Psychometric Properties and Factorial Structure of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait Version (STAI-T) in Caribbean University Students

The study investigated the psychometric properties of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory—Trait Scale (STAI-T: Spielberger, 1983) in a Caribbean university student sample. Participants were 415 undergraduate students (75% female) who completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-Trait Version (STAI-T; Spielberger, 1983), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996), the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS; Zung, 1965), the Ego Resiliecy-89 (ER-89; Block, 1989), and the Perceived Stress Scale-Ten Item Version (PSS-10; Cohen et al., 1983). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the construct validity of the trait anxiety scale in terms of factor structure, convergent, discriminant, and nomological validities. CFA results revealed that a two-factor solution (trait anxiety absent and trait anxiety present) provided significantly better fit than the one-factor model of trait anxiety. There was clear evidence of convergent validity, discriminant validity, and nomological validity of the scale. Results support the psychometric adequacy of the STAI-T for use with Caribbean university students.     

Exploring the Role of Spirituality in the Context of the Five Factor Model of Personality in a South African Sample

The study explored the relationship between the Five Factor Model of personality and spirituality by using the NEO PI-R (Costa & McCrae, 1992) and the Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS) (Piedmont, 1999) respectively. Participants were 94 psychology undergraduate students at a large South African university (mean age = 19.1 years; SD =1.43, males =19, females=75). Data were analyzed using both correlations as well as principal components analysis with varimax rotation. Evidence from both correlations and factor analysis suggest separate domains within the FFM as well as a separate factor for spirituality. These results provide support for claims that aspects of spirituality are not accounted for by the FFM as operationalised by the NEO-PI-R and by implication the FFM may not be a complete taxonomy of personality.     

Measuring resilience among homeless youth: psychometric assessment of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale in Ghana

This study validated the psychometric structure of the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC; Connor & Davidson, 2003 Connor, K. M., & Davidson, J. R. T. (2003). Development of a New Resilience Scale: The Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Depression and Anxiety, 18, 76–82. doi: 10.1002/da.10113[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) in a sample of 227 homeless youth in Ghana. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax rotation was used to extract factor structures. About 62% of the total variance was accounted for by a three-factor structure: personal competence and tenacity, optimism and achievement motivation. Evidence of the external validity of scales was supported by the positive correlation between resilience and perceived social support scores. The CD-RISC appears to yield scores reliable for assessing resilience among homeless youth in a developing world context.     

Community Counselling: Values and Practices

This article focuses on community counselling, specifically in African contexts. A community psychology approach is used as a framework for this discussion. This approach, linked to a critical perspective, highlights the importance of going beyond individualist assessments and interventions towards comprehensive approaches that locate the person in context, and that listen carefully to and engage openly with all voices in a way that highlights dynamics that oppress ourselves and others, for the purposes of building a supportive and health promoting environment for all. Perspectives and values relevant to this approach, and their implications for psychological practice, are discussed. In particular, the implications for psychological assessment and intervention are explored in some detail.     

Psychometric Properties of the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ) in a South African Context

Self-regulation (SR), an important construct within the psychological well-being context, involves the ability to monitor behaviour, to contrast it with reference values and to introduce adjustments where necessary. A lack of validated measures of SR in the South African context has contributed to the current caveat in our knowledge of the potential importance of this construct. This investigation aimed to establish the utility of the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ; Carey, Neal & Collins, 2004) in a South African context. This short version of the original Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ; Brown, Miller & Lawendowski, 1999) was completed by a group of 385 undergraduate psychology students. Factor analysis produced 7 factors, all of which showed significant positive correlations with other measures of psychological well-being. This first step toward establishing the importance of SR in non-Western cultures reflected positively on the potential use of the SSRQ in large epidemiological studies.     

Hamlet and the Soul-Sleepers

ABSTRACT

The article argues that the soliloquy, ‘To be, or not to be,’ in Shakespeare’s Hamlet is informed by soul-sleeping: the belief that on its separation from the body at death, the soul enters an unconscious state typically described as sleep or a sleep-like stupor, in which it remains until wakened and joined with the resurrected body, and then assessed at the Last Judgment. The doctrine was advocated in some of Luther’s works of the 1520s and 1530s and found acceptance among some early English Protestants, but was destined to be repudiated by later Protestant orthodoxy, and was universally condemned by mainstream Protestant thinking of Shakespeare’s day. The article surveys the history of this heterodoxy in England, demonstrates its continuing significance in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century, elucidates the references to the doctrine in Hamlet’s soliloquy, and discusses their relevance to the broader understanding of the religious subtext of the play.     

Tyndale's Disagreement with Luther in the Prologue to the Epistle to the Romans

Abstract

Although it is generally assumed that Tyndale's Prologue to the Epistle to Romans (1526) is a translation of Luther's Preface (1522), this article examines those places where Tyndale deviated from a straight translation of Luther's text, and supports Thomas More's statement that Tyndale was a worse heretic than Luther. Tyndale's doctrine of God, the Father, Christ, and especially of the Holy Spirit, faith, righteousness, flesh and spirit, the state of fallen man and the temporal regiment show Tyndale was not doctrinally a Lutheran when he wrote his Prologue to Romans.     

Indulgences in the Catholic Reformation

Abstract

Ever since Luther’s ‘Ninety-five Theses’ (1517), indulgences have been synonymous with corruption in the Catholic Church, although their proper use was to be reaffirmed at the Council of Trent. This article comprises firstly, an exploration of the theory, nature, uses, and evolution of indulgences after Luther up to about 1700; secondly, an examination of indulgences as a product of ecclesiastical jurisdiction of popes and bishops; and thirdly, an exploration of the individual acquisition of pardons and the progression of different devotions over time. The focus will be on France as a case study. It will be shown how indulgences in Catholicism survived Luther, were reinvented and emerged as a powerful tool of personal and institutional reform. They provide a lens through which to explore the history of the institutional Church, in particular relationships between centre and periphery during the Catholic Counter-Reformation centuries.     

‘Polydorus Italus’

Abstract

In his Anglica Historia, the expatriate Italian cleric, Polydore Vergil (1470–1555), cultivated a flexible and resourceful relationship with ecclesiastical and temporal authorities in Henrician and Edwardine England when residing there. His humanist learning enabled him to adapt to changes of power and religion by means of a prudent publishing strategy, to challenge with a degree of impunity the perceived wisdom of both kings and clerics, and to carry out revenge upon one who had wronged him: Cardinal Wolsey. Using primary and secondary source material, this article examines, for the first time, Vergil’s attitude to and dealings with those in authority through an assessment of his Anglica Historia. Dying a Roman Catholic in his native Italy, ‘Polydorus Italus’ adjudged the Henrician Reformation, in so far as he actually presents it, as deficient.     

Reformed church buildings in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the early-modern period*

Abstract

This article introduces the history of Reformed churches in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Against the backdrop of the history of the Reformation there, it discusses the cooperation between the Reformed and Lutherans, the response of the Counter-Reformation, and the history of the most important Lithuanian Reformed churches. It focuses on the nobility, especially the Radziwi?? family, the most important protectors of the Reformed. The family saw the Reformed faith as the key to the unity of the Grand Duchy, and an important way of strengthening the position of Lithuania vis-à-vis the Kingdom of Poland. They hoped that the Reformed faith could become the foundation of a sovereign Lithuanian state. As well as discussing the foundation and fate of Reformed communities in Vilnius and across Lithuania, the article also presents the first detailed account of the interiors and furnishings of their church buildings.