My profile: The ethics of virtual ethnography

This paper advances some specific recommendations for an approach to studying the spaces of online culture that draw on aspects of cultural (anthropological) ethnography. It aims to offer some provocations for researchers setting out to engage sympathetically with online culture, to account for the particular kinds of intimacy these spaces enable. Each online scene or space, whether declared to be a community or not, is organised both by its specific form and by an order of appropriate identity practices associated with that form. At the same time, across these different cultures, modes of belonging mediate these practices which are recognisable across many online communities and formats. While the forms of intimacy developed online are far from consistent, this paper considers how best to engage with the consistencies and variations of online intimacy.     

Mirror vision: perceived size and perceived distance of virtual images

We investigated spatial perception of virtual images that were produced by convex and plane mirrors. In Experiment 1, 36 subjects reproduced both the perceived size and the perceived distance of virtual images for five targets that had been placed at a real distance of 10 or 20 m. In Experiment 2, 30 subjects verbally judged both the perceived size and the perceived distance of virtual images for five targets that were placed at each of five real distances of 2.5-45 m. In both experiments, the subjects received objective-size and objective-distance instructions. The results were that (1) size constancy was attained for a distance of up to 45 m, (2) distance was readily discriminated within this distance range, although virtual images produced by the mirror of strong curvature were judged to be farther away than those produced by the mirrors of less curvature, and (3) the ratio of perceived size to perceived distance was described as a power function of visual angle, and the ratio for the convex mirror was larger than that for the plane mirror. We compared the taking-into-account model and the direct perception model on the basis of a correlation analysis for proximal, virtual, and real levels of the stimuli. The taking-into-account model, which assumes that visual angle is transformed into perceived size by taking perceived distance into account, was supported by an analysis for the proximal level of stimuli. The direct perception model, which assumes that there is no inferential process between perceived size and perceived distance, was partially supported by an analysis for the distal level of the stimuli.     

The ethics of my counterpart: public service ethics in Chinese philosophy

China is rising. As China ascends in power, it is likely that ‘Western’ administrators – American and European, in particular – will find that they must interact with Chinese administrators more and more. In this article, I offer readers a brief glimpse into Chinese administrative ethics through an investigation of two forms of Chinese philosophy – Confucianism and Taoism. In addition to reviewing these philosophies, I derive some consequences for a public service ethic that lies between the East and the West. In particular, this article includes some recommendations for the managerial implications of these two philosophies in the context of increased political and administrative connections between the West and China.     

When reviews attack: ethics, free speech, and the peer review process.

The peer review process, whether formally applied in publication and grant review, or informally, such as exchange of ideas in scientific and professional newsgroups, has sparked controversy. Writers in this area agree that scholarly reviews that are inappropriate in tone are not uncommon. Indeed, commentators have suggested rules and guidelines that can be used to improve the review process and to make reviewers more accountable. In this paper, we examine the relevance and impact of ethical codes on the conduct of peer review. It is our contention that the peer review process can be improved, not by a new set of rules but through closer attention to the ethical principles to which we, as psychologists, already subscribe.     

Haptic interfaces for virtual environments: perceived instability and force constancy in haptic sensing of virtual surfaces.

Haptic interfaces are becoming more commonplace in virtual environment and teleoperation systems. There is a growing need to not only continue to improve hardware platforms and rendering algorithms, but evaluate human performance with haptic interfaces. This review summarizes two recent studies inspired by perception problems in using haptic interfaces to interact with virtual environments. The first study evaluated perceived quality of virtual haptic textures and discovered several types of perceived instability and their sources. We found that the buzzing type of perceived instability was most likely due to the mechanical resonance of the haptic interface hardware, and the aliveness type of perceived instability due to our inability to sense the slight movements of our hands in free space. The second study focused on the motor strategy employed during interaction with a virtual surface via a force-feedback haptic interface. We found that users tended to maintain a constant penetration force into a virtual surface when interacting with the surface. This can result in a reversal in perceived relative surface heights if the taller surface is rendered with a lower stiffness, thereby resulting in an erroneous perception of the virtual environment being rendered. For both studies, possible solutions to improving human perception of virtual and remote objects via hardware and/or software are discussed.     

