This article was downloaded by: [University of Southern Queensland]On: 11 October 2014, At: 09:09Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Mental Health, Religion & CulturePublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cmhr20

Religious orientation and theProtestant Work EthicHarold B. Jones Jr a , Adrian Furnham b & Andrew J. Deile aa Stetson School of Business and Economics , Mercer University ,Atlanta, GA, USAb Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology , University CollegeLondon , London, UKPublished online: 03 Dec 2010.

To cite this article: Harold B. Jones Jr , Adrian Furnham & Andrew J. Deile (2010) Religiousorientation and the Protestant Work Ethic, Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 13:7-8, 697-706, DOI:10.1080/13674670802111862

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13674670802111862

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Mental Health, Religion & CultureVol. 13, Nos. 7–8, November–December 2010, 697–706

Religious orientation and the Protestant Work Ethic

Harold B. Jones, Jra*, Adrian Furnhamb and Andrew J. Deilea

aStetson School of Business and Economics, Mercer University, Atlanta, GA, USA; bClinical,Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, London, UK

(Received 7 March 2005; final version received 8 April 2008)

This study examined the relationship between the Intrinsic Religious Orientation(IRO) and the Protestant Work Ethic (PWE). The Mirels and Garrett PWE Scaleand the Feagin IRO/ERO scale were administered to 241 men and 140 women,aged 19 and older. The PWE and the IRO are significantly correlated, and theircorrelation remains significant even after partialling out their common correla-tion with the tendency to describe oneself as a political conservative. Thesefindings support Weber’s argument for the religious foundations of capitalism.Suggestions are made for research into conservatism along the lines followed inthis study.

Keywords: religious orientation; protestant work ethic; intrinsic religiousorientation

Introduction

The Protestant Work Ethic (PWE) has been a topic of interest ever since Max Weber(1904–1905/1958) published his famous papers on the subject. The self-report scales ofGoldstein and Eichhorn (1961) and Blood (1969) were early attempts to measure theextent to which individuals subscribed to the Protestant ethic. There are now at least nineProtestant ethic scales and over 50 published studies that use at least one of them(Furnham, 1984a; Wayne, 1989). Furnham (1990) and Jones (1997), however, haveobserved that none of these studies have paid much attention to address the metaphysicaldimensions of PWE beliefs.

The present paper is an attempt to address this issue. It examines the relationshipbetween personal religious orientation and attitudes associated with the ProtestantWork Ethic.

Protestant work ethic

Jones (1997, 2002) summarized the Weber thesis as arguing that the Protestantdescription of the individual as directly accountable to God for the way in they livedled to an insistence on hard work, the careful use of time and money, innovation,

*Corresponding author. Email: harold@personalcharacter.com

ISSN 1367–4676 print/ISSN 1469–9737 online

� 2010 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/13674670802111862

http://www.informaworld.com

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f So

uthe

rn Q

ueen

slan

d] a

t 09:

09 1

1 O

ctob

er 2

014

and honesty. These, in turn, paved the way to economic success. Accepted as a way of

life by large numbers of people, this value set came to be known as the Protestant

Work Ethic.Empirical research has shown that persons who subscribe to the PWE take life and

work seriously (Furnham, 1990). They are stirred to action by work and set self-

imposed deadlines or quotas. Tang and Baumeister (1984) found that one could

increase the motivation of those high in the PWE by labeling a task as ‘‘work.’’

Students with a strong PWE spend more hours studying and are less likely to engage in

leisure activities on weekdays (Poulton & Ng, 1988). Kidron (1978) found the PWE to

be positively associated with a high level of moral commitment to one’s job. Saks,

Mudrack, and Ashforth (1996) found that employee turnover among low work ethic

employees was 33%; among high work ethic employees it was only 10%. Eisenberger

and Shank (1985) found that the PWE was associated with a desire to succeed and

persistence.Eisenberger and Shank (1985) also found that high PWEs were resistant to

cheating. Chonko (1983) found a correlation of �0.37 between Machiavelianism and

endorsement of the PWE. Greenberg (1978a) found that persons high in the PWE kept

the bulk of the reward for themselves when they understood their victory in a

competition to have been fair; when the victory was interpreted as unfair or as the

result of chance, they compensated by sharing the rewards. Those low on the PWE

kept about the same proportion of the reward without regard for the fairness of the

result. Greenberg (1977) found that persons high on the PWE worked hard but

expressed no enthusiasm for the task when they were led to believe that they would

receive a reward because of their co-workers’ superiority. Low scorers performed

poorly, liked the task, and welcomed the unearned reward.McClelland (1961) described the PWE as having originated in a sixteenth-century

outbreak of the psychological syndrome known as the Need for Achievement or nAch.

