The “Ethical” Professor and the Undergraduate Student: Current Perceptions of Moral Behavior among Business School Faculty

A survey of 830 faculty members at 89 AASCB-accredited business schools throughout the United States was conducted in Fall 2002 to develop a snapshot of perceptions of ethical and unethical conduct with regard to undergraduate business instruction across a wide range of business disciplines. These behaviors fell into such categories as course content, evaluation of students, educational environment, disrespectful behavior, research and publication issues, financial and material transactions, social relationships with students, and sexual relationships with students and other faculty. Of the 55 behaviors, two were almost universally perceived to be unethical. Eight behaviors were controversial in that there was wide variance on whether the behavior was perceived to be unethical. In addition, females' ethical perceptions differed significantly from males on three behaviors; older participants differed from younger participants on seven behaviors; participants at research-oriented institutions differed from participants at teaching-oriented institutions on one behavior; and tenured, untenured tenure-track, and untenured non-tenure-track participants differed on three behaviors. The findings of this study and the detailed comments of the respondents provide a starting point for discussing more systematic means to consider ethical issues within collegiate schools of business.     

Students’ Perceptions of School Climate During the Middle School Years: Associations with Trajectories of Psychological and Behavioral Adjustment

A cross-domain latent growth curve model was used to examine the trajectories of change in student perceptions of four critical dimensions of school climate (i.e., teacher support, peer support, student autonomy in the classroom, and clarity and consistency in school rules and regulations) among 1,451 early adolescents from the beginning of sixth through the end of eighth grade; and the effects of such trajectories on the rate of change in psychological and behavioral adjustment. Findings indicated that all of the dimensions of perceived school climate declined over the 3 years of middle school. Furthermore, declines in each of the dimensions of perceived school climate were associated with declines over time in psychological and behavioral adjustment. Moreover, the direction of effects between each dimension of perceived school climate and psychological or behavioral adjustment were often unidirectional rather than bi-directional, underscoring the role of perceived school climate in the psychological and behavioral health of early adolescents. Gender and socioeconomic class differences in these patterns are noted.     

Maternal Perceptions of Competence and Children’s Academic Adjustment: Longitudinal Relations across Early Elementary School

Children’s perceptions of their academic ability play an important role in their academic adjustment, but relatively little research has examined the factors affecting academic self perceptions of young children, especially the role of parents. Seventy-seven children and their mothers were followed longitudinally from kindergarten to fourth grade to assess the association between mothers’ early perceptions of children’s academic abilities in reading and math and children’s later academic adjustment. Mothers’ perceptions of children’s reading ability in kindergarten were associated with children’s later self-perceptions of academic competence and later achievement, above and beyond kindergarten achievement. However, mothers’ perceptions of math ability in kindergarten were not significantly associated with later outcomes. In reading, mothers’ perceptions of children’s natural talent were positively associated with later self-perceptions and mothers’ perceptions of children’s difficulty in school were negatively associated with later self-perceptions. Additionally, mothers’ perceptions of children’s reading competence were positively associated with later reading achievement. This was the youngest sample in which these relations have been examined to date. Longer-term implications for early parental perceptions are discussed.     

Catharsis: A Means of Reducing Elementary School Students' Aggressive Behaviors?

Cathartic procedures, which are based on the hypothesis that acts of aggression will reduce the incidence of further agression, were questioned as to their effectiveness in dealing with elementary school children's aggressive behaviors. Research findings suggest that such techniques may tend to increase rather than decrease student aggressiveness. It was therefore concluded that a re-evaluation of the catharsis theory and the procedures or practices resulting from it is needed in our elementary schools. Several alternative procedures for reducing the occurrence of aggressive behaviors were presented for the reader to consider and evaluate in light of such recent findings.     

Explanation and Understanding: Action as “Historical Structure”

The first part of this essay is basically historical. It introduces the explanation–understanding divide, focusing in particular on the general–unique distinction. The second part is more philosophical and it presents two different claims on action. In the first place, I will try to say what it means to understand an action. Secondly, we will focus on the explanation of action as it is seen in some explanatory sciences. I will try to argue that in some cases these sciences commit what I call an “external contradiction”.

Children’s Elementary School Social Experience and Executive Functions Development: Introduction to a Special Section

Children’s executive functions, encompassing inhibitory control, working memory and attention are vital for their self-regulation. With the transition to formal schooling, children need to learn to manage their emotions and behavior in a new and complex social environment that with age increases in the intensity of social interactions with peers and teachers. Stronger executive functions skills facilitate children’s social development. In addition, new experiences in the social environments of school also may influence executive function development. The focus of this special section is on this potential impact of elementary school social experiences with peers and teacher on the development of children’s executive functions. The collection of papers encompass various aspects of peer and teacher social environments, and cover broad as well as specific facets and measures of executive functions including neural responses. The collection of papers sample developmental periods that span preschool through mid-adolescence. In this introduction, we summarize and highlight the main findings of each of the papers, organized around social interactions with peers and interactions with teachers. We conclude our synopsis with implications for future research, and a specific focus on prevention and intervention.     

