Ethical Problems Inherent in Psychological Research based on Internet Communication as Stored Information

This paper deals with certain ethical problems inherent in psychological research based on internet communication as stored information. Section 1 contains an analysis of research on Internet debates. In particular, it takes into account a famous example of deception for psychology research purposes. In section 2, the focus is on research on personal data in texts published on the Internet. Section 3 includes an attempt to formulate some ethical principles and guidelines, which should be regarded as fundamental in research on stored information.     

Ethical Decision Making and Research Deception in the Behavioral Sciences: An Application of Social Contract Theory

Despite significant ethical advances in recent years, including professional developments in ethical review and codification, research deception continues to be a pervasive practice and contentious focus of debate in the behavioral sciences. Given the disciplines' generally stated ethical standards regarding the use of deceptive procedures, researchers have little practical guidance as to their ethical acceptability in specific research contexts. We use social contract theory to identify the conditions under which deception may or may not be morally permissible and formulate practical recommendations to guide researchers on the ethical employment of deception in behavioral science research.     

Epistemology: Classic Problems and Contemporary Responses

Book Information Epistemology: Classic Problems and Contemporary Responses. By Laurence BonJour. Rowman and Littlefield. Lanham MD. 2002. Pp. viii + 289. Hardback, US$75. Paperback, US$23.95.     

A Systems Approach to Ethical Problems

Codes of professional ethics and cases designed to teach ethical decision making are written for individual professionals and ignore the systems level of analysis. They typically employ a lineal view of causality and overvalue placement of blame as a component of ethical problem solving. This article takes a systems approach to ethical problems and identifies aspects of systems that promote or impede ethical decision making. Psychological abuse of children is used as an example of a problem requiring a coordinated, systemic response to ethical issues such as autonomy, privacy, and confidentiality.     

Behavioral Consequences of Fluctuating Group Success: An Internet Study of Soccer-Team Fans

Abstract

The authors tested the hypothesis that fans of a sports team avoid private contact with their team when it is unsuccessful (cutting off reflected failure, or CORF), whereas fans actively seek private contact with their team when it is successful (basking in reflected glory, or BIRG). During the 2nd half of the 1999–2000 soccer season, the authors registered the number of visitors who had surfed the Web sites of 16 Belgian and 18 Dutch 1st-division teams on the 1st working day following a championship game. The authors obtained 586 valid measurements, which were transformed into z scores for each team separately. In line with the hypothesis, there were significantly more visitors after the teams won (BIRG) than after they lost (CORF). The effects of game outcome were not mediated by pregame expectations or by the size of the wins or losses.     

An Ethical Exploration of Barriers to Research on Controlled Drugs

We examine the ethical, social, and regulatory barriers that may hinder research on therapeutic potential of certain controversial controlled substances like marijuana, heroin, or ketamine. Hazards for individuals and society and potential adverse effects on communities may be good reasons for limiting access and justify careful monitoring of these substances. Overly strict regulations, fear of legal consequences, stigma associated with abuse and populations using illicit drugs, and lack of funding may, however, limit research on their considerable therapeutic potential. We review the surprisingly sparse literature and address the particular ethical concerns pertinent to research with illicit and addictive substances, such as undue inducement, informed consent, therapeutic misconception, and risk to participants, researchers, and institutions. We consider the perspectives of key research stakeholders and explore whether they may be infected with bias. We conclude by proposing an empirical research agenda to provide an evidentiary basis for ethical reasoning.     

Ethical Behavioral Intention in an Academic Setting: Models and Predictors

This study examines the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the multidimensional ethics scale (MES). Variables from both are included to determine which ones significantly correlate with student ethical behavioral intention in an academic setting. Using a survey, responses are collected from undergraduate business students from two southwestern universities in the United States using a scenario-based approach, looking at individual situations and group situations. SmartPLS was used to assess the results for four scenarios. From the theory of planned behavior, attitude was a significant predictor of behavioral intention across all four scenarios while subjective norm was significant in one scenario. From the multidimensional ethics scale, moral equity and relativism were significant in one group scenario while moral equity and utilitarianism were each significant in an individual scenario. The findings indicate support for the use of the TPB and the MES when exploring ethics in an academic setting and for the need to study both individual and group situations. A discussion of the findings and implications is given.     

Perceptions of Ethical Problems with Scientific Journal Peer Review: An Exploratory Study

This article reports the results of an anonymous survey of researchers at a government research institution concerning their perceptions about ethical problems with journal peer review. Incompetent review was the most common ethical problem reported by the respondents, with 61.8% (SE = 3.3%) claiming to have experienced this at some point during peer review. Bias (50.5%, SE = 3.4%) was the next most common problem. About 22.7% (SE = 2.8%) of respondents said that a reviewer had required them to include unnecessary references to his/her publication(s), 17.7% (SE = 2.6%) said that comments from reviewers had included personal attacks, and 9.6% (SE = 2.0%) stated that reviewers had delayed publication to publish a paper on the same topic. Two of the most serious violations of peer review ethics, breach of confidentiality (6.8%, SE = 1.7%) and using ideas, data, or methods without permission (5%, SE = 1.5%) were perceived less often than the other problems. We recommend that other investigators follow up on our exploratory research with additional studies on the ethics of peer review.     

