Mentoring and the impact of the research climate

In this article, we focus on the mentoring process, and we argue that the internal and external pressures extant at research universities may create a research culture that may be antithetical to appropriate mentoring. We developed a scale based on motivation theory to determine the perceived research culture in departments and research laboratories, and a mentoring scale to determine approaches to mentoring graduate students. Participants were 610 faculty members across 49 departments at a research oriented university. The findings were that a mastery-oriented research climate and an outcome-oriented research climate were manifested at the university. More importantly, each research climate had its own unique impact on how the faculty approached mentoring graduate students. A mastery research climate was related to a more supportive approach to mentoring than the outcome research climate. We concluded by suggesting that the outcome research climate may have an adverse effect on effective mentoring and on maintaining research ethics.     

The concept of risk and responsible conduct of research

Assessment of risk is one of the key issues in the field of responsible conduct of research which covers discourses of research ethics and research integrity. The principle of minimizing risks and balancing of risks and benefits is one of the main requirements of research ethics. In addition, the content of informed consent that is another fundamental principle of research ethics derives from the assessment of risks and benefits related to a particular research project. Risk assessment also plays a crucial role in methodological design of the research project. This is an important point where research ethics and research integrity discourses overlap. Firstly, because the choice of a control group (e.g., placebo control) is a key ethical issue related to the protection of the research subjects' interests. Secondly, because the quality of the research data, that is one of the key elements of research integrity, is closely connected to the choice of research methodology as well. The problem of biased interpretation or manipulation of risk related features of biomedical research should also be taken into account. Despite the importance of the concept of risk to the field of biomedical research, its relevance has not yet attracted a sufficient attention in the responsible conduct of research debate.     

Improving Research Training in Doctoral Counseling Programs

The authors surveyed the research training practices of doctoral-level, APA-approved counseling psychology programs, non-APA-approved counseling psychology programs, and counselor education programs to identify ways to improve such training. Some differences were found according to program type. No differences were found in percentage of students' publishing or presenting research during 1983–84. Suggestions for improving future research training were assessed; highest ratings were given to required participation in research teams; 1st-year, “hands-on” research experience; and greater emphasis on design rather than statistics training. Programs characterized by high and low student research productivity differed in the areas of required research training, research emphases and research climate, required presentation or submission of research for publication, and material support for student research. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Research Agenda to Facilitate Community Participation In HIV Vaccine Research: A Participatory Approach

This article reports on a participatory process to generating a research agenda to guide research on community participation in HIV vaccine research. Community members representing stakeholder parties involved in the HIV vaccine research enterprise were invited to participate in the process. Fourty-five participants participated in the process and we used interactive techniques to stimulate discussion and interaction between community members at different levels of the HIV vaccine research enterprise. Through the process we generated a locally grounded research agenda to guide research on community participation in HIV vaccine research that originates out of the experiences, challenges and concerns of community members.     

文化心理学方法论的扩展性探索

方法论对于一个学科的发展至关重要。从根本上说,方法论的基本内涵是关于研究对象与研究方法及二者关系的理论预设,而其核心目标是实现研究对象与研究方法的匹配。从文化心理学的研究现状看,现有的方法论尚未实现研究对象与研究方法之间的协调,从而构成文化心理学发展的潜在困境。基于对文化心理学的理论诉求和研究现状的把握,本文提出了文化心理学方法论的六个扩展方向:研究对象上从外显到内隐、从元素到整体、从抽象到具体; 研究方法上从现象到机制、从单向到双向、从静态到动态。     

Untapped Potential: Psychologists Leading Research in Clinical Practice

Enhancing the capacity of allied health professionals to engage in research is central to improving healthcare delivery. Psychologists have research skills given their training focus that emphasises the scientist‐practitioner model. We aimed to investigate among psychologists the link between individual research capacity and their current level of research activity, how this compares with other allied health professions, and the role of team and organisation research capacity. Psychologists (n = 60) working in clinical roles in a large metropolitan public health setting completed an online survey consisting of the validated Research Capacity and Culture tool, and questions related to current research activities, barriers, and motivators. The results indicated that psychologists reported relatively high individual research capacity, higher than both team and organisation levels, and greater individual research capacity compared with studies of dietitians and a mixed group of allied health. Preliminary findings suggested that team research capacity mediated the link between individual research capacity and the level of current research activity. Finally, barriers and motivators to research activity were similar compared with studies of other allied health professions. Overall, a multi‐strategy approach that focuses on and facilitates practice‐based and interdisciplinary research, and enhances the leadership skills of psychologists in research, as well as broader efforts from an organisational perspective to build a strong and sustainable research culture, may contribute to the rapid use of research skills in clinical practice and improve health and healthcare delivery.     

