Methods for Practising Ethics in Research and Innovation: A Literature Review,Critical Analysis and Recommendations

This paper provides a systematic literature review, analysis and discussion of methods that are proposed to practise ethics in research and innovation (R&I). Ethical considerations concerning the impacts of R&I are increasingly important, due to the quickening pace of technological innovation and the ubiquitous use of the outcomes of R&I processes in society. For this reason, several methods for practising ethics have been developed in different fields of R&I. The paper first of all presents a systematic search of academic sources that present and discuss such methods. Secondly, it provides a categorisation of these methods according to three main kinds: (1) ex ante methods, dealing with emerging technologies, (2) intra methods, dealing with technology design, and (3) ex post methods, dealing with ethical analysis of existing technologies. Thirdly, it discusses the methods by considering problems in the way they deal with the uncertainty of technological change, ethical technology design, the identification, analysis and resolving of ethical impacts of technologies and stakeholder participation. The results and discussion of our literature review are valuable for gaining an overview of the state of the art and serve as an outline of a future research agenda of methods for practising ethics in R&I.     

Merge Ahead: A Research Agenda to Increase Merger and Acquisition Success

Scholars have been conducting serious research on the human, organizational, and cultural aspects of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) for 30 years. Yet, over this period, there have only been modest improvements in the M&A success rate. In this article, we examine corporate combinations, describe how human factors contribute to their failure or success, and identify key research questions whose answers can help to improve the M&A success rate in both financial and human terms. We propose research questions for the key phases of a deal, including buying a company and putting companies together. And, reflecting an emerging trend among some frequent acquirers to build an internal competence in M&A execution, we also propose research questions for how to accelerate the process of learning from past combinations to better manage future ones.     

Dialectical Behavior Therapy With Prolonged Exposure for Adolescents: Rationale and Review of the Research

Among adolescents, interpersonal trauma has been associated with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and impairments across multiple domains of functioning (e.g., Derosa, Amaya-Jackson & Layne, 2013; Ford, Courtois, Steele, van der Hart, & Nijenhuis, 2005; van der Kolk, 2005). Such difficulties can include high-risk behaviors such as active suicidality (Middlebrooks & Audage, 2008) and nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior (NSSI; Hu, Taylor, Li, & Glauert, 2017). While there have been many advances in the treatment of trauma, treatment dropout for adolescents seeking trauma-informed treatment is predicted by diagnostic comorbidity and complexity (Sprang et al., 2013), as well as the number of traumatic events endorsed (Wamser-Nanney & Steinzor, 2016). Many traumatized adolescents with high-risk behaviors are referred to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT-A). However, DBT-A does not yet include a specific, evidence-based protocol for treating PTSD, without which treatment gains may not be sustained for traumatized adolescents (Harned, Korslund, & Linehan, 2014). While Prolonged Exposure (PE) is indicated as the gold-standard treatment for PTSD and has proven effective for adolescents (PE-A; Foa, McLean, Capaldi, & Rosenfield, 2013), it has not yet been validated with adolescents who are actively suicidal. However, PE has successfully been integrated within DBT for adults with co-occurring Borderline Personality Disorder and PTSD (e.g., DBT-PE; Harned et al., 2014). Based upon this model, the current paper proposes the integration of DBT-A and PE-A to treat adolescents with interpersonal trauma who also present with high-risk behaviors. The paper discusses anticipated complications related to adapting this model for adolescents and provides direction for future research.     

Research digest

Cheng H‐P. & Page, R.C. (1995) A comparison of Chinese (in Taiwan) and American perspectives of love, guilt and anger, Journal of Mental Health Counseling, 17, (2), pp. 210–230.

Cheng, P. & Tang, C.S. (1995) Coping and psychological distress of Chinese parents of children with Down syndrome, Mental Retardation, 33, (1) pp. 10–20.

Chan, D.W. & Hui, E.K.P. (1995) Burnout and coping among Chinese secondary school teachers in Hong Kong, British Journal of Educational Psychology, 65, pp. 15–25.     

New Directions in Rifle Marksmanship Research

We propose that future rifle marksmanship research be framed within a phases-of-skill-development model (Ackerman, 1987 Ackerman, P. L. (1987). Individual differences in skill learning: An integration of psychometric and information processing perspectives. Psychological Bulletin, 102, 3–27.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], 1992 Ackerman, P. L. (1992). Predicting individual differences in complex skill acquisition: Dynamics of ability determinants. Journal of Applied Psychology, 77, 598–614.[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Anderson, 1982 Anderson, J. R. (1982). Acquisition of cognitive skill. Psychological Review, 89, 369–406.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Fitts & Posner, 1967 Fitts, P. M., & Posner, M. I. (1967). Human performance. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole. [Google Scholar]). Prior research on predicting shooting performance suggests a deceptively complex task sensitive to variations in the individual, equipment, and environment. We argue that rifle marksmanship research should be framed around perceptual-motor, cognitive, affective, equipment, and environmental variables. Although it is unlikely that equipment and environment can be controlled, much can be learned—with training implications—about how perceptual-motor, cognitive, and affective variables relate to shooting performance. The phases-of-skill-development model is silent on affective variables but suggests that cognitive factors will be most sensitive to individuals learning how to shoot, and perceptual-motor variables most sensitive to individuals who already know how to shoot. Identification of where trainees are in their skill development could lead to more efficient and targeted training and decreased training costs.     

