Inventar zur therapeutischen Beziehung (ITB)

A successful psychotherapy requires a good therapeutic relationship. An adequate operationalization by German diagnostic instruments has to be improved. A new instrument for measuring the therapeutic relationship from the patient’s perspective is presented. It is suitable for various therapeutic orientations, integrates current empirical findings in a broad theoretical framework and corrects methodological deficits of the existing German questionnaires. The therapeutic relationship questionnaire (ITB) was developed with a sample of 44 therapists and 519 inpatient, outpatient and day clinic patients. The ITB findings confirm a very good reliability (internal consistency and retesting reliability). There is initial evidence for convergent, divergent and differential validity and for associations with therapy effects. The ITB is an economic instrument that in contrast to other questionnaires measures a general factor which could be replicated in several confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses.     

Distribution of Reported Durations of Behavior in Applied Behavioral Research

Duration is a commonly measured dimension of behavior in behavioral research and clinical practice. An approach to studies of measurement in behavior analysis is to simulate streams of behavior from which samples can be extracted. It is therefore important to establish a typical range and distribution of behavioral durations on which simulated behavioral data should be based. We conducted an analysis of behavioral durations reported in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis between 2008 and 2012. The range and distribution of data points across different durations will be presented, as well as an analysis of the reliability of the software used to measure each data point. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

Spatial associations in number-related tasks: A comparison of manual and pedal responses

Bimanual parity judgments of numerically small (large) digits are faster with the left (right) hand (the SNARC effect; Dehaene, Bossini, & Giraux, 1993). According to one explanation, this effect is culturally derived and reflects ontogenetic influences such as the direction of written language; it might therefore be limited to, or at least be larger with, pairs of lateralized effectors which are instrumental to the production and comprehension of written language. We report two experiments which test for SNARC effects with pedal responses, and compare these effects to manual results. Pedal responses yielded highly systematic SNARC effects; furthermore, these effects did not differ from manual SNARC effects. These results argue against accounts in which the SNARC effect is specific for effectors that are habitually associated with the production or comprehension of written language.     

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.