Among the prominent features of this psychological orientation, Furnham (1990) listed

the production of more than one consumes, the sense of personal responsibility, and

continual efforts at improvement. All of this corresponds to Weber’s (1904–1905/1958)

description of the PWE. Persons with a strong nAch set goals that are difficult but

reachable, take the initiative, and research their environments for opportunities and

concrete feedback. They are future-oriented and careful in the use of time, money, and

physical space.McClelland (1961) argued that the social effects of nAch would be much the same

as those Weber (1904–1905/1958) attributed to the PWE. A civilization in which nAch

has become widespread, he said, would be one in which there were many entrepreneurs;

it would therefore be making rapid economic progress. McClelland said that because

persons with a high nAch are the ultimate source of technological improvement

because they want to do things efficiently and are willing to make changes for the sake

of improvement. He also argued that the appearance of a high nAch is the critical

factor in moving a society from ascribed status to achieved status and is therefore

related to the appearance of political democracy.Atieh, Brief, and Vollrath (1987) observed that PWE beliefs would be associated with

entrepreneurship, thus suggesting a connection between the PWE and nAch. Furnham

(1987) found empirical evidence for this connection: persons high in nAch were likely to

endorse PWE attitudes. Both the PWE and persons high in nAch are inclined to

698 H.B. Jones, Jr et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f So

uthe

rn Q

ueen

slan

d] a

t 09:

09 1

1 O

ctob

er 2

014

individualistic attribution styles (Furnham, 1982) and to the delay of gratification for the

sake of long-range purposes.

Religious orientation and the PWE

Allport (1954, 1960) observed that for some people religion is chiefly a means to their

own ends. It is useful because it provides comfort in sorrow, security, social interaction,

status, and a means of self-justification. This is the extrinsic religious orientation

or ERO. It is less a form of religious conviction than an attitude toward

religion (Donahue, 1985). It may also be described as a type of social status concern

(Hoge & Carroll, 1973). Those with an ERO focus on the external and social aspects

of religion.Persons with an intrinsic religious orientation (IRO) are interested in the internal

and personal aspects of faith; they find ‘‘their master motivation in religion’’ (Allport

& Ross, 1967, p. 434). The person with this orientation seeks to bring the rest of life

into harmony with their beliefs. Religion for the IRO, said Donahue (1985), is more a

master than a servant in the economy of life. Allport (1950) observed that persons with

an IRO are no longer goaded by impulses, fear, or random desires. Their religion

controls their lives and directs them to the use of life for higher purposes rather than

immediate rewards.This implies a certain orientation with regard to both self-discipline and the use of

time. It is similar to what Furnham (1984b) noted as the dominant characteristic of PWE

beliefs: a willingness to postpone gratification. McClelland (1961), similarly, observed that

the defining characteristic of a high nAch lay in its orientation toward the future rather

than the present. The PWE and nAch agree with the IRO in preferring the long-term good

over immediate rewards.Both the PWE and nAch are associated with personal initiative, and it has been found

that the IRO is strongly correlated with intrinsic motivation (Kahoe, 1974). Benson et al.

(1980) found that persons with an IRO are likely also to have an internal locus of control;

so did Watson, Trevor, Morris, and Hood (1995), although Ericson (1996) did not. Like

most of the IRO research, most of the PWE research finds a strong correlation between the

PWE and an internal locus of control (Furnham, 1986; MacDonald, 1972; Mirels &

Garrett, 1971; Waters, Batlis, & Waters, 1975).Other research has found a correlation between the PWE and Just World Belief or

JWB (Lerner, 1980; Phares & Wilson, 1972; Wagstaff, 1984), which seems to be a type of

religious conviction. The Just World Hypothesis is that we live in a world where people

generally get what they deserve. The person who believes in a just world recognizes the

importance of fate but feels that their own thinking and behavior may still play a part in

what happens (Furnham & Procter, 1989). JWB is significantly correlated with church

attendance, religiousness, and belief in an active God. This suggests that it may be related

to the IRO.With regard to the relationship between religious orientation and entrepreneurial

behavior, McClelland (1961) found that primitive tribes with a high nAch believed a

person could come into contact with the gods without the use of priestly intermediaries.