Government Subsidized Academic Research: Economic and Ethical Conflicts

Justification for public funding of academic research is based on the linear model of technological advance first proposed by Francis Bacon. The model hypothesizes that government subsidized science generates new technology which creates new wealth. Mainstream economics supports Bacons model by arguing that academic research is a public good. The Bayh–Dole Act allows universities to privatize federally funded research and development (R&D) which is in direct conflict with the public good argument. Diminishing returns to university R&D, challenges to Bacons linear model and the labor exploitation of young scientists by research universities suggest that policy makers may want to reconsider the system for allocating federal R&D to universities and colleges.     

Organizational Innovation Climate and Creative Outcomes: Exploring the Moderating Effect of Time Pressure

Time pressure, one of the factors of organizational innovation climate, has an inconsistent effect on employee creativity. Based on the interactional approach, this study attempted to describe time pressure as a moderator. Data were collected from two surveys of R&D employees at Taiwanese national research institutions in 2007 and 2009. The results showed that time pressure moderated the relationship between organizational innovation climate and creative outcomes. As most theorists had predicted, in a strong organizational innovation climate, time pressure hindered creative outcomes. However, as many practitioners advocate, time pressure enhanced creative outcomes in a weak organizational innovation climate. The implications in a time pressure/organizational innovation climate matrix are discussed.     

Evolutionary Epistemology: Two Research Avenues,Three Schools,and A Single and Shared Agenda

Journal for General Philosophy of Science - This special issue for the Journal for General Philosophy of Science is devoted to exploring the impact and many ramifications of current...     

Reflections on and Future Directions in Humility and Forgiveness Research

Research on humility and forgiveness has reached an important milestone. Scholars are transitioning from largely studying these character strengths in convenience samples (typically university undergraduates) to conducting studies in diverse samples that more accurately reflect the overall adult population in the United States. At important junctures like these, the field needs to both look back and learn from the work to date, as well as to look forward at the new questions that can now bed addressed with these expanded samples. In looking back, previous scholarship demonstrates a strong synthesis between forgiveness and humility, indicating the value of examining these characteristics together. Noel Card (this issue)’s meta-analyses of previous studies’ use of forgiveness and humility measures is also quite timely as it highlights the strengths of various measures, as well as where future measurement work is still needed. In looking forward, the remaining four articles within this issue (Krause, this issue; Hill, this issue; Webster, Ajrouch, & Antonucci, this issue; Antonucci, Ajrouch, Webster, & Birditt, this issue) raise, and begin to address, important developmental questions surrounding forgiveness and humility, such as between group differences, the role of social context, the impact of life stage, and adversity’s possible influence. Cumulatively, these papers point towards the critical questions the field of forgiveness and humility scholars need to address, especially as interest grows in application and intervention development.     

Measurement of Feminist Identity and Attitudes Over the Past Half Century: A Critical Review and Call for Further Research

Sex Roles - The study of feminism has had a long and complicated history in psychological research over the past half century. Although a number of instruments have been designed to assess...     

Psychotherapy Process Measure Research and the Evaluation of Psychotherapy Orientation: A Narrative Analysis

This article discusses the need for a systematic method that enables researchers to evaluate integrative therapy approaches using a range of therapy process measures. The Narrative System Process Coding (NPCS; Angus, Hardtke, & Levitt, 1996) is proposed as such a method, and is applied with the Experiencing Scale (Klein, Mathieu, Gendlin, & Keisler, 1970) and the Levels of Client Perceptual Processing (LCPP; Toukmanian, 1986) to three brief good outcome integrative therapy modalities to illustrate this need. The study found higher Experiencing Scale scores to be most strongly related to an experiential approach to therapy and to the NPCS internal narrative processes. Higher LCPP scores were most strongly related to the NPCS reflexive narrative process and to a perceptual-processing approach. The discussion initiates a discourse on the importance of explicating process measures' origins when comparing different therapy approaches in order to allow for the meaningful consolidation of process research findings.     

Methods in Sales Research: Scaling and Measurement Section: A Time for Change

The Fall 1991 issue of Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management announced the establishment of the special topic section “Scaling and Measurement”. The primary purpose of the section was “.to provide an authoritative centralized source for dissemination of information related to measurement and scaling issues germane to personal selling and sales management research.”     

