Adult Learners of the Episcopal Church in Southern California: Assessment of Intrinsic, Extrinsic, and Pro Religious Orientation

The purpose of this study was to analyze whether the religious commitment of Episcopalian adult learners was based on intrinsic, extrinsic, and indiscriminately pro-religious values. Understanding the motivational orientations of adults serves as a beginning point for church leaders and directors of Christian education to develop and organize educational programs that meet the needs of adult learners. In a biblical/theological view, intrinsic motivation is the ideal in terms of spiritual maturity. The study also focuses on Episcopal Adult learners in Southern California involving 454 conveniently sampled Episcopalian adults. This study employed descriptive survey design which involved collecting information about the participants’ beliefs, attitudes, interests or behavior through questionnaire. In this case, the author gathered information on the religious orientation of the respondents. Among these are 63% represented by females and 37% males all averaging 50 years of age. Religious motivation was measured using the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) as developed by Allport and Ross [1]. The results indicates that intrinsically motivated people tend to participate in Christian education programs for reasons related to what they offer in terms of Cognitive Interest which include to get something meaningful out of life, to satisfy an enquiring mind, to learn for the joy of learning, to seek knowledge for its own sake, to expand the mind and acquire general knowledge. For the Intrinsic scale statistically significant positive correlations were found with the Cognitive Interest (r = .33, p<.05, r2= .11) and Spiritual Growth (r = .47, p<.05, r2 = .18), factors of the Education Participation Scale (EPS). While for the Extrinsic scale, statistical significant positive correlations were found with the Social Contact (r = .33, p<.05, r2 =.11), Education Preparation (r = .38, p<.05, r2 = .15), Family Togetherness (r = .37, p<.05, r2 = .14) and Social Stimulation (r = .39, p<.05, r2 = .15) factors of the Education Participation Scale (EPS). Interestingly, there was a positive but weak correlation between both Intrinsic (r = .24, p<.05, r2= .06) and Extrinsic (r = .21, p<.05, r2= .04) scales with the Church and Community Service subscale. Majority of the participants tended to be intrinsically motivated (n=405) as compared to those who were extrinsically motivated (n=42). Extrinsically motivated adults tend to participate in Christian education programs for reasons related to what they offer in terms of Social Contact, which is the desire to participate in order to establish associations and friendships.