Ethical Considerations in Family Therapy Research

In this article, significant ethical issues that arise in the conduct of family therapy research are considered and four major areas are emphasized: (a) the researcher's responsibility to protect the rights of research participants, (b) confidentiality and informed consent, (c) the researcher's values, and (d) methodology. In each area, parallels are drawn between the ethical issues facing family clinicians and those facing family researchers.     

Heidegger's Contrasting Notion of Worldview in the Early,Middle, and Later Writings

Heidegger sharply distinguishes philosophy from worldview. In this he was quite unlike Hegel, Dilthey, Nietzsche, and Jaspers, who more or less equated the two, but instead followed the lead of Husserl. Nevertheless, Heidegger did not accept Husserl's unqualified reduction of philosophy to science. Early on, 1919–1922, Heidegger's concern for facticity was tied to a thinking of worldview. Conversely, Heidegger's Being and Time (1933–34/2010a Heidegger, M. (2010a). Being and truth (G. Fried and R. Polt Trans.). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. (Original work published 1933–34) [Google Scholar]) considered worldview to be a fixed interpretation of the universe of beings, as opposed to philosophy as the study of Being, and suggested that fundamental ontology could demonstrate the condition of possibility for something like worldview. Later, Heidegger extended his historico-ontological critique of the Western philosophical tradition to include worldview. Worldview was now the notional equivalent of the modern subject's picturing or representing of beings as a whole to herself/himself, a fallout of the technological understanding of being. This article provides a historical précis of the notion of worldview in Heidegger's thinking and, at the same time, argues that philosophy cannot be absolutely separated from worldview in Heidegger's works.     

Effects of Worldview and Mortality Salience in Persuasion Processes

Individual differences in media effects research have yielded a trove of insights into how media content can have varying effects. One such variable is worldview—a philosophy of life that enables a person to make sense of one's experience—but the notion has largely been unexamined in media effects research. A person's worldview can moderate the way a persuasive message is processed—sometimes in the opposite direction of that intended by communicators. Building on the construct of worldview and terror management theory, two experiments (N = 149 and N = 151) examined the question with worldview as a measured variable and mortality salience as a two-level factor. Worldview had a main effect on global evaluations of ads, as participants who tended toward a relativist worldview had lower evaluations of the ads and lower behavioral intentions, while participants who tended toward a positivist worldview had higher evaluations of the ads and higher behavioral intentions. Also, mortality salience was found to moderate participants' worldview, presumably making their worldview more accessible to exert a greater influence. The importance of worldview as a construct in media effects research, as well as theoretical implications for persuasion and terror management theory, are discussed.     

Ethics and practices of re‐presentation: Witnessing self and other

Context: The challenge of producing ethical representational practices is of critical interest to both practitioner‐researchers and research theorists. For practitioners becoming researchers a central ethical question may be how to manage a relational presence in writing their research, in ways that acknowledge participants, the research relationship, and a researcher's own subjectivity. Focus: The article offers examples from practitioner research to illustrate and theorise how researcher subjectivity is managed through the use of witnessing practices as a representational strategy. Witnessing practices – translated into counselling research from narrative therapy – offer researchers a strategy to take up a reflexive, relational presence in research reports. Discussion: Researcher witnessing honours the contributions of research participants as well as making visible the shaping effects of the research on a researcher's life. Through witnessing self and other, and thus declaring presence, privilege and partiality, re‐presentational ethics are made transparent.     

Silent voices: Notes from a young Muslim woman on acculturation in the United States

This paper examines the gap between a researcher's positionality and theory building; seeing research through the lens of women of color in academia. Drawing on the autobiographical approach in feminist geography, I argue how a researcher's background and life events influence how we produce knowledge in the field by sharing my personal journey. Specifically, I share what it means to be a Middle Eastern Muslim academic conducting research on female immigrants' cultural adaptation process in the U.S. I urge readers to uncover the power of self-reflection, embodied subjectivity and emotions in expanding geographic research and conclude how the future research will benefit from the motives behind each study, as well as giving a reflexive researcher a platform to be heard.     

INTEGRAL MEDICINE AND HEALTH

Integral Science provides the empirical rigor needed to shift medicine's worldview. The shift in science will give rise to Integral Medicine, which will emerge from the integration and transformational change of biomedicine, psychosocial approaches, Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and other reform movements. The root metaphor of Integral Medicine is a healthy and sustainable ecosystem. At its heart are mind–body holism and collaborative learning. Healing and the creation of health will emphasize educational, self-care, and community support models. Implications are discussed for practice, research, and education.     

