Standards of Scientific Conduct: Are There Any?

The practice of research is full of ethical challenges, many of which might be addressed through the teaching of responsible conduct of research (RCR). Although such training is increasingly required, there is no clear consensus about either the goals or content of an RCR curriculum. The present study was designed to assess community standards in three domains of research practice: authorship, collaboration, and data management. A survey, developed through advice from content matter experts, focus groups, and interviews, was distributed in November 2010 to U.S. faculty from 50 graduate programs for each of four different disciplines: microbiology, neuroscience, nursing, and psychology. The survey addressed practices and perceived standards, as well as perceptions about teaching and learning. Over 1,300 responses (response rate of 21 %) yielded statistically significant differences in responses to nearly all questions. However the magnitude of these differences was typically small, leaving little reason to argue for community consensus on standards. For nearly all questions asked, the clear finding was that there was nothing approaching consensus. These results may be useful not so much to teach what the standards are, but to increase student awareness of the diversity of those standards in reported practice.     

Facial gender confirmation surgery—review of the literature and recommendations for Version 8 of the WPATH Standards of Care

Facial gender confirmation surgery (FGCS), also popularly known and referred to in the scientific literature as facial feminization surgery (FFS), was previously treated as a collection of aesthetic procedures complementing other aspects of gender-confirming surgery. Recent literature on quality-of-life outcomes following FGCS has supported the substantial impact these procedures have on overall well-being and reduction of psychosocial sequelae in patients. The World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care, Version 7 (WPATH SOC 7), did not deem FGCS a medical necessity. Based on these new studies, increasing evidence points to the need to include FGCS among medically necessary gender-confirming surgeries, though more-prospective studies are needed. Updates to the WPATH SOC 8 are proposed based on available quality of life studies.     

Both Gender and Cohort Affect Perceptions of Forenames,but Are 25-Year-Old Standards Still Valid?

Forenames signify considerable information, not only about a person’s gender, but also about that person’s age, social class, and ethnicity, as well as characteristics such as attractiveness and intellectual competence. Kasof (1993) found that research (almost all done in the U.S.) often used gender-typed forenames to identify individuals’ sex or gender in studies of potential gender bias. However, because these forenames signified other traits unrelated to gender, results were confounded in ways often favoring male stimulus persons. To remedy this situation, Kasof identified pairs of female and male forenames that were matched on key variables such as perceived age, attractiveness, and intellectual competence. We found that since 1995, approximately one-third of researchers who manipulated the sex or gender of hypothetical women and men used Kasof’s matched female and male forenames to control for extraneous variables. However, our research with college students revealed that Kasof’s matched forename pairs are now outdated. College students rated Kasof’s forenames (which are characteristic of popular forenames of their parents’ cohort) as less attractive than their own cohort’s popular forenames. Consistent with Kasof’s results, however, popular male forenames continued to be rated as connoting greater intellectual competence than popular female forenames. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

“Level of Aspiration”: Preference for Time Versus Response Feedback and History Effects on the Setting of Personal Performance Standards

Human subjects responded on a computer keyboard and accumulated points according to fixed-ratio (FR) reinforcement schedules. In Experiment 1, subjects responded under a FR 500 schedule. Under baseline conditions satisfying the schedule requirement resulted in counter points and session termination. Subsequently, subjects could (a) choose to have a clock appear on the screen during the interreinforcement interval (IRI) as well as to enter a target time which they would attempt to better during that session, (b) choose to enter a target time or respond under baseline conditions, and (c) enter a target time and choose between having a clock appear throughout or at the end of experimental sessions. In Experiment 2, subjects responded under a FR 500 schedule, entered a target time each session, and could respond during the session to briefly produce either (a) clock feedback, or (b) the number of responses emitted by the subject. In Experiment 3, subjects responded under FR 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 schedule parameters, entered target times and responded for either clock or response feedback. Subjects (a) preferred responding under conditions in which target times were entered to responding under baseline conditions, (b) preferred to have the clock illuminated throughout rather than at the end of experimental sessions, (c) preferred response to clock feedback under all schedule parameters, (d) responded to having equaled or bettered a target time by lowering target time for the subsequent session, and (e) responded to having missed a target time by maintaining the same time during the subsequent session. The results were interpreted within the context of behavior analytic as opposed to more traditional personality theory.