Manager personality, manager service quality orientation, and service climate: test of a model

This article conceptually and empirically explores the relationships among manager personality, manager service quality orientation, and climate for customer service. Data were collected from 1,486 employees and 145 managers in grocery store departments (N = 145) to test the authors' theoretical model. Largely consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that core self-evaluations were positively related to managers' service quality orientation, even after dimensions of the Big Five model of personality were controlled, and that service quality orientation fully mediated the relationship between personality and global service climate. Implications for personality and organizational climate research are discussed.     

The current state of sexual ethics training in clinical psychology: issues of quantity, quality, and effectiveness

Given the harm caused to clients and the psychology profession by therapist sexual misconduct, sexual ethics training should be given high priority in graduate training programs. The present study surveyed sexual ethics training and student understanding of sexual ethics in clinical psychology doctoral programs from the perspectives of training directors (n=84) and students (n=451). Ninety-four percent of the students had received sexual ethics training; programs provided an average of 6 hr of training. Still, students showed significant deficits in knowledge of sexual ethics principles. Students who had discussed a client attraction with a supervisor showed the best understanding of sexual ethics. Suggestions for ensuring adequate sexual ethics training are discussed.     

Cultivating ethics consultation: commentary on "The development of a clinical ethics consultation service in a community hospital

Conclusion: Simpson's article [in this issue, p. 124-130] provides us with needed data about the development and utilization of an ethics consultation service in a community hospital. It makes clear, however, how much further we have to go in developing guiding standards for practitioners and institutions. We need to learn much more about the effectiveness of ethics consultation in meeting well-defined goals and producing desired processes and outcomes before standards for credentials and accountability have a sound empirical basis.     

Metacognition, risk behavior, and risk outcomes: the role of perceived intelligence and perceived knowledge.

The present study explores 2 key variables in social metacognition: perceived intelligence and perceived levels of knowledge about a specific content domain. The former represents a judgment of one's knowledge at an abstract level, whereas the latter represents a judgment of one's knowledge in a specific content domain. Data from interviews of approximately 8,411 female adolescents from a national sample were analyzed in a 2-wave panel design with a year between assessments. Higher levels of perceived intelligence at Wave 1 were associated with a lower probability of the occurrence of a pregnancy over the ensuing year independent of actual IQ, self-esteem, and academic aspirations. Higher levels of perceived knowledge about the accurate use of birth control were associated with a higher probability of the occurrence of a pregnancy independent of actual knowledge about accurate use, perceived intelligence, self-esteem, and academic aspirations.     

Doing good,doing harm,being well and burning out: The interactions of perceived prosocial and antisocial impact in service work

Service employees often perceive their actions as harming and benefiting others, and these perceptions have significant consequences for their own well‐being. We conducted two studies to test the hypothesis that perceptions of benefiting others attenuate the detrimental effects of perceptions of harming others on the well‐being of service employees. In Study 1, a survey of 377 transportation service employees and 99 secretaries, perceived prosocial impact moderated the negative association between perceived antisocial impact and job satisfaction, such that the association decreased as perceived prosocial impact increased. In Study 2, a survey of 79 school teachers, perceived prosocial impact moderated the association between perceived antisocial impact and burnout, and this moderated relationship was mediated by moral justification; the results held after controlling for common antecedents of burnout. The results suggest that perceptions of benefiting others may protect service employees against the decreased job satisfaction and increased burnout typically associated with perceptions of harming others. Implications for research on burnout, job satisfaction, positive organizational scholarship and job design are discussed.     