The Interplay Between Social Cynicism Beliefs and Person–Organization Fit on Work‐Related Attitudes Among Chinese Employees

In recent decades, person–organization (P–O) fit has been established as an important predictor of work‐related attitudes (e.g., Hoffman & Woehr, 2006 ; Kristof‐Brown, Zimmerman, & Johnson, 2005 ). However, research has revealed the existence of boundary conditions for effects of P–O fit (e.g., employees' personality, perceptions of other aspects of their jobs; Resick, Baltes, & Shantz, 2007 ). We argue that people's worldview may also moderate this process, adding predictive power above and beyond the established moderation effects of personality and other aspects of fit in the organization. To examine this possibility, we conducted a survey among Chinese employees from various organizations to examine the interaction between their social beliefs and P–O fit on their level of job satisfaction.     

BOOK REVIEW

In this brief note, we respond to Gottlieb and Lasser's (2001/this issue) critical commentary on our work on narrative research ethics. We argue that their concern for privileging voices needs to be balanced against the risk of exploiting some research participants, that conflicts of interest are best resolved through appropriately prioritizing ethical principles and in consultation with others, and that the researcher's ability to protect participants from harm can be enhanced through appropriate clinical training and access to clinical expertise. We welcome Gottlieb and Lasser's specific recommendations for ethical practice in narrative research and encourage further ethical reflection by other researchers in this area.     

Disdain for anxious individuals as a function of mortality salience

Terror management theory research has shown that reminders of mortality tend to decrease liking for people who threaten one's worldview. In research, these worldview threats typically come from outgroup members, but they may also come from ingroup members who are negatively characterized. Presumably the negative characteristics of ingroup members threaten to diminish or undermine the worldview by their association with it. In this research we examine anxious individuals as potentially threatening ingroup members. We hypothesized that a brief contemplation of mortality would lead people to decrease their liking for anxious individuals associated with their ingroup. Study 1 showed that a mortality reminder led people to react more negatively to an anxious police liaison from their community, but not to a calm police liaison. Study 2 showed that a mortality reminder led people who strongly identified with university students to react more negatively to a fellow university student who was anxious, but not to a student who did not display anxiety. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the meaningfulness of existence: When life salience boosts adherence to worldviews

We investigated when and how life salience boosts adherence to worldviews. It was hypothesized that, similar to thoughts of mortality, thoughts about a meaningful existence increase adherence to worldviews. Study 1a, 1b, and 1c yielded support for the symmetric effects of life and mortality salience on existential thoughts and worldview adherence. Furthermore, study 2 showed that contemplating life's meaningfulness (versus meaninglessness) increased adherence to worldviews. Study 3 showed increased worldview adherence when contemplating life's meaningfulness (versus meaninglessness), and provided additional evidence that the effect on worldview adherence was mediated by the appraisals of life's meaningfulness. Finally, study 4 suggests that both reflecting on life and mortality leads to more worldview adherence under conditions of meaningful life appraisals. The findings are discussed with respect to research in existential psychology. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Is consent for research genuinely informed? Using decision aid tools to obtain informed consent in the global south

Gaining informed consent among marginalized groups that include decisionally incapacitated individuals and those outside of the researcher's own geo-social and ethnic background still challenges many researchers. We suggest that there is a need for consideration of a different approach to research ethics in international settings. Based on extensive field work in West Africa on medical knowledge transfers and patient–healer relationships, this paper will discuss the challenges posed in obtaining informed individual consent in international settings. It is argued that while being on the whole convincing, the top-down approach of the proposed solutions, which clearly dominates the participative approach, fails in building sustainable capacity, decision-making competency, and empowerment in the communities in which the research is conducted. Using appropriate decision aids can help resolve these issues.     

Religiosity and posttraumatic growth: a note concerning the problems of confounding in their measurement and the inclusion of religiosity within the definition of posttraumatic growth

The aim of this comment is to: (1) draw researcher's attention to the problem of confounding in studies assessing both religiosity and posttraumatic growth; and (2) call for research to separately investigate spirituality in the aftermath of trauma rather than as part of the posttraumatic growth construct.     