Such tribes tended also to have many entrepreneurs and to be making comparatively rapid

economic progress. Spence (1985) observed that the PWE was also strongly associated

with the elimination of religious intermediaries. This suggests the possibility that the

Mental Health, Religion & Culture 699

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f So

uthe

rn Q

ueen

slan

d] a

t 09:

09 1

1 O

ctob

er 2

014

internal and personal religious emphasis of the IRO may be related to the PWE

orientation.

PWE, IRO, and conservatism

The practical significance of a correlation between the IRO and PWE would be reduced

if it could be shown that both were in fact no more than elements of a more

general phenomenon, the conservative mindset. This has already been suggested with

regard to the correlations among the PWE, internal LOC, and JWB (Heaven, 1990).

A study of the PWE and IRO would therefore be incomplete without some consideration

of the possibility that they are merely subsets of conservatism.There are reasons to believe this may be the case. According to Wilson (1973),

conservative beliefs are used for controlling internal feelings and resisting irrational

impulses. This seems very much in accord with the already-noted PWE and IRO tendency

to defer gratification and to favor the future over the present. Zucker (1993) found that

conservatism was positively correlated with individualist attributions of responsibility and

negatively correlated with societal causes. This may be related to the PWE and IRO

tendency to believe in an internal locus of control.Furnham and Bland (1983) found that PWE scores are positively related to

conservative beliefs with regard to tough-mindedness and morality. Furnham (1990)

found that PWE beliefs are associated with such conservative attitudes as positive feelings

toward free enterprise and business, and negative feelings about the role of government

and the welfare state. Furnham and Gunter (1984) found that the PWE, internal LOC, and

just world beliefs were related to conservative political, social, and religious beliefs; they

were also related to a greater sense of economic security. These findings may be related to

the conservative desire to reduce ambiguity. McAllister (1991) found that in comparison

with non-conservatives, conservatives showed a much stronger preference for plausible

over implausible texts. Maltby (1997) found, similarly, that conservatives preferred simple

over complex pictures, which he explained in terms of their desire to reduce ambiguity.Some findings (Altemeyer, 1988; Donahue, 1985) suggest that the IRO may also be

related to attitudes of this kind. Feather (1979) found that among the values held by

people who think of themselves as conservatives was the desire for salvation. Empirical

evidence on the relationship between spirituality and subjective well-being (Sink, 2000;

Watson, Trevor, Morris and Hood, 1995) is suggestive in view of Furnham’s (1984)

findings that people who think of themselves as conservatives are likely to believe that

their own and their countries’ futures were going to get better.Empirical findings seem therefore to suggest the following research hypothesis as useful

in testing the relationship between the Protestant work ethic and the intrinsic religious

orientation:

H1: The PWE is significantly and positively correlated with the IRO.

The possibility that the two things are correlated only because they are parts of the

more encompassing awareness of oneself as a conservative may be addressed with three

additional hypotheses:

H2a: The PWE has a significant and positive correlation with the extent to which individualsdescribe themselves as ‘‘conservative.’’H2b: The IRO has a significant and positive correlation with the extent to which individualsdescribe themselves as ‘‘conservative.’’

700 H.B. Jones, Jr et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f So

uthe

rn Q

ueen

slan

d] a

t 09:

09 1

1 O

ctob

er 2

014

H3: The PWE and the IRO remain correlated even after their common correlation with thetendency toward self-descriptions as ‘‘conservative’’ has been partialled out.

Research

Measures

The most frequently used of the PWE scales and the one that correlates best with the

others (Furnham, 1990) is that of Mirels and Garrett (1971). It began as 30 items, studentresponses to which were subjected to factor analysis. The 19 items that loaded most heavilyon the four factors thus extracted were used to create the instrument. When Furnham(1989b) gave seven PWE questionnaires to over 1,000 subjects and factor-analyzed theresults, he found that the Mirels and Garrett items loaded on four factors, which he calledBelief in Hard Work, The Role of Leisure, Moral Beliefs, and Asceticism. This scale hasbeen found to have reliabilities as high as 0.80 and as low as 0.67.

