Knight, David Alan (2020) Clergy, the ‘good death’ and psychological type. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The title of this thesis is ‘Clergy, the ‘Good Death’ and Psychological Type’. While the ‘good death’ presents us with an apparent oxymoron, the researcher proposes that the manner of individual dying can contain ingredients that can make it feel either good or not for the dying person and those surrounding her. The researcher further proposes that the ingredients that make death feel good or not are, like all human behaviour, subject to patterning. Finally, the researcher proposes that psychological type theory provides a potential key to discovering the pattern underlying the various understandings of good death. The thesis is designed to test this hypothesis.

The research population selected is Church of England clergy serving in dioceses on the island of Great Britain. The population sample is drawn from Church of England clergy attending residential conferences organised by ten of these dioceses. The researcher uses a quantitative methodology, a questionnaire, as the principal research instrument. This is supplemented by qualitative methodologies, a Delphi Group and semi structured interviews, at the questionnaire design stage. The finished questionnaire is in three parts: first, biographical questions for the research participants; second, the well-evaluated Francis Psychological Type Scales (Francis, 2005), an instrument designed to explore the dichotomies of psychological type theory in large research populations; and third, a new set of scales, which is designed to marry end of life care behaviours to the dichotomies of psychological type theory. This new instrument is called the Knight End of Life Scales (KELS).

The data resulting from the questionnaire is then analysed using several routines in SPSS software. The principle statistical findings are: first, that the Francis Psychological Type Scales (Francis, 2005) perform effectively in this new area of psychological type research; and second, that the newly designed set of scales, through comparison with the Francis Psychological Type Scales (Francis, 2005), are argued to be successful in relating end of life care behaviours to the dichotomies of psychological type theory, with the exception of the Sensing and Intuition dichotomy. This finding suggests the eventual possibility of creating a tool to assist health and social care staff in engaging in end of life care conversations.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BX Christian Denominations G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GT Manners and customs
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Church of England -- Clergy, Death, Death -- Planning, Death -- Psychological aspects, Terminal care, Typology (Psychology)
Official Date:	June 2020
Dates:	Date Event June 2020 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Centre for Education Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Francis, Leslie J. ; McKenna, Ursula
Sponsors:	British Association of Psychological Type ; Foundation of St Matthias ; Mary Stevens Hospice ; Mylne Trust
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	319 leaves
Language:	eng

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