     

Will the Real Superhero Stand Up? A Critical Review of the National Standards for Headteachers in England

The National Standards for Headteachers (DfEE, 2000) provides the first authoritative statement about the role of the headteacher in English schools. It represents an important element in the drive to improve school leadership by formalizing expectations and improving the criteria for training programmes. The skills needed by headteachers are clearly identified but the expectations of one individual are unrealistic. The personal qualities required in school leadership, such as the discernment to apply knowledge and understanding, are neglected. The Standards need to be based on reasonable expectations of an individual professional or, even better, a school's whole management team. They also need revision to address the personal attributes expected of headteachers.     

Client Versus Clinicians’ Standards of Clinically Meaningful Change and the Effects of Treatment Expectations on Therapeutic Outcomes in Individuals With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

There is limited research on the concordance between client perceptions and clinician standards of the degree of symptom change required to achieve meaningful therapeutic improvement. This was investigated in an adult sample (N = 147) who received trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapies for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We examined whether clients’ benchmarks of change were related to actual outcomes and the relationship between client expectations and their treatment outcomes. Clients completed measures indexing the level of symptom reduction required (in their view) to reflect a benefit or recovery from treatment and treatment expectations. Actual PTSD severity was indexed pre- and posttreatment via self-report and clinician-administered interview. Results demonstrated that the amount of change clients said they required to experience a benefit or recovery was significantly larger than typical clinical research standards. Nonetheless, the majority of client benchmarks of change (79.7–81.8%) were consistent with clinical research standards of what constitutes benefit or recovery. Client benchmarks were generally positively correlated with their actual outcomes. Clients’ belief that treatment would be successful was associated with greater reductions in PTSD symptoms. These findings provide preliminary evidence that the standards used to determine clinically significant change are somewhat consistent with clients’ own perceptions of required symptom change.     

Religious or Minority? Examining the Realisation of International Standards in Relation to Religious Minorities in the Middle East

Abstract

The Middle East region has had a long, and periodically impressive, record of religious diversity, yet there is much concern regarding the contemporary standing of its religious minorities. Rather than assessing the chequered historical record of religious minorities in the Middle East, the purpose of this article is to provide an assessment of how international human rights standards may best be utilised to advance their rights. The contention of this article is that the human rights of religious minorities in the Middle East have primarily been considered under the lens of freedom of religion or belief. Relevant though this framework is to their concerns, it will be suggested that promoting the rights of the Middle East's religious minorities through the framework of minority rights may provide a more promising avenue for their protection. The purpose of the article is therefore to provide a reassessment of how best to negotiate the rights of religious minorities in the Middle East. The focus will be on formal legal and political obstacles to the enjoyment of their rights entitlements. Though a broader contextual analysis also assessing economic, cultural and sociological factors would be highly informative, it lies beyond the scope of this article. Despite the fact that minority rights provisions apply to members of minorities alongside all other human rights – among them freedom of religion or belief – the two lenses of minority rights and freedom of religion or belief highlight somewhat different provisions and protections. The two are certainly not mutually exclusive or in contradiction with one another, but a state that prioritises one set of legal and policy options over the other will arrive in different places.     

1994 CACREP Standards: Will We Make the Grade?

This article presents a review of literature related to the process of accreditation by the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, or CACREP, and identifies several areas of concern common to counseling programs seeking accreditation. A departmental case is then presented that describes how one program at a mid-size university addressed these concerns and completed a self-study.     

