Research Note: Dogmatism and Attitudes Toward Religious Change.

This article focuses on dogmatism and attitudes towards religion change. Since Vatican II, changes are taking place in the Roman Church's monarchial ruling structure and also in its semper idem view of faith and morals. The changes have been new experiences for those who belong to the American Catholic church, although they are part of their experience with most other institutions they contact in daily life. One might wonder about the attitudes that these people have about the changes taking place in their church, but only a few studies have been published which attempt to assess the impact of these changes at the parish level. Public debate in the religious or secular media favorable to divorce by bishops is increasing. The purpose of the present investigation, therefore, is to determine if differences exist in a personality characteristic (dogmatism) between those who favor changes in the Roman Catholic Church and those who are less favorable to these changes.