On Original Sin

This article sets out a constructive account of original sin that attempts to take seriously the Christian tradition (particularly, the Reformed tradition), and that avoids the serious theological drawback of the doctrine of original guilt. I dub this account the moderate Reformed doctrine of original sin. I also argue that an adequate understanding of original sin must be open‐textured enough to accommodate some version of the story of evolutionary human development. Although I do not offer an account of how original sin is consistent with evolutionary human development, the doctrine set out here is commensurate with several live options on this controversial theological topic, which I take to be a strength, rather than a weakness, of the view.     

The development of a Spanish language version of the Worn Out scale of the General Well-Being Questionnaire (GWBQ)

The paper describes the development of a short Spanish-language version of the General Well-Being Questionnaire (GWBQ; Cox and Gotts, 1987), based on the 12 items of its Worn Out scale. Research has shown the English-version Worn Out scale to be sensitive to aspects of the design and management of work. This study aimed to test its cross-cultural consistency in a Spanish-language workplace context. The data were collected from a sample of 229 workers in Valencia (Spain). Confirmatory Factor Analyses showed the factorial validity, reliability, and concurrent validity of the new Spanish version to be adequate. The sensitivity of the new measure to safety behavior and the reporting of accidents was also assessed and shown to be good. The new questionnaire extends the usefulness of the parent questionnaire to occupational health psychology research in the Spanish language by offering a short assessment tool appropriate for workplace studies.     

Additional factorial evidence of construct validity for the Visual Similes Test II with scores from a sample of African-American children

The Visual Similes Test II was designed to measure the construct of arousal. This study investigated its factor structure with scores from a sample of 154 African-American elementary school children (7 to 10 years). The initial factor structure was examined using principal axis factor analysis with the promax rotation. Confirmatory factor analysis was then used to evaluate the model-fit of the data with the hypothesized hierarchical model. Results provided support for the two-factor structure in the principal axis factor analysis and the model-fit of the hypothesized model in the confirmatory factor analysis.     

Attention and movement execution during handwriting

Two studies were performed in order to test the hypothesis that movement execution during handwriting in skilled writers is independent of attention. Study I examined the relationship between attentional functioning and kinematic aspects of handwriting movements in 24 adult participants. A digitizing tablet was used for the assessment of handwriting movements. Participants were asked to perform a simple writing task and various components of their attention were assessed. Correlation analysis indicated no significant relationship between attention functions and both kinematic aspects of handwriting movements and quality of handwriting. In Study II, 20 participants underwent total sleep deprivation (TSD) for 24h. While attention, as assessed with alertness and vigilance tasks, deteriorated during TSD, the execution of handwriting movements, as assessed with a digitizing tablet, improved markedly. The quality of handwriting was not affected by TSD. These findings may suggest an independence between attention and movement generation during handwriting.     

Relationship between a history of consistent maternal employment and depression in young adults

Research on the correlates of maternal employment has yielded inconsistent results. In this study, 79 male and 120 female undergraduates with mothers who had been employed from the students' infancy through their adolescence scored higher on the Beck Depression Inventory-II than those whose mothers had not been employed. This relationship between children's depressive symptoms and mothers' employment history was not evident among young adults whose mothers' employment was perceived to be financially unnecessary.     

Hindsight bias as a function of anchor distance and anchor plausibility

This study explored the influence of anchor distance on hindsight bias and how the subjective plausibility of different anchors moderates this relation. In addition to the standard memory design used in hindsight bias research, participants were asked to indicate the range of values for possible answers to difficult almanac questions. Varying anchor distance on the basis of each participant's individual range of possible answers showed (1) that anchor plausibility decreased with increasing anchor distance following a non-linear monotone function, (2) that size of hindsight bias initially increased with increasing anchor distance but, from a certain distance, started to decrease, and (3) that hindsight bias was found to be always higher for plausible than for implausible anchors.