Ethical Leadership: An Integrative Review and Future Research Agenda

Over the past decade, ethical leadership has increasingly become one of the most popular topics in the areas of leadership and business ethics. As a result, there now exists a substantial body of empirical research addressing ethical leadership issues, but the findings reported by this body of research are highly fragmented. The topic has advanced to the stage where a review and synthesis of existing literature can provide great value and help move the scholarly conversation forward. The primary purposes of this article are to (a) review empirical findings from the ethical leadership literature utilizing a framework consisting of the antecedents, mediators, moderators and outcomes of ethical leadership, and (b) suggest a set of interesting research opportunities, thereby facilitating future investigation. We base our synthesis on a review of 62 empirical studies on ethical leadership that were published between 2005 and mid-2015.     

Ethical Problems in Clinical Pathology

ABSTRACT The much discussed ethical problems of clinicians, who have direct care of patients, are mainly within their responsibilities to the 'index'patient with whom they are immediately concerned. When pathologists are practising clinical pathology they are responsible for performing and interpreting tests on specimens from patients at the request of clinicians, and advising on these tests. Their ethical problems, as they do not have direct care of patients, mainly lie between their obligations to the requesting clinician, to the index patient under investigation in the laboratory, and also to other patients, and to their staff. These problems are largely ignored in the literature both of medical ethics and of pathology. The ethical principles of: (1) respect for autonomy; (2) non-maleficence; (3) beneficence; and (4) justice are discussed with particular reference to the work of clinical pathologists: possible applications of virtue ethics are also considered. Ethical problems that arise in the course of a pathologist's receiving, investigating, and reporting and advising on, a patient's specimen are examined on the basis of the above principles: an attempt is made to offer guidance on the problems.     

Ethical Design in the Internet of Things

Even though public awareness about privacy risks in the Internet is increasing, in the evolution of the Internet to the Internet of Things (IoT) these risks are likely to become more relevant due to the large amount of data collected and processed by the “Things”. The business drivers for exploring ways to monetize such data are one of the challenges identified in this paper for the protection of Privacy in the IoT. Beyond the protection of privacy, this paper highlights the need for new approaches, which grant a more active role to the users of the IoT and which address other potential issues such as the Digital Divide or safety risks. A key facet in ethical design is the transparency of the technology and services in how that technology handles data, as well as providing choice for the user. This paper presents a new approach for users’ interaction with the IoT, which is based on the concept of Ethical Design implemented through a policy-based framework. In the proposed framework, users are provided with wider controls over personal data or the IoT services by selecting specific sets of policies, which can be tailored according to users’ capabilities and to the contexts where they operate. The potential deployment of the framework in a typical IoT context is described with the identification of the main stakeholders and the processes that should be put in place.     

神经嵌合体研究的伦理学刍议

神经嵌合体研究具有潜在重要的科研与社会价值,也引起了诸多伦理关注。聚焦于将人类神经组织、细胞或基因在非人动物中表达所引发的伦理问题：通过比较国际干细胞研究学会新旧指南关于嵌合体的定义,指出不同胚起源、“基因上不同”起源的嵌合体界定存在的问题,以及这些界定对伦理讨论的启示;结合科研进展探讨了受试动物福祉、道德地位变化等问题,以试图厘清人们对这类研究的关键忧虑;并在科学必要性与规范合理性的视角下提出针对性的治理建议。

     

Behavioral approaches to weight control: An updated review

Recent developments in the behavioral treatment of obesity were surveyed. Since the earlier review (Abramson, 1973) no studies of aversive therapy have been published. Three studies of covert sensitization have yielded discouraging results. Any positive effects of this technique appear to be the result of non-specific demand characteristics rather than aversive conditioning. Several demonstrations of the effects of therapist controlled reinforcement indicate that this technique can promote weight loss while the contingencies are in effect. The weight is rapidly regained, however, after the contingencies are withdrawn. It is concluded that self-control treatments, especially complex self-control, are the most consistently successful treatment approaches. Several methodological problems are presented and unresolved issues are discussed.     

Behavioral economics: An overview

This article reviews the emerging literature in behavioral economics from the standpoint of discoveries of interest to business practitioners. Behavioral economics is a new branch of the discipline which has become prominent only within the last decade. In spite of its short life span, behavioral economics has already produced insights into consumer behavior, the behavior of labor, managerial behavior and business ethics. The major findings are covered in this article.     

辅助生殖技术中的伦理问题

随着医学科技的不断发展 ,人类对不孕不育症的治疗方法也逐渐走向尖端 ,从人工授精、配子移植、体外受精—胚胎移植技术 (一代、二代和三代技术 )直到如今在伦理道德上颇有争议的克隆技术 ,这些技术对不孕症患者来说无疑是个福音 ,但其中一些技术也派生出许多伦理道德上的问题 ,孰是孰非 ,难以判定。本文就辅助生殖技术中的一些伦理问题加以探讨。人工授精是指用器械将精液注入宫颈管内或宫腔内取代性交使女性妊娠的方法。根据精液的来源可分为三类 :(1 )丈夫精液人工授精 (ＡＩＨ) ,适用于男方患性功能障碍 ,女方宫颈异常、抗精子阳性等患…     

Ethical Problems in Living Will Legislation

Since 1976, several states have passed laws to give a legal form to the living will. The purpose of such laws is to remove liability from physicians who withdraw or withhold life-support procedures for terminally ill atients. Livin will legislation has revealed specific problems. h. IS essay ana f yzes one example of the le islation. It discusses the problems of competence, the confusion ofmedical means, liability, and the right to die. The essay also indicates how the Church can he1 resolve those problems and contribute to a responsible public policy.