A Web-Based Survey of AAASP Members' Ethical Beliefs and Behaviors in the New Millennium

Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology (AAASP) members (N = 1121) were contacted via a series of five broadcast e-mail messages and asked to complete a web-based survey about their personal ethical beliefs and practices germane to the practice of applied sport psychology. The survey inquired about professional beliefs and behaviors of AAASP members using a survey similar to that of Petitpas et al. (1994) Petitpas, A., Brewer, B., Rivera, P. and Van Raalte, J. 1994. Ethical beliefs and behaviors in applied sport psychology: The AAASP ethics survey. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 6: 135–151. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], which was instrumental in the development and adoption of AAASP's ethics code. Surveys were completed and returned by 322 individuals. Several differences with small to moderate effect sizes were found in the ethical beliefs and behaviors between men and women, professionals and students, AAASP Certified Consultants and non-Certified Consultants, and individuals from physical education and psychology backgrounds. Furthermore, many challenges to respondents' ethical thinking and conduct were identified. Respondents provided suggestions about the dissemination of ethical information and the role of the Ethics Committee. The results provide initial support for potential changes in the current ethical principles and standards of AAASP.     

Intentional Peer-Mentoring Programs in Christian Schools: An Exploratory Study

This study investigated what Christian schools were doing with peer-mentoring programs. A total of 344 secondary schools accredited by the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) received a 19-question electronic survey that focused on the specifics of their peer-mentoring programs. A total of 80 schools responded, with 55% reporting organized peer-mentoring groups for students; 73% identified their groups as having been established for 6 years or less. This data, coupled with the lack of published research, indicates that there continues to be a need for further research in this area.     

Interpersonal Construct Differentiation and Conversational Planning An Examination of Two Cognitive Accounts for the Production of Competent Verbal Disagreement Tactics

This study examines three cognition-based theoretical explanations for variations in verbal disagreement tactics. The cognitive requirements of competent message production in conflict situations are examined first. Then the relative success of (a) an individual difference explanation (based on constructivist logic), (b) a situated cognition explanation (based on planning theory), and (c) a hybrid explanation in accounting for the use of competent verbal disagreement tactics is assessed. Results based on analysis of 40 dyadic interactions indicated that planning measures are strongly correlated with use of integrative conflict tactics. In addition, the individual difference measure (i.e., the Role Category Questionnaire) was strongly associated with the quality of plans. Results are interpreted as evidence of the need for integrative models that link individual differences in social cognition, conversational plans, and message behavior.     

Telling as Inviting to Trust*

How can I give you a reason to believe what I tell you? I can influence the evidence available to you. Or I can simply invite your trust. These two ways of giving reasons work very differently. When a speaker tells her hearer that p, I argue, she intends that he gain access to a prima facie reason to believe that p that derives not from evidence but from his mere understanding of her act. Unlike mere assertions, acts of telling give reasons directly. They give reasons by inviting the hearer's trust. This yields a novel form of anti‐reductionism in the epistemology of testimony. The status of testimony as a sui generis source of epistemic warrant is entailed by the nature of the act of telling. We can discover the nature of this illocution, and its epistemic role, by examining how it functions in the real world of human relations.