Religious Fundamentalism and How it Relates to Personality, Irrational Thinking, and Defense Mechanisms

This study explored how religious fundamentalism related to irrational beliefs and primitive defense mechanisms. We also explored how the personality factors of openness to experience and neuroticism moderated these relations. Participants (N = 120) were recruited in an urban area from a Northeastern university, a psychotherapy center, and through Internet advertising. The results demonstrated that religious fundamentalism predicted irrationality after controlling for degree of neuroticism. The results suggest that the degree of religious belief may be an important aspect of assessment when commencing psychotherapy because it relates to irrationality, which is the basis for psychopathology according to Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. Therefore, rigidly held religious beliefs may predict psychopathology.