Situation-specific variables as determinants of perceived environmental aesthetic quality and perceived crowdedness

It was hypothesized that relevant situation-specific variables may act along with objective physical conditions to determine environmental perception, and that the exclusive use of the physical level of an environmental stimulus to predict behavior may, therefore, be inadequate. A 2 × 4 between-subjects design was employed in which an attitudinally similar or dissimilar confederate interacted with a subject at one of four distances. As hypothesized, subjects who interacted with a similar confederate judged the environment to be of higher aesthetic quality, perceived themselves to be less crowded, and felt affectively more positive than subjects who interacted with a dissimilar other. The results were also interpreted as supporting the utility of the Byrne-Clore (1970) reinforcementaffect model of evaluative responses as a means of predicting environmental perception and the behavioral response to environmental stimuli.     

Traumatic stress, perceived global stress, and life events: prospectively predicting quality of life in breast cancer patients.

The authors investigated the relationship between stress at initial cancer diagnosis and treatment and subsequent quality of life (QoL). Women (n = 112) randomized to the assessment-only arm of a clinical trial were initially assessed after breast cancer diagnosis and surgery and then reassessed at 4 months (during adjuvant treatment) and 12 months (postadjuvant treatment). There were 3 types of stress measured: number of stressful life events (K. A. Matthews et al., 1997), cancer-related traumatic stress symptoms (M. J. Horowitz, N. Wilner, & W. Alvarez, 1979), and perceived global stress (S. Cohen, T. Kamarck, & R. Mermelstein, 1983). Using hierarchical multiple regressions, the authors found that stress predicted both psychological and physical QoL (J. E. Ware, K. K. Snow, & M. Kosinski, 2000) at the follow-ups (all ps < .03). These findings substantiate the relationship between initial stress and later QoL and underscore the need for timely psychological intervention.     

统一思想 深化认识 为构建和谐社会服务——任法融会长谈学习十六届五中全会精神

金秋十月,中国共产党第十六届五中全会在北京胜利落下帷幕。全会集中讨论了未来5年中国的发展规划及“构建和谐社会”理念。这两个焦点合而为一,就是如何在未来五年的中国经济与社会建设日程上,实实在在地以具体措施体现“社会和谐”的构想。从这个角度说,本次会议具有十分重要     

Links between real and virtual networks: a comparative study of online communities in Japan and Korea.

The present study explores how online communities affect real-world personal relations based on a cross-cultural survey conducted in Japan and Korea. Findings indicate that the gratifications of online communities moderate the effects of online communities on social participation. Online communities are categorized into a real-group-based community and a virtual-network-based community. The membership of real-group-based online community is positively correlated with social bonding gratification and negatively correlated with information- seeking gratification. Japanese users prefer more virtual-network-based online communities, while their Korean counterparts prefer real-group-based online communities. Korean users are more active in online communities and seek a higher level of socializing gratifications, such as social bonding and making new friends, when compared with their Japanese counterparts. These results indicate that in Korea, personal relations via the online community are closely associated with the real-world personal relations, but this is not the case in Japan. This study suggests that the effects of the Internet are culture-specific and that the online community can serve a different function in different cultural environments.     

The development of computer ethics: Contributions from business ethics and medical ethics

In this essay, we demonstrate that the field of computer ethics shares many core similarities with two other areas of applied ethics, Academicians writing and teaching in the area of computer ethics, along with practitioners, must address ethical issues that are qualitatively similar in nature to those raised in medicine and business. In addition, as academic disciplines, these three fields also share some similar concerns. For example, all face the difficult challenge of maintaining a credible dialogue with diverse constituents such as academicians of various disciplines, professionals, policymakers, and the general public, Given these similarities, the fields of bioethics and business ethics can serve as useful models for the development of computer ethics. A version of this paper was presented at ETHICOMP98, the Fourth International Conference on Ethical Issues of Information Technology, March 25–27, 1998, Erasmus University, the Netherlands. Kenman Wong, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Business Ethics; Gerhard Steinke, Ph.D., is Professor of Management and Information Systems. Both authors are at Seattle Pacific University's School of Business and Economics.