All right, thanks. I think I understand better now. It's mostly the Spirit-related ones that gave me a bit of trouble, especially because there is some overlap with Willpower, I feel (even in your example, you say that the bonus of positively checking the Spirit indicator would be to be less startled or crippled with fear - exactly what Willpower wards against). That said, Spirit probably branches out into a region of its own when the occult dial gets turned up, and at that point I expect things will be clearer.

Thanks for indulging me ;)