Protecting people in research: a comparison between biomedical and traffic research

Traffic research shares a fundamental dilemma with other areas of empirical research in which humans are potentially put at risk. Research is justified because it can improve safety in the long run. Nevertheless, people can be harmed in the research situation. Hence, we need to balance short-term risks against long-term safety improvements, much as in other areas of research with human subjects. In this paper we focus on ethical issues that arise when human beings are directly affected in the performance of research by examining how the ethical requirements in biomedical research can inform traffic research. After introducing the basic ethical requirements on biomedical research, each of the major requirements is discussed in relation to traffic research. We identify the main areas where biomedical research and traffic research differ, and where the ethical requirements from the former cannot easily be transferred to the latter. Finally, we argue that there is a need for systematic studies of the ethics of traffic research and point to some of the issues that need to be addressed.     

Asking, Witnessing, Interpreting, Knowing: Conducting Qualitative Research in Community Psychology

We present a framework to describe the process of conducting community-based qualitative research. Qualitative research activities are presented as a series of interrelated acts called asking, witnessing, interpreting, and knowing. Each act in the research process is described in terms of current qualitative research practices, and illustrated with examples from our own research projects on families with schizophrenia and men's mutual support and batterer intervention groups. We critically examine the assumption that qualitative research serves to reveal or amplify the voices of participants. We examine connections between qualitative research and social change and describe the use of qualitative research to not only empower marginalized groups, but also to critique and transform privileged groups. The framework is intended to help community researchers to more fully conceptualize, understand, and engage in the practice of qualitative research.     

Values in Qualitative and Quantitative Research

The authors identify the philosophical underpinnings and value‐ladenness of major research paradigms. They argue that useful and meaningful research findings for counseling can be generated from both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, provided that the researcher has an appreciation of the importance of philosophical coherence in working within a particular research tradition. Moreover, the authors recognize that the research world is one of methodological pluralism; they discuss particular critical values central to conducting research and evaluating research findings. Finally, the authors demonstrate that there is not a 1 ‐to‐1 correspondence between a research method and the research paradigm.     

When One Plus One Equals Three: The Role of Relationships and Context in Community Research

This paper explores the role of relationships within and between the community of the researchers and the community of the research participants, as they relate to qualitative, community psychology research. Although relationships are salient to all research, their role is particularly prominent in qualitative research, in which a closer rapport is established between researcher and research participant than in quantitative research, and the impact of both sides of this interaction on the research process is acknowledged. Instead of merely looking at the community and relationships of the participants, the usual focus of research, this paper also explores the often-overlooked community and relationships of the researchers and then goes on to look at the impact on the research process of the interaction of these two separate communities. This inside story, while seldom explicitly explored or articulated, has implications for community research in general and particularly for applied research.     

Capacity to consent to research in schizophrenia: the expanding evidence base

Capacity to consent to research, fundamental to informed consent and thus vital to the ethical conduct of research, may be impaired among a variety of research populations. Until recently, relatively little empirical evidence has been available to inform discussion and policy-making regarding whose capacity should be assessed, what should be measured, and how it should be measured. Capacity to consent to research has emerged as a central topic in the field of "empirical ethics," an important area of biomedical research devoted to bringing evidence-based methods to the study of ethically salient issues in biomedical and biopsychosocial research. In this paper, empirical studies of capacity to consent to research are reviewed, with a particular focus on studies involving people with schizophrenia. These studies provide intriguing data regarding the nature, correlates, and modifiability of decisional abilities among potentially vulnerable research populations, including individuals with serious neuropsychiatric illnesses. Areas in need of further empirical ethics research are highlighted.     

Relationships Between the Survey of Organizational Research Climate (SORC) and Self-Reported Research Practices

The Survey of Organizational Research Climate (SORC) is a validated tool to facilitate promotion of research integrity and research best practices. This work uses the SORC to assess shared and individual perceptions of the research climate in universities and academic departments and relate these perceptions to desirable and undesirable research practices. An anonymous web- and mail-based survey was administered to randomly selected biomedical and social science faculty and postdoctoral fellows in the United States. Respondents reported their perceptions of the research climates at their universities and primary departments, and the frequency with which they engaged in desirable and undesirable research practices. More positive individual perceptions of the research climate in one’s university or department were associated with higher likelihoods of desirable, and lower likelihoods of undesirable, research practices. Shared perceptions of the research climate tended to be similarly predictive of both desirable and undesirable research practices as individuals’ deviations from these shared perceptions. Study results supported the central prediction that more positive SORC-measured perceptions of the research climate were associated with more positive reports of research practices. There were differences with respect to whether shared or individual climate perceptions were related to desirable or undesirable practices but the general pattern of results provide empirical evidence that the SORC is predictive of self-reported research behavior.     

