Abstract
In 2009 we distributed a questionnaire on the deadly sins. It combined two research instruments—The Life Attitudes Inventory constructed by Capps (Pastoral Psychology 37:229–253, 1989) and the Deadly Sins Scale developed by Nauta and Derckx (Pastoral Psychology 56:177–188, 2007). In a previous article (Capps and Haupt 2011) we reported on findings from the Life Attitudes Inventory. In this article we report on findings from the Deadly Sins Scale and then discuss the fact that an unusually high percentage of the respondents identified positively with the item “I achieve my goals in life.” We suggest that their identification with this item is a reflection of the fact that humans are hopeful by nature.
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Notes
In the Deadly Sins Scale, this item is worded “I have gone far in the world.” We changed this item to “I achieve my goals in life” as this rewording lent itself to our use of the “rarely” through “often” scoring format that we had decided to use in our study. We also felt that this wording would be easier for Americans to relate to. Of course, this may reveal something about Americans and their tendency to think about their lives in rather concrete terms, and we freely acknowledge that the allusiveness of the original wording has been lost in the process.
An exploratory factor analysis of our own data indicates that anywhere between six and ten factors could be argued for. When analyzed based on eight factors, the goodness of fit resulted in a Chi Square value of 535.492 (df 488) where p = 0.068, just beyond the 0.05 significance level. When testing for factors between 6 and 10, the data suggested that eight factors are indeed the best fit for what the scale measures. However, these eight factors were not the ones that we would have expected because the items from the survey do not neatly align with the categories (i.e. sins) proposed for each item. Since this was a very basic and exploratory analysis, we are reluctant to draw any definitive conclusions. However, it may be useful to rework some of the items that are outliers from the other items measuring this sin. On the other hand, the absence of a neat alignment with the categories may support the idea that the sins are all enmeshed together and lead to and from one another.
References
Allport, G. W. (1955). Becoming: Basic considerations for a psychology of personality. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Capps, D. (1989). The deadly sins and saving virtues: How they are viewed by laity. Pastoral Psychology, 37, 229–253.
Capps, D. & Haupt, M. (2011). The deadly sins: How they are viewed and experienced today. Pastoral Psychology. In press.
Nauta, R., & Derckx, L. (2007). Why sin?--A test and an exploration of the social and psychological context of resentment and desire. Pastoral Psychology, 56, 177–188.
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Capps, D., Haupt, M. Achieving Our Goals in Life. Pastoral Psychol 61, 63–70 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-011-0371-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11089-011-0371-6