How Low Will Men with High Self-Esteem Go? Self-Esteem as a Moderator of Gender Differences in Minimum Relationship Standards

Men tend to establish minimum standards that are similar to those of women for high investment relationships (e.g., marriage) but set lower standards for relationships requiring less investment (e.g., a one-night stand). The purpose of the present study was to examine whether self-esteem moderates these gender differences in minimum standards for romantic relationships. This was accomplished by conducting a cross-sectional study with undergraduate participants (57 men and 124 women) from the southern region of the United States. Participants completed a self-esteem measure and reported their minimum standards for partners across various levels of relational involvement. As predicted, high self-esteem was associated with higher standards for low investment relationships among women but lower standards among men.     

Human Rights – Internationally Established Standards as Challenged by Constitutional Policies

Studies in East European Thought -     

Is One’s Own Ethnic Prejudice Always Subtle? The Inconsistency of Prejudice Endorsement and Prejudice Awareness Depends on Self-Related Egalitarian Standards and Motivations

Abstract

In light of current egalitarian norms, it seems intuitive to assume that people endorsing ethnically prejudicial beliefs are largely unaware of their xenophobic content. However, a cognitive consistency perspective would suggest that individuals with low anti-prejudice standards might care less if their opinions are prejudiced. Corroborating this idea, Study 1 (N?=?919) reveals that intra-individually the endorsement of prejudicial beliefs was negatively related to their evaluation as xenophobic (prejudice awareness), but more so among individuals with strong self-related egalitarian standards. Study 2 (N?=?1,201) replicates these findings and shows that egalitarian standards salience led to a stronger negative association between prejudice endorsement and awareness. This suggests that low-egalitarians are less suitable targets for awareness-raising components of anti-prejudice interventions.     

‘Il faut éviter le scandale’: Debating Community Standards in Reformation Geneva

Historical scholarship on consistories has overlooked the context of the theological and polemical debates regarding scandal in the sixteenth century, leaving us without a full understanding of the negotiations and debates in which Genevan inhabitants and consistory members engaged regarding the articulation of moral values and the supervision of their community. To address this lacuna, this article considers the failure of scholars to apply a useful, multivalent definition of scandal to practical questions of Reformed discipline. It then sets a deeper local context for Genevan connotations of scandal by examining examples from the Genevan city council, ducal, and other records before 1536 (the establishment of the Reformation there). Finally, it analyzes appearances of the word scandale in the consistory records of the 1540s and 1550s that reveal the variety of meanings of scandal and the ways in which laypeople used the word to negotiate the proper shape and limits of the Christian community of Geneva.     

Emotions–Adaptive Standards And/Or Primitive Constructs: A Reply to Mascolo and Mancuso

Abstract

In replying to Mascolo & Mancuso's paper, I have contrasted their functionalist approach to emotional states and experience with my position on emotions as epigenetically-available primitive constructs. Biologically, Mascolo & Mancuso treat emotions as mobilizaiton in the face of discrepancies. My proposal of a four-dimensional model provides a biological grounding for the marvellous diverisyt of human emotional experience. Where Mascolo & Mancuso treat emotions as discrete entities and highlight emotion knowledge, J have suggested emotions operate as bipolar constructs, and I have highlighted experience. We should attend to emotions in terms of both knowledge and experience, but it is important to maintain the distinction     

Addiction‐Specific CACREP Standards in Clinical Mental Health Counseling Programs: How Are They Met?

In 2009, the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) included training standards specific to addiction for clinical mental health counseling programs. This study surveyed CACREP‐accredited program coordinators to determine how addiction‐specific standards were addressed.     