The most frequently used measure of religious orientation seems to be the 21-item scaleof Feagin (1964). Its ‘‘lack of doctrinal content and open-ended definition of religion make

it usable with virtually any Christian denomination and perhaps even non-Christianreligions’’ (Donahue, 1985, p. 415). Nine of its items measure the IRO; the remaindermeasure the ERO. At the time of Donahue’s meta-analysis, it had already been used inover 70 studies, and it has been used in many since then.

The third and fourth of the research hypotheses are concerned with the way in whichthe IRO and PWE are related to the tendency to think of oneself as a conservative. Thereseems however to be no scale that draws upon a description of conservatism with whichconservatives would agree. Ray (1989) observed that most of the research on conservatismhas been conducted by persons with Leftist inclinations. Petersen and Wilkinson (1990) didnot like Ray’s description of their own research but said he was probably correct about the

Leftist misrepresentation of findings. This discussion has recently come to life again. Jost,Glaser, Kruglanski, and Sulloway (2003) described conservatism in terms of death anxiety,dogmatism, intolerance for uncertainty, and the need for structure. It is driven, they said,by needs, fears, and uncertainties. Greenberg and Jonas (2003) replied that Jost et al.’s(2003) list of motives could be applied to any ideology.

The present paper seeks to avoid that debate by allowing respondents to characterizethemselves. The present paper’s primary concern being the relationship between the PWEand IRO rather than conservatism itself, it seemed better to assess conservatism with asingle item on a 5-point scale rather than to use one of the existing, ideologically biased

measures. It is assumed that that the respondent knows if they is a conservative. Such anapproach is not without dangers of its own: Miller (1992) found that an increasing numberof young people describe themselves as conservative in spite of the fact they did not holdwhat he regarded as conservative ideas.

Subjects

Data were gathered from 381 subjects in England and the United States. One hundredand twenty-two of these were graduate (MBA) and undergraduate students at a

small American university. The remainder were students at an English university.There were 241 men and 140 women. Two hundred and six of the respondents wereages 19 through 29, 87 were ages 29 through 39, 69 were ages 39 through 49, and 20 wereage 50 and older.

Mental Health, Religion & Culture 701

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f So

uthe

rn Q

ueen

slan

d] a

t 09:

09 1

1 O

ctob

er 2

014

Results

The psychometric properties of the scales used in this research are reported in Table 1,where it can be observed that the reliability of both the PWE and IRO scales exceed thestandards suggested by Nunnally (1978). The ERO, which is not in any case of interest forthe present study, does not meet these standards.

The correlation among the PWE, IRO, and tendency to describe oneself as aconservative are reported in Table 2. It is noted there that the correlation between thePWE and IRO is positive and statistically significant at p5 0.001. This finding supportsthe first of the research hypotheses. Table 2 also shows the PWE and IRO to be morestrongly correlated with the tendency to describe oneself as a conservative than they arewith each other. This finding supports H2a and H2b.

There remains the question of the correlation between the IRO and PWE after theircommon correlation with the tendency to describe oneself as a conservative has beenpartialled out. These results offer support for H3. The correlation (0.16) remainssignificant at p5 0.01, even after allowing for the effects of the tendency to describeoneself as a conservative.

All four of the hypotheses having thus received support, it seemed worthwhile to makea more careful examination the relationship between the IRO and PWE attitudes. Whenthe PWE is used as the dependent variable, stepwise regression enters the tendency todescribe oneself as a conservative first and then the IRO to yield R¼ 0.35, with Fsignificant at50.001. When the IRO is used as the dependent variable, stepwise regressionenters first the tendency to describe oneself as a conservative and then the PWE to yieldR¼ 0.41, with the significance of F5 0.001. These results, as reported in Table 3, reaffirmthe relationship between the PWE and IRO, even allowing for their mutual correlationwith the tendency to describe oneself as a conservative.

Conclusion

This paper began as an attempt to investigate the hitherto unexplored metaphysicaldimension of PWE attitudes. It has demonstrated that there is a significantly positive

Table 2. Correlation of PWE, IRO, and self-described ‘‘conservatism’’.

PWE IRO Conservatism

PWE 1.00IRO 0.26* 1.00Conservatism 0.32* 0.38* 1.00

* p5 0.01; **p5 0.001.