Ervin Laszlo's Akashic Field and The Dilemmas of Modern Consciousness Research

Ervin Laszlo's revolutionary concept of the Akashic Field and his connectivity hypothesis offer elegant solutions for the baffling paradoxes associated with “anomalous phenomena”—otherwise unexplainable observations which many scientific disciplines encountered in the course of the 20th century. This article explores the ground-breaking contributions that Laszlo's work has made to psychology by providing a plausible conceptual framework for a large number of observations and experiences amassed by modern consciousness research, which challenge the most fundamental assumptions of the traditional scientific worldview.     

Root Metaphors and Parables: A Comment on Van Hesteren and lvey

This article, which comments on Van Hesteren and Ivey's (1990) article in volume 68 of this journal, asserts that counseling's identity as a profession is rooted in educational-developmental-preventive activities derived from distinctive worldviews shared with psychology and other disciplines. A parable for students is offered to illustrate worldview manifestations and their relevance for professional identity.     

LANGUAGE AND HUMAN NATURE:KURT GOLDSTEIN'S NEUROLINGUISTIC FOUNDATION OF A HOLISTIC PHILOSOPHY

Holism in interwar Germany provides an excellent example for social and political influences on scientific developments. Deeply impressed by the ubiquitous invocation of a cultural crisis, biologists, physicians, and psychologists presented holistic accounts as an alternative to the “mechanistic worldview” of the nineteenth century. Although the ideological background of these accounts is often blatantly obvious, many holistic scientists did not content themselves with a general opposition to a mechanistic worldview but aimed at a rational foundation of their holistic projects. This article will discuss the work of Kurt Goldstein, who is known for both his groundbreaking contributions to neuropsychology and his holistic philosophy of human nature. By focusing on Goldstein's neurolinguistic research, I want to reconstruct the empirical foundations of his holistic program without ignoring its cultural background. In this sense, Goldstein's work provides a case study for the formation of a scientific theory through the complex interplay between specific empirical evidences and the general cultural developments of the Weimar Republic.     

The Pluralistic Vision of Persian Sufi Poetry

This article explains how the Sufi tradition was instrumental in molding the imagery, symbolism, metaphors, tropes, and indeed the worldview, that informs all but the earliest Persian poetry. This poetry expresses the precedence of mercy in a pluralistic vision by pointing to an expression of love, and it does this by the magic of beautiful language, enticing imagery and intoxicating rhythm. Therefore, in this tradition, love alone is able to bring together all contradictory and varied qualities and to reinstate them in God's unity, which is the first principle of Islamic faith. What is being celebrated is God's unitary reality. The article then recognizes that love is understood as the unifying divine power that is the unique prerogative of human beings, who alone were created in the full image of God.     

Telling what they want to know: participants tailor causal attributions to researchers' interests

Based on a conversational analysis of experimental procedures and consistent with the principle of relevance, we predicted that participants' verbal responses will be influenced by their tacit inferences about the researcher's epistemic goals, derived from their knowledge of the researcher's academic affiliation. We tested this prediction in a core area of social‐personality and cultural psychology, causal attribution. University students provided causal attributions about mass murder cases, while the questionnaire identified the researcher either as a social scientist or a personality psychologist. The results indicated that attributions were overall more situational than dispositional, and as predicted, this main effect was qualified by an interaction between conversational cue and type of attribution. Thus, participants gave relatively more situational explanations when the letterhead of the questionnaire identified the researcher as a social scientist compared to when the researcher was identified as a personality psychologist. The reverse pattern emerged for dispositional attributions. Methodological and conceptual implications are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Religion for an Age of Science

The period 800–200 B.C.E. has been called an axial period or age because it was a period of major technological and cultural change that led to the development of new worldviews, which in turn called for and led to the emergence of the current major world religious traditions. The world is now in the midst of another period of major global scientific, technological, and cultural change that is leading to the development of a new global worldview. In this worldview, the cosmos is taken to be more like an activity than a thing—more like an emergent complex of interrelated and interactive doing in space–time than a created complex of beings in space and time–and its complexity and space—time scale are understood to be enormously greater than heretofore supposed.
These changes in worldview call for changes in theology, religion, and ethics. Most workers in the field of science and religion are heeding this call by attempting to reconcile traditional religious concepts with the new scientific concepts. Others, however, have become convinced that the new worldview differs so radically from the previous ones as to mark a new axial age, which calls for a new, post-traditional theology, religion, and ethics, with a theos that is more like an activator of doing than a ground of being, and with meaning and purpose achieved more by a quality of doing than a quantity or quality of being.