Actual Transgressions Research Articles

Compassionate love and dispositional forgiveness: does compassionate love predict dispositional forgiveness?

ABSTRACT Despite the conceptual link between love and forgiveness, empirical evidence for the relationship between the two is scarce. Also, controversy exists surrounding the use of a self-evaluated forgiveness tendency as a measure of dispositional forgiveness. One hundred adults filled out an online survey to provide the data for this study. Compassionate love, commitment to forgiveness, and valuing forgiveness were moderately associated with dispositional forgiveness. Compassionate love predicted dispositional forgiveness over and above all other measures. The feasibility of measuring dispositional forgiveness accounting for the occurrences of actual transgressions and the presence of compassionate love among those showing forgivingness are discussed.

Holy Terror: Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas by J. R. C. Cousland

Reviewed by: Holy Terror: Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas by J. R. C. Cousland Reidar Aasgaard j. r. c. cousland, Holy Terror: Jesus in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (LNTS 560; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2017). Pp. xi + 148. £76.50. The last decade has witnessed a growing interest in early Christian apocryphal infancy Gospels. Cousland's monograph is a thorough study of one of these: the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which deals with the childhood of Jesus. C. designates it Paidika, in accordance with several of the ancient manuscripts. In the useful introductory chapter, C. agrees with the majority of scholars who place the work within a Greek-speaking, second-century setting, and he pays special attention to some contested areas, particularly the story's genre. C. describes it as a "parevangelical" work related to, but also independent of, the canonical Gospels in virtue of its being a rounded-off story in itself. In chaps. 2–4, which form the bulk of the volume, C. focuses on the figure of Jesus, whom he describes as both a "holy terror" and a "benevolent son of God." In chap. 2, C. discusses the strange depiction of Jesus in the story. Here he helpfully systematizes the various attempts of scholars to come to terms with this, such as Jesus as a Jewish holy man; Paidika as a children's story or an anti-Christian document; and Jesus as a developing child. C. points in particular to many parallels to the special Jesus figure in the Greco-Roman religions, with their mythological stories and pandemonium. He argues that Paidika's Jesus mirrors popular understandings of the Greco-Roman gods, with the gods often avenging human hubris far beyond the gravity of the actual transgressions. At the same time, Paidika also reflects a humor similar to that found in Greco-Roman descriptions of the gods. In chap. 3, C. analyzes Paidika's portrayal of Jesus as a child, emphasizing that both Jesus and his social milieu are described in ways that are true to life. At the same time, what [End Page 314] is unique to Jesus throughout are his power to perform miracles and his divine insight. C. argues convincingly against interpreters who explain the mixture of the human and divine in Jesus as a reflection of an ancient "puer senex" notion, the idea of a wise man in a child's body. Instead, he interestingly contends that the author of Paidika aimed at depicting Jesus undergoing a psychological development as would be expected of a child, with a turning point around the middle of the story when Jesus, after acting previously on impulse, appears to mature into an altruistic and morally responsible person. According to C., Jesus's development is modeled on the idea in Luke 2:52 that Jesus "increased in wisdom and in years." Chapter 4 is devoted to an insightful study of Paidika's christology, of Jesus's divine nature. C. demonstrates that this idea builds on three strands: Luke's account of Jesus in the temple, his "father's house" (2:41-52); John's logos christology, particularly Jesus's preexistence; and Jesus as a miracle worker, acting not as a magician but as the Creator, both in his deeds and in his teaching. C. ably argues that Paidika has a (proto-)orthodox and consistently high christology; it is not—as has been held—of a gnostic, docetic, or Ebionitic kind. In the short chap. 5, C. discusses Paidika's audience, arguing that its intended addressees were pagans or Christians of a non-Jewish origin, primarily recent converts among the nonintellectual populace who belonged to what he terms the "Great Church." This chapter is somewhat uneven in content, and C. tends to take sides with the early Christian intellectual elite—and some modern scholars—in seeing in Paidika a crude form of christology, and in its audience converts of a less sophisticated kind. Cousland throughout is in close and balanced dialogue with recent scholarly literature, sometimes supporting and strengthening the views of others but also in central areas adding his own views to the discussions. At times, he appears to press the evidence too far...

Para enseñar ética profesional no basta con una asignatura: los estudiantes de Psicología reportan incidentes críticos en aulas y escenarios reales

El asunto de la formación ética profesional ha tendido a resolverse mediante la introducción de al menos una asignatura en el plan de estudios de las universidades. Sin embargo, el análisis de los incidentes críticos que relatan los estudiantes respecto a cómo se transgrede en la realidad el código ético, conduce a cuestionar que esto es necesario pero no es suficiente. En este artículo se expone el análisis de incidentes críticos (IC) de ética profesional narrados por 57 estudiantes de licenciatura en Psicología pertenecientes a una universidad pública, quienes cursaban en sexto semestre la asignatura de Ética Profesional. En dichos incidentes aparece que los principios éticos de la profesión psicológica que se transgreden con más frecuencia se vinculan con la competencia y honestidad en el ejercicio de los profesionales, así como con la calidad de la enseñanza, investigación o supervisión en escenarios reales por parte de los profesores universitarios. Más de la mitad de los incidentes críticos narrados ocurren en escenarios clínicos o del sector salud, seguidos de los escenarios educacionales en instituciones públicas, en la propia universidad y en contextos comunitarios. El papel asumido por los estudiantes en su propio relato es de testigo, receptor, transgresor o escucha, en ese orden. Los resultados se discuten en términos del currículo formal, oculto y nulo, del ethos profesional y de la propia institución educativa, así como de la necesidad de replantear la formación ética de los psicólogos en la universidad.