Severity of Types of Violations of Research Ethics: Perception of Iranian Master’s Students of Translation

Violations of research ethics including a varieties of plagiarism by students in Iran is a concern which has lately called promising levels of attention as rules are updated and better enforced and more awareness is being raised. As to deal with any problem, a full understanding of its nature is necessary, the current study focused on how a sample of Iranian students construe this phenomenon. To collect the necessary data, an original questionnaire with 34 closed-ended items included the most common instances of violations of research ethics was designed. The items included were mainly varieties of plagiarism identified in the literature. The items were narrowed down with reference to the qualitative data from focus group interviews with a purposive sample of Iranian graduate students. In the main phase of the study, using the questionnaire, quantitative data were obtained from the responses of 274 graduate students of translation studying in various Iranian universities. The findings revealed the participants did not have a fully accurate perception and appreciation of research ethics violation as they failed to distinguish ethically acceptable from unethical conducts. The contributing sample showed indifference to most ethical issues in scholarly publication. Translating a text and presenting it as one’s own in addition to text recycling were identified as the most severe instances perceived. The types, fraudulence, unacknowledged use, duplicate publication, misreferencing, excessive overuse were perceived the most severe to the least severe according to the sample. The typology and the findings on the severity of the types and instances were recommended to be used as an empirically supported guideline for curriculum design of academic writing courses in graduate programs in Iranian universities or similar contexts.     

A Review of “A Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion”

ABSTRACT

HOLMAN OLD TESTAMENT COMMENTARY: EXODUS, LEVITICUS, NUMBERS. Glen S. Martin. Nashville, TN: Broadman &; Holman Publishers, 2002, 387 pp., $19.99. Reviewed by Gregg Watson.

THE WESTMINSTER DICTIONARY OF NEW TESTAMENT AND EARLY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE AND RHETORIC. David E. Aune. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2003, xii, 595 pp., ISBN: 0-664-21917-9, $49.95. Reviewed by Iren L. Snavely, Jr.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION AND WAR, Routledge Encyclopedias of Religion and Society Series. Edited by Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez. New York &; London: Routledge, 2004, 512 pp., 33 b/w illustrations, ISBN: 0-415-94246-2, $125.00. Reviewed by Al Vara.

READING IS BELIEVING: THE CHRISTIAN FAITH THROUGH LITERATURE AND FILM. David S. Cunningham. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2002, 237 pp., $18.99. Reviewed by Robert F. Darden III.

UNDERSTANDING THE HADITH: THE SACRED TRADITIONS OF ISLAM. Ram Swarup. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2002, 258 pp., $22.00. Reviewed by Jeannie Colson.

AN INDEX TO ENGLISH PERIODICAL LITERATURE ON THE OLD TESTAMENT AND ANCIENT NEAR EASTERN STUDIES, Vol. VIII, ATLA Bibliography Series, 21. Compiled and edited by William G. Hupper. Lanham, MD and London: The American Theological Library Association, and The Scarecrow Press, 1999, 483 pp., $70.00. Reviewed by John Dickason.

BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF EVANGELICALS. Editor: Timothy Larsen; Consulting Editors: David Bebbington and Mark Noll. Leicester, England and Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003, 816 pp., $45.00. Reviewed by J. Michael Garrett.

LOGOS BIBLE SOFTWARE SERIES X-SCHOLAR'S LIBRARY (QB). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, 2004, $599.95, CDROM or DVD. Reviewed by Jason D. Baker.     

Theory of science in the light of Goethe's science of nature∗

J. W. Goethe is well known as one of the world's greatest poets. Some are also aware that throughout his long and active life Goethe devoted much of his time to natural science. His theory of colour and studies in the morphology of plants are acknowledged contributions in their fields. What is much less known is that in his scientific work Goethe was attempting to elaborate and justify a new basic methodology for the natural sciences. He opposed and wished to refute the one‐sided quantitative‐mechanistic method which had been dominant since Galileo and Newton (and in principle still prevails today) and to set up against it a qualitative method. An essential characteristic of this qualitative method, according to Goethe, is that it is immune to a Humean reduction of the status of ‘natural laws’ to mere hypotheses. This claim makes Goethe's view directly relevant for current discussion of such questions as the status of scientific ‘laws’ and the correct method of theory construction. The present essay tries to show the fruitfulness of Goethe's view for such discussions, partly by means of an exposition of the view — drawn from various works — and partly by drawing consequences from it which bring it into direct contact with contemporary discussions in philosophy of science.