Dealing with the long-term social implications of research

Biomedical and behavioral research may affect strongly held social values and thereby create significant controversy over whether such research should be permitted in the first place. Institutional review boards (IRBs) responsible for protecting the rights and welfare of participants in research are sometimes faced with review of protocols that have significant implications for social policy and the potential for negative social consequences. Although IRB members often raise concerns about potential long-term social implications in protocol review, federal regulations strongly discourage IRBs from considering them in their decisions. Yet IRBs often do consider the social implications of research protocols and sometimes create significant delays in initiating or even prevent such research. The social implications of research are important topics for public scrutiny and professional discussion. This article examines the reasons that the federal regulations preclude IRBs from assessing the social risks of research, and examines alternative approaches that have been used with varying success by national advisory groups to provide such guidance. The article concludes with recommendations for characteristics of a national advisory group that could successfully fulfill this need, including sustainability, independence, diverse and relevant expertise, and public transparency.     

Decision-making under risk conditions is susceptible to interference by a secondary executive task

Recent research suggests two ways of making decisions: an intuitive and an analytical one. The current study examines whether a secondary executive task interferes with advantageous decision-making in the Game of Dice Task (GDT), a decision-making task with explicit and stable rules that taps executive functioning. One group of participants performed the original GDT solely, two groups performed either the GDT and a 1-back or a 2-back working memory task as a secondary task simultaneously. Results show that the group which performed the GDT and the secondary task with high executive load (2-back) decided less advantageously than the group which did not perform a secondary executive task. These findings give further evidence for the view that decision-making under risky conditions taps into the rational-analytical system which acts in a serial and not parallel way as performance on the GDT is disturbed by a parallel task that also requires executive resources.     

Zur Altersabh?ngigkeit von Risikovariablen bei Sexualdelinquenz

Based on a sample of 612 male sex offenders, this study examined the latent dimensions of actuarial risk variables, their age-related development and their age-related relevance for the prediction of sexual recidivism within a follow-up period of 5 years. According to the work of Roberts et al. [25] 8 items from Static-99 and Risk Matrix 2000 were examined for their underlying factor structure. The result was a 3-factor solution, which accounted for 63% of the variance and largely replicated the previous findings by Roberts et al. [25]. Following these authors the three scales sexual deviance, dissociality and detachment were calculated from the risk variables and examined in detail. The analysis revealed an increase in sexually deviant personality traits with advancing age of the offenders at the beginning of the follow-up period. No age-related changes were observed in dissocial characteristics. Concerning the detachment scale a negative correlation with the offenders age was apparent. All three risk scales proved to be prognostically relevant in the total sample. On closer examination, however, only sexual deviance showed prognostic relevance in all age groups. In contrast, dissociality was only relevant for the prediction of sexual recidivism in the older offender groups and detachment only in the younger offender groups.     

Watching pornographic pictures on the Internet: role of sexual arousal ratings and psychological-psychiatric symptoms for using Internet sex sites excessively

Excessive or addictive Internet use can be linked to different online activities, such as Internet gaming or cybersex. The usage of Internet pornography sites is one important facet of online sexual activity. The aim of the present work was to examine potential predictors of a tendency toward cybersex addiction in terms of subjective complaints in everyday life due to online sexual activities. We focused on the subjective evaluation of Internet pornographic material with respect to sexual arousal and emotional valence, as well as on psychological symptoms as potential predictors. We examined 89 heterosexual, male participants with an experimental task assessing subjective sexual arousal and emotional valence of Internet pornographic pictures. The Internet Addiction Test (IAT) and a modified version of the IAT for online sexual activities (IATsex), as well as several further questionnaires measuring psychological symptoms and facets of personality were also administered to the participants. Results indicate that self-reported problems in daily life linked to online sexual activities were predicted by subjective sexual arousal ratings of the pornographic material, global severity of psychological symptoms, and the number of sex applications used when being on Internet sex sites in daily life, while the time spent on Internet sex sites (minutes per day) did not significantly contribute to explanation of variance in IATsex score. Personality facets were not significantly correlated with the IATsex score. The study demonstrates the important role of subjective arousal and psychological symptoms as potential correlates of development or maintenance of excessive online sexual activity.     

