Problem
E. G. White has been one of the most influential persons in the development of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Therefore extremism in church members is likely to crystallize in issues concerning the implications of her writings for today. The purpose of this study was to explore what relation, if any, exists between certain personality traits of an individual, his exposure to E. G. White\u27s writings, and his perception of E. G. White .
Method
The following instruments were used in the study: (1) The Questionnaire of Exposure to E. G. White; this questionnaire was developed to indicate the extent of an individual\u27s exposure to E. G. White\u27s writings and writings about her. (2) The Scale of Attitudes toward E. G. White ; this scale was developed for use in this study with the goal to distinguish between healthy positive and extreme positive attitudes toward E. G. White . (3) The Rokeach Dogmatism Scale. (4) The Edwards Personality Inventory, booklet III.
Two-way analyses of variance—where categories of scores on the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale and/or on the different subscales of the Edwards Personality Inventory were the one independent variable, categories of scores on the Questionnaire of Exposure to E. G. White the other independent variable, and scores on the Scales of Attitudes toward E. G. White the dependent variable—were applied to the results in order to analyze the relationship between exposure to E. G. White\u27s writings, the individual\u27s personality structure, and his attitudes toward E. G. White . Ninety-seven students from Andrews University Seminary, who held American citizenship and for whom English was the basic language, participated in one of several testing sessions.
Results
The only significant interaction effect was that between Exposure to E. G. White and Cooperative . Dogmatism , Makes Friends Easily , and Cooperative were significantly related to scores on the Scale of Attitudes toward E. G. White .
Conclusions
Perception of E. G. White seems to be partially influenced by the individual\u27s personality structure and also to some degree by his exposure to E. G. White\u27s writings. Further research is needed in this specific area; especially the impact of original E. G. White books, compilations of her statements, and books written about E. G. White need to be investigated with respect to the hypothesis that these different books influence the dogmatic person differently