Table 1. Psychometric properties of the PWE, IR0, and ERO.

M SDCoefficient

alpha

PWE scale 59.01 8.38 0.73IRO sub-scale 24.48 9.26 0.78ERO sub-scale 31.49 6.51 0.65

702 H.B. Jones, Jr et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f So

uthe

rn Q

ueen

slan

d] a

t 09:

09 1

1 O

ctob

er 2

014

correlation between these attitudes and the IRO, which Allport and Ross (1967) described

as the inclination to place religion at the center of one’s life.This is very much in accord with the original Weber (1904–1905/1958) hypothesis. To

characterize the capitalist economy as simply the scene of unbridled greed, Weber said,

was to display a naıvete that should have been discarded ‘‘in the kindergarten of cultural

history’’ (p. 17). Material ambition has been a driving force in every economy at every time

in history. What makes capitalism unique is ‘‘the restraint, or at least the rational

tempering, of this irrational impulse’’ (p. 17). This restraint, he said, is ultimately traceable

to religious convictions and the desire to lead one’s life in the service of a Power greater

than one’s own.The very word ‘‘conservatism’’ (from the Latin, conservatio, ‘‘a keeping or laying up’’)

suggests restraint. As we have seen, there is a correlation between the tendency to describe

oneself as a conservative and both the PWE and IRO. These attitude sets are in

fact correlated more strongly with the tendency to describe oneself as a conservative than

with each other.Conservatism as such was not the central issue of the present research, but it might

profitably become a central issue in future research. It is clearly a topic that needs to be

examined. Not that there is any shortage of studies or scales: from Adorno,

Table 3. Stepwise regression of PWE, IRO, and conservatism.

Dependent variable: PWEIndependent variables entered

FirstConserv.

SecondIRO

R 0.32 0.35R2 0.10 0.12Significance of F 0.00 0.00Dependent variable: IROIndependent variables entered

Conserv. PWER 0.38 0.41R2 0.14 0.16Significance of F 0.00 0.00Variable selected:

First SecondIndependent variables entered Success ConservR 0.19R2 0.04

Significance of F¼ 0.00Character Conserv.R 0.27R2 0.08

Significance of F¼ 0.00Work Conserv. IROR 0.18 0.22R2 0.03 0.05

Significance of F 0.00 0.00Time IROR 0.15R2 0.02

Significance of F¼ 0.00

Mental Health, Religion & Culture 703

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f So

uthe

rn Q

ueen

slan

d] a

t 09:

09 1

1 O

ctob

er 2

014

Frenkel-Brunswick, Levinson, and Sanford (1950) to Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, andSulloway (2003), there has been an endless stream of papers and books on conservatism.The bulk of these, unfortunately and as already noted, have been conducted by researcherswith a liberal bias that shows up both in the scales they use and in their interpretation oftheir findings.

To characterize conservatives simply as ‘‘right wing authoritarians,’’ as for example inFeather (1993), is to do them a great injustice. It was the opinion of Burnham (1964) thatconservatism is a less tightly knit system of beliefs than liberalism, which he described asan ideology. It is nevertheless highly probable that there is some definable conservativesyndrome, which can be discovered only by asking conservatives what they actuallybelieve. Joe, Jones, and Miller (1981), it is true, claimed to have identified a general factorof Conservatism, but this tells us only that certain ideas, which they labeled‘‘conservative,’’ are found together, not that they had actually penetrated the conservativemind.

A study by an admitted conservative would be no less biased than a study by a liberal.On the other hand, no one could know better than the person in question whether theyregard themself as a conservative. Rather than create a new scale, it seems wise to useexisting measures and discover how self-descriptions correlate with them. A whole range ofstudies might be suggested. The present paper might someday be looked back upon as thefirst of a long series by many different researchers.

References

Adorno, T., Frenkel-Brunswick, E., Levinson, D., & Sanford, N. (1950). The authoritarian

personality. New York: Harper.

Allport, G.W. (1950). The individual and his religion: A psychological interpretation. New York:

Macmillan.Allport, G.W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Allport, G.W. (1960). Personality and social encounter: Selected essays. Boston: Beacon Press.Allport, G.W., & Ross, J.M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 432–433.Altemeyer, B. (1988). Enemies of freedom: Understanding right-wing authoritarianism. San Francisco:

Jossey-Bass.Atieh, J., Brief, A., & Vollrath, D. (1987). The Protestant work ethic–conservatism paradox: beliefs

and values in work and life. Personality and Individual Differences, 8, 577–580.

