A comparison of personality characteristics of Mennonites with non-Mennonites.

The value system of 204 Mennonite young people was compared with a comparable control group of 200 non-Mennonites using a battery of five psychological tests. The findings suggest that Mennonites are more strongly motivated to interpret behaviour in "religious" terms, which includes feeling the need for punishment for wrong doing, being more concerned about moral issues, and having a greater need to orient their life around religious values. Urban Mennonites were found to be more dominant and to feel more guilt than rural Mennonites. The greater dominance of the urban Mennonites possibly reflects the result of being exposed to surrounding cultural pressures, which may then increase anxiety as the influence of the primary value system is challenged. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)