Latinx Parents’ Perception of Discrimination and Ethnic/Racial Socialization Predict Their Elementary School Children’s Perceptions of Discrimination

Journal of Child and Family Studies - The present study examined whether Latinx parents’ perceptions of personal discrimination and perception of biases against Latinx people in the United...     

Researchers’ Perceptions of a Responsible Research Climate: A Multi Focus Group Study

Science and Engineering Ethics - The research climate plays a key role in fostering integrity in research. However, little is known about what constitutes a responsible research climate. We...     

A Review of “The Relational Origins of Prejudice: A Convergence of Psychoanalytic and Social Cognitive Perspectives”

Abstract

Key concepts in social welfare and clinical social work - concepts such as person-in-environment, women's rights, prevention and outreach-had as precedents the pioneering theory and practice of Europe's free psychoanalytic clinics of the 1920s. Sex-Pol, a Viennese community-based clinical network created in 1927 by Wilhelm Reich, perhaps the most overtly political of the first psychoanalysts, was motivated by reformist social goals he shared with Sigmund Freud. This historical study of Sex-Pol draws on Reich's own words to explore his use of the term “social work” where clinical work is predicated on an activist ideology of human liberation.     

Social and Ideological roots of “science and religion”: A social-historical exploration of a Recent phenomenon

Abstract

Since the 1960s, there is a growing interest in interactions between religion and science. This article is an exploration of the roots of the contemporary field of “Science and Religion” (S&;R), by investigating some social and historical connections between the emergence of S&;R and modernizing trends in Western society. This article deals with three questions: (1) Is the emergence of the field of S&;R the response to a conflict between religion and science? (2) Is S&;R related to the process of modernization in Western society? (3) Whence the specific American interest in S&;R?     

A Categorical Analysis of Children’s Attributions for Social Success and Failure

The Psychological Record - The social attributions of Grades 4 and 5 children were assessed within an open-ended interview format. Children were classified according to the number of peer...     

A review of: “Agency,Health and Social Survival: The Ecopolitics of Rival Psychologies”

Caroline New (1996) Agency, Health and Social Survival: the Ecopolitics of Rival Psychologies, London: Taylor & Francis, 190 pp., $12.95     

Culture and Social Obligation: When “Shoulds” Are Perceived as “Wants”

This study explored motivational differences in the perception of social obligations by respondents from individualist versus collectivist cultures. Participants were 120 undergraduate students (60 Latinos and 60 Anglos) who completed a lengthy questionnaire assessing the extent to which they felt obligated to help and wanted to help across a variety of social situations. Although individuals from the two cultures reported a strong sense of obligation with regard to close friends and family members, Latinos expressed a greater desire (i.e., greater perceived “want”) to engage in these “should” behaviors. Furthermore, compared to Anglos, Latinos felt a stronger sense of both shoulds and wants in their motivations to help more distant family and friends. The two groups did not differ in their motivations to help distant acquaintances and strangers. Although wants were associated with life satisfaction for both groups, shoulds were positively associated with life satisfaction for Latinos but not Anglos. Overall, compared to the Anglo students, Latino students perceived helping others as both more obligatory and more personally desirable, suggesting a more congruent view of personal autonomy and societal control in collectivist cultures than in individualist cultures.     

Birth Order and Civil Disobedience: A Test of Sulloway's “Born to Rebel” Hypothesis

Abstract

In Born to Rebel, F. Sulloway (1996) argued that, throughout history, laterborns have been more likely than first-borns to challenge the status quo. The authors tested Sulloway's hypothesis among a group of U.S. college students who had participated in civil disobedience as part of a labor dispute. The authors predicted that there would be a higher percentage of later-borns among those who had been arrested than among a group of their friends who had not participated in civil disobedience or among a control group of students drawn from classes at the college. The findings, in fact, revealed a significant relationship between the number of times the students had been arrested and birth order.     

A Review of: “Bear,G. G. (2010). School Discipline and Self-Discipline: A Practical Guide to Promoting Prosocial Student Behavior.”

Previous research demonstrates that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can experience social difficulties. Therefore, the current study examined the effects of cross-age peer coaching on social behaviors of first graders with significant symptoms of ADHD using a multiple baseline design. Four students who met criteria for ADHD participated, along with four third- or fourth-grade coaches without ADHD. Coaching pairs met each morning to establish a goal for the younger child to meet during free time. Although results were variable, findings suggested that the cross-age coaching program led to decreases in negative social behavior, and was highly acceptable to participants.     

“Coming Out” to Parents in a Christian Context: A Consensual Qualitative Analysis of LGB Student Experiences

Disclosures of same-sex attraction are some of the most difficult experiences for lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. For LGB individuals of faith, disclosure to parents is often complicated by the intersection of religion/spirituality and sexuality. This study presents a grounded theory about a particular subgroup to address gaps in the literature concerning how LGB students on Christian college campuses describe and experience their parental disclosures. Consensual qualitative research analysis (Hill, Knox, Thompson, Williams, & Hess, 2005; Hill, Thompson, & Williams, 1997) revealed themes related to predisclosure influencing factors, the disclosure event experience, and longer term impacts of the disclosure. Implications for parents, counselors, and college faculty/staff are provided.