The Boundaries of Woman’s Spirituality in the Beliefs–Spirituality–Religiousness (B–S–R) Model: A Third Perspective—Beliefs as a Cognitive Basis

The real nature of the phenomenon of woman’s Spirituality is the main contemporary challenge for empirical research. The literature needs many more examples of the cognitive genesis of worldviews, Spirituality and Religiousness. The first aim of this article is to present the central tenet of the Threefold Nature of Spirituality model which theoretically explains the nature of Spirituality and the theoretical relationship between beliefs (worldviews), Spirituality and Religiousness (B–S–R model). The second aim is the empirical verification of this relationship through the application of an analysis of mediation. The 308 participants were women aged 18–50 years (M = 25.25, SD = 9.42). The results obtained indicate that is a good mediator between an individual’s worldview and Religiousness. Presented analysis of mediation allows us to describe the basic functioning mechanism of the spiritual sphere and the relationship between the three elements: worldview, Spirituality and Religiousness.     

Electrophysiological evidence for the magnocellular-dorsal pathway deficit in dyslexia

In adults, the onset of coherent motion compared to random motion in a random dot kinematogram leads to a right hemispheric amplitude advantage of the N2 response. The source of this asymmetry is believed to lie in the motion selective MT+ cortex. Here, we tested whether the right tempo-parietal N2 component shows a similar regularity in children. In particular, we were interested in whether coherent vs. incoherent motion modulates the amplitude of N2 similarly in dyslexic and control children. We found higher N2 amplitude for coherent compared to random motion in the right hemisphere for controls but not for dyslexics. This effect was related to topographical differences of N2 amplitude for random motion between the studied groups and was accompanied by longer reaction times to random motion in dyslexic compared to control children. Furthermore, a negative correlation between the amplitude of N2 for random motion and spelling errors was observed in both groups, which is consistent with previous findings linking the magnocellular-dorsal (MD) pathway with orthographic skills. These data support the hypothesis of subtle deficiencies in the MD pathway in dyslexia.     

On Modality Effects in Bilingual Emotional Language Processing: Evidence from Galvanic Skin Response

Though previous research has shown a decreased sensitivity to emotionally-laden linguistic stimuli presented in the non-native (L2) compared to the native language (L1), studies conducted thus far have not examined how different modalities influence bilingual emotional language processing. The present experiment was therefore aimed at investigating how late proficient Polish (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals process emotionally-laden narratives presented in L1 and L2, in the visual and auditory modality. To this aim, we employed the galvanic skin response (GSR) method and a self-report measure (Polish adaptation of the PANAS questionnaire). The GSR findings showed a reduced galvanic skin response to L2 relative to L1, thus suggesting a decreased reactivity to emotional stimuli in L2. Additionally, we observed a more pronounced skin conductance level to visual than auditory stimuli, yet only in L1, which might be accounted for by a self-reference effect that may have been modulated by both language and modality.     

Preschoolers prior formal mathematics education engage numerical magnitude representation rather than counting principles in symbolic ±1 arithmetic: Evidence from the operational momentum effect

In numerical cognition research, the operational momentum (OM) phenomenon (tendency to overestimate the results of addition and/or binding addition to the right side and underestimating subtraction and/or binding it to the left side) can help illuminate the most basic representations and processes of mental arithmetic and their development. This study is the first to demonstrate OM in symbolic arithmetic in preschoolers. It was modeled on Haman and Lipowska's (2021) non-symbolic arithmetic task, using Arabic numerals instead of visual sets. Seventy-seven children (4–7 years old) who know Arabic numerals and counting principles (CP), but without prior school math education, solved addition and subtraction problems presented as videos with one as the second operand. In principle, such problems may be difficult when involving a non-symbolic approximate number processing system, whereas in symbolic format they can be solved based solely on the successor/predecessor functions and knowledge of numerical orders, without reference to representation of numerical magnitudes. Nevertheless, participants made systematic errors, in particular, overestimating results of addition in line with the typical OM tendency. Moreover, subtraction and addition induced longer response times when primed with left- and right-directed movement, respectively, which corresponds to the reversed spatial form of OM. These results largely replicate those of non-symbolic task and show that children at early stages of mastering symbolic arithmetic may rely on numerical magnitude processing and spatial-numerical associations rather than newly-mastered CP and the concept of an exact number.     

Identification with all humanity—A test of the factorial structure and measurement invariance of the scale in five countries

Identification with all humanity measured as an individual characteristic is an important factor related to social and international relations, such as concern for global issues and human rights, prosocial attitudes, intergroup forgiveness, attitudes toward immigrants, solving global problems, reactions to hate crimes and dehumanisation. We examine the factorial structure, psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the Identification with All Humanity (IWAH) scale in student samples from five countries (the United States, Poland, France, Mexico and Chile; N = 1930). Separate confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) for each country showed a second-order model of one superordinate factor with two subfactors. The cross-country validation of the scale, based on multigroup CFA, confirmed configural and metric invariance between countries for raw scores, and full metric invariance for “pure” scores. This study showed that the IWAH scale can be successfully used for cross-country research and the results from different countries can be compared and integrated.     

Between womanhood as ideal and womanhood as a social practice: women’s experiences in the Church organisation in Poland

Using the conceptual framework proposed by Susan Sered and institutional gender theories, this article analyses the relationship between the symbolic and idealised image of femininity with which Catholic women working in the organisations of the Roman Catholic Church in Poland identify themselves and practices of femininity in the structures of Church institutions. I locate the difficulties experienced by women in the Church in realising this symbolic image of femininity. At the same time, I identify the strategies taken by women as ways of dealing with the difficulties and as practices of achieving normative femininity in unfavourable circumstances. I analyse three types of strategies: sacralising difficulties and experienced barriers, familiarising relationships in the Church, and affirming femininity. The article examines the content of interviews conducted between 2012 and 2015 with 31 laywomen working in Church organisations in 15 dioceses in Poland and in the Episcopal Conference, who held three types of positions: office workers/secretaries, professionals, and directors.     

The question‐behaviour effect in intergroup attitudes research: When do attitudes towards a minority predict a relevant behaviour?

We hypothesised that the question‐behaviour effect, referred to as the influence of questioning about a given behaviour on its subsequent performance, is a relevant issue when exploring the external validity of intergroup attitudes. In a pair of studies, we have corroborated that merely expressing attitudes towards the Jewish minority affects people's relevant behaviour towards this group. In an Internet study, participants who first completed verbal attitude measures were more likely to donate to a Jewish organisation compared to those who completed the measures after making the decision to donate. Moreover, responses to attitude measures of various types and donating to the Jewish organisation were correlated when attitudes had been expressed in the first step. When attitudes were measured after the decision to donate, only the responses to the traditional anti‐Semitic scale were correlated with this behaviour. In the field study, in which the time interval between attitude and behaviour measures was introduced, no question‐behaviour effect was observed. We explain the results with reference to cognitive dissonance and attitude accessibility mechanisms and discuss them in a broader context of attitude‐behaviour research.