The Why and How of Enabling the Integration of Social and Ethical Aspects in Research and Development

New and Emerging Science and Technology (NEST) based innovations, e.g. in the field of Life Sciences or Nanotechnology, frequently raise societal and political concerns. To address these concerns NEST researchers are expected to deploy socially responsible R&D practices. This requires researchers to integrate social and ethical aspects (SEAs) in their daily work. Many methods can facilitate such integration. Still, why and how researchers should and could use SEAs remains largely unclear. In this paper we aim to relate motivations for NEST researchers to include SEAs in their work, and the requirements to establish such integration from their perspectives, to existing approaches that can be used to establish integration of SEAs in the daily work of these NEST researchers. Based on our analyses, we argue that for the successful integration of SEAs in R&D practice, collaborative approaches between researchers and scholars from the social sciences and humanities seem the most successful. The only way to explore whether that is in fact the case, is by embarking on collaborative research endeavours.     

Bridging the Gap Between Innovation and ELSA: The TA Program in the Dutch Nano-R&D Program NanoNed

The Technology Assessment (TA) Program established in 2003 as part of the Dutch R&D consortium NanoNed is interesting for what it did, but also as an indication that there are changes in how new science and technology are pursued: the nanotechnologists felt it necessary to spend part of their funding on social aspects of nanotechnology. We retrace the history of the TA program, and present the innovative work that was done on Constructive TA of emerging nanotechnology developments and on aspects of embedding of nanotechnology in society. One achievement is the provision of tools and approaches to help make the co-evolution of technology and society more reflexive. We briefly look forward by outlining its successor program, TA NanoNextNL, in place since 2011.     

Nesselroade and Molenaar's Measurement Concerns and Proposals: An Introduction

In this special section Nesselroade and Molenaar (N & M) propose a provocative new approach to measurement invariance. When measures are collected repeatedly over time (e.g., daily diary studies), a potentially unique measurement model relating the items to the underlying construct can be created for each individual. If hypothesized causal paths specified between constructs (e.g., frustration → aggression) can be constrained to be equal across the individuals, a model with idiographic measurement of the constructs, but with nomothetic structural relationships can be specified. Three commentaries react to N & M's proposal. Revelle and Wilt challenge the priority given by N & M to unique individual measurement structures, arguing that between subjects differences in structural relationships are empirically important and meaningful. Markus's uses David Hume's framework to raise philosophy of science challenges for N & M's approach. Maydeu-Olivares challenges the incremental validity of N & M's approach, arguing that N & M's approach is unlikely to improve the prediction of between subjects criteria. Finally, N & M present a rejoinder to the three commentaries.     

Vacation (after-) effects on employee health and well-being, and the role of vacation activities, experiences and sleep

Most vacations seem to have strong, but rather short-lived effects on health and well-being (H&W). However, the recovery-potential of relatively long vacations and the underlying processes have been disregarded. Therefore, our study focused on vacations longer than 14 days and on the psychological processes associated with such a long respite from work. In the present study, we investigated (1) how health and well-being (H&W) develop during and after a long summer vacation, (2) whether changes in H&W during and after vacation relate to vacation activities and experiences and (3) whether changes in H&W during and after vacation relate to sleep. Fifty-four employees reported their H&W before, three or four times during and five times after vacation. Vacations lasted 23 days on average. Information on vacation experiences, work-related activities and sleep was collected during vacation. Vacation activities were assessed immediately after vacation. H&W increased quickly during vacation, peaked on the eighth vacation day and had rapidly returned to baseline level within the first week of work resumption. Vacation duration and most vacation activities were only weakly associated with H&W changes during and after vacation. Engagement in passive activities, savoring, pleasure derived from activities, relaxation, control and sleep showed strong relations with improved H&W during and to a lesser degree after vacation. In conclusion, H&W improved during long summer vacations, but this positive effect was short-lived. Vacation experiences, especially pleasure, relaxation, savoring and control, seem to be especially important for the strength and persistence of vacation (after-) effects.     

The Context of Satisficing in Vignette Research

Abstract

Although at the time of this article's publication, many anecdotes and cross-sectional studies had reported that law students experience significant distress during their 1st year, few researchers had controlled for prelaw school status (e.g., M. Garrison, B. Tomko, & I. Yip, 1996; L. Guinier, M. Fine, J. Balin, A. Bartow, & D. L. Stachel, 1994), and only a single group of researchers had explored a psychosocial factor that predicted these changes. The present authors tested 3 sets of potential predictors of adjustment: sources of stress, coping strategies, and relationship factors. The present data replicated declines in students' psychological health, physical health, and attitudes toward law over the 1st year of school. That result supports the generalizability and currency of previous studies. In contrast to other researchers, the present authors found few gender differences. Less relationship happiness, less emotional support, and use of less active coping tactics at the beginning of the year predicted poorer outcomes at the end of the year. Strain from academic pressures, lack of personal time, and social isolation were correlated with poorer outcomes.