Quality Criteria Under Methodological Pluralism: Implications for Conducting and Evaluating Research

Many community psychologists adhere to a methodological pluralist orientation to research; however, it is often unclear what such a position means in practice. This paper draws out the practical implications of methodological pluralism for community research. It proposes four sets of criteria for how research might be appraised under a pluralistic ethos: criteria applicable to all research, research-relevant community psychology values and principles, criteria specifically applicable to quantitative research, and criteria specifically applicable to qualitative research. The paper also addresses how pluralistic community research may be conducted, at each of three levels: integrating methods within a single study, using different approaches within a research program, and pluralism in the field as a whole.     

年轻医生如何搞好临床科研

面对目前年轻医生对科研束手无策的状况,提出了科研的重要性。从科研选题要紧密结合临床实际、医学科研选题强调创新与实用的原则、医学科研需要的科研素质、培养独立从事临床科学研究的能力、充分利用优势科研资源,加强科研合作能力的培养五方面进行阐述如何进行临床科研工作,以便更好地促进临床医学事业的发展。     

Ethics in Research in Mathematics Education

Most scientific domains have guidelines concerning ethics in research. These guidelines are designed to enable researchers to conduct good research while avoiding potential harm to research participants. This paper examines the bases for ethical codes in research and discusses how these codes are operationalized in research conducted in the field of mathematics education.     

Neuromarketing Research Practices: Attitudes,Ethics, and Behavioral Intentions

As a new addition to the marketing research toolbox, neuromarketing science has given rise to a variety of questions relevant to consumer perceptions of this nascent area of investigation. Neuromarketing researchers are dependent on consumer involvement as research participants, and finding means to educate the public about neuromarketing is a priority for professionals working in the field. This article describes the results of two online questionnaire studies focused on the role of personal constructs presumed to underlie perceptions of neuromarketing research. The findings point to neuromarketing research knowledge, attitudes toward science, attitudes toward technology, and ethical ideology as important factors linked to neuromarketing research attitudes, perceptions of the ethicality of neuromarketing research, and willingness to participate in neuromarketing studies. We discuss the implications of our findings for educating the public about neuromarketing research and encouraging research participation, and we conclude by suggesting directions for future research.     

Tips to make research teaching and learning enjoyable and productive for counsellors,psychotherapists and their tutors

This article identifies the learning expectations and experiences of qualified counsellors and psychotherapists undertaking higher education awards with specific regard to research activity. Drawing on the current literature and some early findings from focus group research with students, combined with our personal and professional experiences, we identify what contributes to a productive research experience. This is used as a basis to provide tips for both teachers and those new to research to make counselling and psychotherapy research enjoyable and productive. A full research paper is in preparation.     

Sailing between Scylla and Charybdis1: Incorporating qualitative approaches into child psychotherapy research

Starting from the acknowledged gap between research and practice in child psychotherapy, this paper offers an historical perspective on the relation between these two activities, and suggests that qualitative approaches to research may offer new ways of bringing them together. After introducing the fundamental concepts of qualitative analysis, three areas where qualitative forms of research may be useful to child psychotherapists are explored: relevant but non-psychotherapy research; accounts of therapy research; and therapy process research. Examples of all of these types of research are presented, and some of the challenges to incorporating qualitative approaches into child psychotherapy research are discussed.     

Promoting the participation of minorities in research

The current policy of the National Institute of Health designed to increase the participation of women and minorities is radically different from previous policies designed to protect minorities from abuses in research studies. The principal arguments to support this policy are twofold: 1) Increased representation of minorities and women in research would increase the generalizability of research data and allow for valid analyses of differences in subpopulations; and 2) being in a clinical research study is advantageous to participants regardless of the final research study results. It remains unclear whether minorities find these arguments compelling. Instead of telling minorities that participation in research is good for them, the research community should focus on understanding what minority communities want from clinical research and then tailoring the message to meet this need. Persuasive arguments to promote long-term increased representation of minorities in clinical research must come from within minority communities.     

Beyond discipline: Creating a culture for interdisciplinary research

Interdisciplinary research is not a common research paradigm. To venture from their customary disciplinary tenets and methods and risk new methodological approaches, or to compromise in order to accommodate the differences in the way disciplines approach research, requires the commitment of investigators. This paper discusses the interdisciplinary research paradigm, its culture, and how it differs from traditional research methods, and provides examples of successful and unsuccessful interdisciplinary research projects.