The Social Construction of Scandal: the Role of Media in the British Parliamentary Expense Affair

We propose that the media has an active role in shaping how external audiences come to understand and make sense of a scandal, independent of the actual transgressions. We investigate the evolution...

An instrumental perspective on apologizing in bargaining: The importance of forgiveness to apologize

Although very little research in bargaining has addressed how perpetrators should deal with the aftermath of unfair allocations, it has been proposed that an apology may help the reconciliation process. Prior research, however, only focused on whether apologies can reveal positive effects on the reconciliation process but did not focus yet on whether perpetrators are actually willing to apologize. In this paper we investigate perpetrator’s willingness to apologize for a trust violation in a bargaining setting. We hypothesized that perpetrators willingness to apologize would be a function of the extent to which the victim of the trust violation is willing to forgive. This effect, however, was expected to emerge only among those perpetrators who are low in dispositional trust. The results from a laboratory study with actual transgressions and actual apologetic behavior supported our predictions and thus emphasize an instrumental view on apologizing in bargaining situations.

Exposición, Percepción de Peligrosidad y de Control de Riesgos y Comportamiento Vial en Peatones y Conductores

In Chile six persons die daily by cause of approximately 150 traffic accidents, a problem that, as in the rest of the world, remains one of the most important public health problems. The current research describes and relates the behavior and perceptions (beliefs) of pedestrians and drivers as users – actors and victims- of public spaces. To a 535 participants (235 pedestrians and 300 drivers) non-random sample, controlling for gender and age (young and adult), a questionnaire containing different scales was administered. The variables analyzed were exposure to accident, frequency of accidents, self perception of driving skills, probability of being a victim of an accident, perceived risk and its control, and their actual transgressions, errors, and lapses of attention. The behavioral differences found between drivers and pedestrians are reported, as well as the effect that gender and age have on the perceptions and behavior in the streets. It was found that pedestrians and drivers have a set of common perceptions about their behaviors that is characterized by the belief that they show a low frequency of behavior that can be defined as transgression, errors and lapses. The importance of the use of behavioral variables for the study and implementation of communicational strategies are discussed.

Aggressive responses to betrayal: Type of relationship, victim’s sex, and nature of aggression

The present investigation explored young adults’ aggressive responses to hypothetical and actual episodes of betrayal. In two studies, we tested the following hypotheses: (a) aggressive responses would be most severe in romantic relationships when compared with friendships; (b) men and women would respond similarly to betrayal; and (c) verbal aggression would be more frequently described than physical and psychological aggressive tactics. Participants endorsed greater use of verbal aggressive tactics in response to hypothetical transgressions committed in romantic relationships when compared with friendships. In response to actual transgressions, betrayals in friendships and romantic relationships elicited similar reactions. As predicted, no sex differences were found in responses to betrayals.

Forgiveness in Marriage: Implications for Psychological Aggression and Constructive Communication

Two studies examined whether forgiveness in married couples predicted partner reports of psychological aggression and constructive communication. Study 1 found that forgiveness of hypothetical acts of psychological aggression predicted partner reports of psychological aggression. Study 2 examined actual transgressions and found two underlying dimensions of forgiveness (positive and negative). The negative dimension predicted partner reports of psychological aggression, and, for husbands, the positive dimension predicted partner reports of constructive communication. All findings were independent of both spouses’ marital satisfaction. The implications for understanding marital interaction and future research on forgiveness are discussed.

Romans 2: A Deuteronomistic Reading

Despite various proposals to solve the crux interpretum of Romans 2, none of them is satisfactory. This article proposes to incorporate elements of these solutions by paying attention to the covenantal perspective (i.e. the Deuteronomistic framework) and Paul's argumentative flow. Not only in 2.7-10, 29 but also in 2.14-15, 24 allusions to Deuteronomy 27-30 can be detected. With this Deuteronomistic frame work and other clues in mind, the Gentiles who without the law 'do by nature what the law requires' (vv. 14-15) can be identified with Christian Gentiles. On the other hand, the list of Jewish transgressions in vv. 17ff. can be understood as referring to the state of the spiritual 'exile' rather than their actual transgressions. Furthermore, the argumentative flow of Romans explains why Paul expresses himself so vaguely that the passage can be interpreted so differently: Paul deliberately avoids using Christian categories and expressions not to encourage Gentile Christians to boast over the Jews.

Preschool Children's Judgments about Hypothetical and Actual Transgressions

Preschoolers' (N= 112) judgments about hypothetical and actual moral and conventional transgressions were examined. Equal numbers of boys and girls at 2 ages (3 and 4 years old) either made judgments about 8 hypothetical moral and conventional transgressions or were interviewed on the same dimensions about 8 naturally occurring moral and conventional transgressions they witnessed in their preschools. Children judged both hypothetical and actual moral transgressions to be more serious, punishable, generalizably wrong, and independent of rules and authority than conventional transgressions. Regardless of domain, hypothetical transgressions were judged to be more wrong independent of rules than actual transgressions, and hypothetical (but not actual) moral transgressions were judged to be more independent of rules than conventional transgressions. 3-year-old girls judged the wrongness of actual moral transgressions to be more independent of authority than did 3-year-old boys. Similar findings were obtained when hypothetical and actual transgressions were matched, and domain differences were still obtained when individual items were examined. Findings are discussed in terms of previous research on preschoolers' conceptions of rules and transgressions.

Preschool Children's Judgments about Hypothetical and Actual Transgressions

Preschool Children's Judgments about Hypothetical and Actual Transgressions