology"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1507"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The study was designed to investigate the theory that individuals who believe their environment to be compatible with their own self-concept will be happy and satisfied in that environment. Individuals who view their environment to be inconsistent with their self-concept will be dissatisfied and wish to leave that environment. A sample of Roman Catholic priests rated the concepts, self, ideal-self and the Church on an adapted semantic differential scale. Difference scores were cal-culated for each subject for three concept pairs: self-ideal-self, self-church, and ideal-self-church. In addition the subjects responded to three measures of adjustment; a sentence completion form, a standardized self-actualization scale, and a specially designed question-naire, they also answered a series of questions measuring their opinion of the church and their satisfaction with the priesthood.
The subjects were subdivided into four developmental categories: developed, developing, underdeveloped and maldeveloped, on the basis of a clinical interview conducted by trained psychologists they were again divided into three groups according to large, small, or moderate self-ide•l-self difference scores. Pearson product-moment correlations were calculated between self-ideal-self differences and the three measures of adjustment and between the self-church and ideal-self-church differences and the measures of satisfaction with the Church and priesthood.
When all the subjects were taken as a group only the sentence completion form as a measure of adjustment was substantially correlated with self-ideal-self differences. However, when the subjects were divided into the four developmental groups, the indicator of self-actualization was substantially correlated with self-ideal-self differences for the developing and maldeveloped subjects.
When the subjects were divided into groups according to the degree of self-ideal difference, the subjects in the moderate difference group showed the strongest correlation with the measure of self-actualization. This supported pre-vious findings which suggested that both low and high self-ideal differences correlate less well with measures of adjustment than do the moderate self-ideal differences. When all of the subjects were taken together the self-church and ideal-self-church differences did not correlate well with any of the indicators of satisfaction with the priesthood. However, it was shown that developed priests who saw a similarity between themselves and the Church saw the church to be a more traditional institution, while maldeveloped subjects seeing a similarity between the self and the Church wanted the Church to be a more person-oriented agent for social reform.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Vocational Satisfaction Among Roman Catholic Priests"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Rueth, Thomas W"],"dc:date.available":["1970-01-01T11:44:07Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The study was designed to investigate the theory that individuals who believe their environment to be compatible with their own self-concept will be happy and satisfied in that environment. Individuals who view their environment to be inconsistent with their self-concept will be dissatisfied and wish to leave that environment. A sample of Roman Catholic priests rated the concepts, self, ideal-self and the Church on an adapted semantic differential scale. Difference scores were cal-culated for each subject for three concept pairs: self-ideal-self, self-church, and ideal-self-church. In addition the subjects responded to three measures of adjustment; a sentence completion form, a standardized self-actualization scale, and a specially designed question-naire, they also answered a series of questions measuring their opinion of the church and their satisfaction with the priesthood.
The subjects were subdivided into four developmental categories: developed, developing, underdeveloped and maldeveloped, on the basis of a clinical interview conducted by trained psychologists they were again divided into three groups according to large, small, or moderate self-ide•l-self difference scores. Pearson product-moment correlations were calculated between self-ideal-self differences and the three measures of adjustment and between the self-church and ideal-self-church differences and the measures of satisfaction with the Church and priesthood.
When all the subjects were taken as a group only the sentence completion form as a measure of adjustment was substantially correlated with self-ideal-self differences. However, when the subjects were divided into the four developmental groups, the indicator of self-actualization was substantially correlated with self-ideal-self differences for the developing and maldeveloped subjects.
When the subjects were divided into groups according to the degree of self-ideal difference, the subjects in the moderate difference group showed the strongest correlation with the measure of self-actualization. This supported pre-vious findings which suggested that both low and high self-ideal differences correlate less well with measures of adjustment than do the moderate self-ideal differences. When all of the subjects were taken together the self-church and ideal-self-church differences did not correlate well with any of the indicators of satisfaction with the priesthood. However, it was shown that developed priests who saw a similarity between themselves and the Church saw the church to be a more traditional institution, while maldeveloped subjects seeing a similarity between the self and the Church wanted the Church to be a more person-oriented agent for social reform.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1507"],"dc:subject":["Psychology"],"dc:title":["Vocational Satisfaction Among Roman Catholic Priests"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Psychology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:56:46Z"}