Benson, P.L., Dehority, J., Garman, L., Hanson, E., Hochswender, M., Lebold, C., et al. (1980).

Intrapersonal correlates of non-spontaneous helping behavior. Journal of Social Psychology,

110, 87–95.Blood, M.R. (1969). Work values and job satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 53, 456–459.Burnham, J. (1964). The suicide of the West: An essay on the meaning and destiny of liberalism.

New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House.

Chonko, L.B. (1983). Job involvement as obsession–compulsion. Psychological Reports, 53,

1191–1197.Copleston, F. (1960). A history of philosophy. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.Donahue, M.J. (1985). Intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness: Review and meta-analysis. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 48, 400–419.

Eisenberger, R., & Shank, D.M. (1985). Personal work ethic and effort affect cheating. Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 520–528.Ericson, S.R. (1996). Religious orientation and locus of control. Dissertation Abstracts International,

56, 11A. (University Microfilms No. AAM9608783.).

704 H.B. Jones, Jr et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f So

uthe

rn Q

ueen

slan

d] a

t 09:

09 1

1 O

ctob

er 2

014

Feagin, J.R. (1964). Prejudice and religious types: A focussed study of southern fundamentalists.

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 4, 3–13.

Feather, N. (1979). Value correlates of conservatism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,

37, 1617–1630.

Feather, N. (1993). Authoritarianism and attitudes toward high achievers. Journal of Personality and

Social Psychology, 65, 152–164.Furnham, A. (1982). The Protestant work ethic and attitudes toward unemployment. Journal of

Occupational Psychology, 55, 277–285.Furnham, A. (1984a). The Protestant worth ethic: A review of the psychological literature. European

Journal of Social Psychology, 14, 87–104.Furnham, A. (1984b). Many sides of the coin: The psychology of money usage. Personality and

Individual Differences, 5, 501–509.Furnham, A. (1985). Why do people save? Attitudes to, and habits of, saving money in Britain.

Journal of Applied Psychology, 15, 374–373.Furnham, A. (1986). Economic locus of control. Human Relations, 39, 29–43.

Furnham, A. (1987). Predicting Protestant work ethic beliefs. European Journal of Personality, 1,

93–106.Furnham, A. (1990). A content, correlational, and factor analytic study of seven questionnaire

measures of the Protestant work ethic. Human Relations, 43, 383–399.Furnham, A. (1997). The half full or half empty glass: The views of the economic optimist vs.

pessimist. Human Relations, 50, 197–209.Furnham, A., & Bland, C. (1983). The Protestant work ethic and conservatism. Personality and

Individual Differences, 4, 205–206.Furnham, A., & Gunter, B. (1984). Just world beliefs and attitudes toward the poor. British Journal

of Social Psychology, 23, 265–269.Furnham, A., & Procter, E. (1989). Belief in a just world: Review and critique of the individual

difference literature. British Journal of Social Psychology, 28, 365–384.Goldstein, B., & Eichhorn, R. (1961). The changing Protestant ethic: Rural patterns in health, work,

and leisure. American Sociological Review, 26, 557–565.

Greenberg, J. (1977). The Protestant ethic and reactions to negative performance evaluations on a

laboratory task. Journal of Applied Psychology, 62, 682–690.

Greenberg, J. (1978a). Equity, equality, and the Protestant ethic: Allocating rewards following fair

and unfair competition. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 14, 217–226.

Greenberg, J. (1978b). Protestant ethic endorsement and attitudes toward riding to work among

mass transit riders. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63, 755–758.Greenberg, J., & Jonas, E. (2003). Psychological and political orientation—The Left, the right, and

the rigid: Comment on Jost et al. (2003). Psychological Bulletin, 129, 376–382.Heaven, P. (1990). Suggestions for reducing unemployment: A study of Protestant work ethic and

economic locus of control beliefs. British Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 55–65.Hoge, D.R., & Carroll, J.W. (1973). Religiosity and prejudice in northern and southern churches.

Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 12, 181–187.Joe, V., Jones, R., & Miller, P. (1981). Personality correlates of conservatism. Personality and

Individual Differences, 2, 25–30.Jones, H. (1997). The Protestant ethic: Weber’s model and the empirical literature. Human Relations,

50, 757–778.Jones, H. (2002). Personal character and national destiny. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House.

Jost, J., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A., & Sulloway, F. (2003). Political conservatism as motivated social

cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 339–375.Kahoe, R.D. (1974). Personality and achievement correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic religious

orientations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29, 812–818.Kidron, A. (1978). Work values and organizational commitment. Academy of Management Journal,

21, 239–247.Lerner, M. (1980). The belief in a just world: A primary delusion. New York: Plenum Press.

Mental Health, Religion & Culture 705

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f So

uthe

rn Q

ueen

slan

d] a

t 09:

09 1

1 O

ctob

er 2

014

MacDonald, A. (1972). More on the Protestant ethic. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology,39, 116–122.

Maltby, J. (1997). The concurrent validity of a short measure of conservatism among Englishstudents. Personality and Individual Differences, 23, 901–903.

McAllister, P. (1991). Conservatism and the comprehension of implausible text. European Journal ofSocial Psychology, 21, 147–164.

McClelland, D. (1961). The achieving society. New York: Free Press.

Miller, A. (1992). Are self-proclaimed conservatives really conservative? Trends in attitudes and self-identification among the young. Social Forces, 71, 195–210.

Mirels, H., & Garrett, J. (1971). Protestant ethic as a personality variable. Journal of Consulting and

Clinical Psychology, 36, 40–44.Nunnally, J. (1978). Psychometric theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.Petersen, L., & Wilkinson, K. (1990). Reply to Ray’s ‘‘The scientific study of ideology is too often

more ideological than scientific’’. Personality and Individual Differences, 11, 645–646.Phares, E., & Wilson, K. (1972). Responsibility attribution: Role of outcome security, situational

ambiguity, and internal-external control. Journal of Personality, 40, 392–406.Poulton, R., & Ng, S. (1988). Relationship between Protestant work ethic and work effort in a field

setting. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 37, 227–233.Ray, J. (1989). The scientific study of ideology is too often more ideological than scientific.

Personality and Individual Differences, 10, 331–336.

Saks, A.M., Mudrack, P.E., & Ashforth, B.E. (1996). The relationship between the work ethic, jobattitudes, intentions to quit, and turnover for temporary service employees. Canadian Journal ofAdministrative Sciences, 13, 59–71.

Sink, J.R. (2000). Religiousness, spirituality, and satisfaction with life: A structural model ofsubjective well-being and optimal adult development. Dissertation Abstracts International, 61,2B. (University Microfilms No. AAI9961546).

Spence, J. (1985). Achievement American style: The rewards and costs of individualism. American

Psychologist, 40, 1286–1295.Tang, T., & Baumeister, R. (1984). Effects of personal values, perceived surveillance, and task

preference: The ideology of turning play into work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69, 99–105.

Wagstaff, G. (1984). Correlates of the just world in Britain. Journal of Social Psychology, 121,145–146.

Waters, L., Batlis, N., & Waters, C. (1975). Protestant ethic attitudes among college students.

Education and Psychological Measurement, 35, 447–450.Watson, P.J., Milliron, J.T., Morris, R.J., & Hood, R.W. (1994). Religion and rationality: II.

Comparative analysis of rational-emotive and intrinsically religious irrationalities. Journal of

Psychology and Christianity, 13, 373–384.Watson, P.J., Trevor, J.T., Morris, R.J., & Hood, R.W. (1995). Locus of control within a religious

ideological surround. Journal of Psychology and Christianity, 14, 239–249.Wayne, F. (1989). An instrument to measure adherence to the Protestant work ethic and

contemporary work values. Journal of Business Ethics, 8, 793–804.Weber, M. (1904–1905/1958). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (trans. Talcott

Parsons). New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. (Original work published 1904–1905).

Wilson, G. (ed.) (1973). The psychology of conservatism. New York: Academic Press.Zucker, G. (1993). Conservatism and perceptions of poverty: An attributional analysis. Journal of

Applied Social Psychology, 23, 925–943.

706 H.B. Jones, Jr et al.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f So

uthe

rn Q

ueen

slan

d] a

t 09:

09 1

1 O

ctob

er 2

014