Ullman studied 40 white, middle-class individuals raised as Jews and Christians, who had converted from 1 to 10 months prior to the study. Half the converts were male and half female. They were compared on the basis of both objective measures and in-depth interviews to one another and to 30 controls (unconverted subjects). All converts actually changed religious denomination. The four converted groups consisted of 10 subjects each, who were now Orthodox Jews, Roman Catholics, Hare Krishnas, and Baha'i adherents.

The major difference between the four converted groups and the nonconverted group were on emotional, not cognitive, indices. Among the significant differences between all converts and the control group were more indications of both childhood and adolescent stress, as well as greater frequency of prior drug use and psychiatric problems, among the converted subjects. Converts recalled childhoods that were less happy and filled with more anguish than those of nonconverts. The emotions recalled for adolescence followed similar childhood patterns, with the addition of significant anger and fear in adolescence for the converts but not the nonconverts.

Converts also differed from the unconverted in having less love and admiration for their fathers, and more indifference and anger toward them. Differences among the converted groups were less relevant than the consistency across all groups, suggesting that similar processes operated regardless of the faith to which a subject converted.

REFERENCES

Ullman, C. (1982). Cognitive and emotional antecedents of religious conversion. New York: Sheed & Ward.
Ullman, C. (1989). The transformed self. New York: Plenum Press.