Dating is Hard Work: A Narrative Approach to Understanding Sexual and Romantic Relationships in Young Adulthood

This study utilized a qualitative approach informed by a narrative perspective to examine 57 young adults’ stories about sexual and romantic relationships. Participants (25 men and 32 women) were asked to define relationships in terms of how they know they are in a romantic or a sexual partnership. Young adults identified the language they use for different types of relationships, their perceptions of the hierarchy of romantic and sexual relationships, and their confusion or uncertainty about their relationship experiences. We discuss implications for clinicians working with young adults and provide suggestions for re-storying the confusing territory of intimate (and sometimes impersonal) interaction.     

Projekt „Brisant“

Die hier vorgestellte Ma?nahme versucht die Lücke zwischen station?rer Entw?hnungsbehandlung und dem beruflichen (Wieder-)Einstieg zu schlie?en. Gerade nach der Entlassung kommt es innerhalb der ersten drei Monate h?ufig zu Rückf?llen. Grund dafür ist unter anderem der Umstand, dass viele Verhaltens- und Denkweisen erstmals seit langer Zeit nüchtern und in abstinentem Zustand ausgehalten werden müssen. In dieser hoch sensiblen Phase ist es daher verst?ndlich, dass viele Patienten verunsichert und nicht ausreichend stabilisiert sind für die Herausforderungen der Arbeitswelt beziehungsweise der aktiven Jobsuche.     

Cultural Values and Racial Identity Attitudes Among Asian American Students: An Exploratory Investigation

The content and structure of cultural value orientations were investigated in a group of Asian American undergraduate and graduate students. Cultural value differences were influenced by the participant's gender and racial identity status. Findings suggest a strong preference for distinct cultural value orientations that reflect both traditional Asian and European American cultural values. Implications for counseling and future research are addressed.     

Reason to Believe: Representations of Aggression as Phenomenological Read-Out

Men tend to view their own aggression as an instrumental act aimed at imposing control, whereas women tend to view theirs as an expressive act resulting from a loss of self-control. These interpretations have been called social representations based on their presumed social origins and mode of transmission. However, if women’s self-control is generally higher than men’s, they would be expected to behave aggressively only infrequently and at higher levels of provocation. Aggression would be experienced phenomenologically as a loss of self-control. In Study 1, a student sample, men scored higher than women on instrumental beliefs, impulsivity, and risk seeking. As predicted, instrumental beliefs were associated with higher impulsive risk seeking and an expressive representation was positively associated with temper. In Study 2, an offender sample, there were no gender differences in instrumental beliefs, physical aggression, temper, carelessness, and present orientation. Instrumental beliefs were again associated with impulsive risk seeking and, to a lesser extent, temper. Expressive beliefs were again associated with temper and, to a lesser extent, present orientation. Physical aggression was associated with holding instrumental beliefs, impulsive risk seeking, and temper. The model is broadly supported and directions for future work are suggested.     

Effects of Touch on Gratuities Received in Same‐Gender and Cross‐Gender Dyads1

This study examined whether or not a nonreciprocal brief shoulder touch would increase gratuities received by servers. Data from 400 patrons were collected by 4 servers who enacted the touch manipulation while working in 2 separate eating establishments. The findings revealed that servers who touched their patrons did receive larger gratuities than servers who did not touch their patrons. Further, in one setting, servers received larger tips from patrons who were of the opposite gender than from patrons who were of the same gender. These results support the ubiquitous influence of a fleeting touch on gratuities, and the possibility that, in certain situations, touch may be more advantageous when done by members of the opposite gender.     

the adult career concerns inventory: Development of a short form

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a short form of the Adult Career Concerns Inventory (ACCI; D. E. Super, A. S. Thompson, & R. H. Lindeman, 1988), a measure of career stage that is based on D. E. Super's (1990) theory of career development. Participants were 260 college students who completed surveys. Examination of Cronbach's alpha indicated adequate reliability for the ACCI—Short Form. The multitrait‐multimethod matrix was used to compare the short form method with the long form method across the 4 career stages. Results indicated adequate convergent validity.