Psychologists' perceptions of legal and ethical requirements for breaching confidentiality

This paper outlines the legal and ethical duties of psychologists in relation to preserving as well as breaching confidentiality in therapeutic relationships. It analyses the results of a questionnaire examining psychologists’ perceptions of the legal and ethical constraints on confidentiality and their likelihood of breaching confidentiality in different situations. The vast majority of participants indicated that the law permits them to disclose confidential information and that there is an ethical duty to disclose information to a third party when the patient is perceived to be dangerous. The results suggest that there is some uncertainty as to when confidentiality should be breached in practice and it is argued that the law is overly complex in this area and that guidelines are needed to assist psychologists in their clinical practice.     

Effects of self‐disclosure and responsiveness between couples on passionate love within couples

Previous work shows that high‐self‐disclosure interactions between couples can increase feelings of closeness within couples. We investigated whether couple friendships created in the lab through high‐self‐disclosure and closeness‐building activities would boost feelings of passionate love. In Study 1, couples randomly assigned to a high (vs. low) closeness induction task, either alone or with another couple, showed significantly greater increases in passionate love when they were highly self‐disclosing with other couples. Study 2 showed that the responsiveness of the other couple mediated the effects of self‐disclosure on increases in passionate love following high‐self‐disclosure interactions with other couples. The creation of couple friendships may be an additional way to reignite feelings of passionate love in romantic relationships.     

Decision Development in Computer-Assisted Group Decision Making

New computer technologies to aid group communication and decision making are becoming increasingly widespread. This study analyzes how one such technology, a group decision support system (GDSS), affected how group decisions developed over time. The study contrasted decision paths in groups using the GDSS with groups using the same procedural structures incorporated in the GDSS manually and with groups using no procedural structures. A flexible phase mapping method was employed to map group decision paths. The resulting set of seven decision paths varied in both sequence and number of decision phases. An optimal matching procedure was used to compute similarity measures among the 40 paths, and cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling were used to generate an empirical taxonomy of decision paths. Results indicated that the nature of decision paths varied both across the three conditions and within conditions. The decision path types were also related to three outcome variables: consensus change, perceived decision quality, and decision scheme satisfaction. Results indicated that those decision paths that most resembled logical normative sequences had superior outcomes to those that did not.     

BASIC PREMISES OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL ATTITUDE CHANGE THEORY: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

Multidimensional attitude change models propose that (1) stimuli defining the domain of attitudes may consist of a multidimensional rather than unidimensional pattern; (2) stimuli associated with each other in the persuasion process will converge with each other in the multidimensional attitude domain. These two propositions receive clear support from three of the hypotheses tested in four-panel cohort data, which analyses show to be multidimensional. The sources of a persuasive message converge on the position they advocate. Multiple sources converge on each other. The findings provided partial support for two other hypotheses on the convergence of self-concept with advocated position and with sources of a persuasive message. A final, somewhat tangential hypothesis also receives clear support: existential associations of concepts are more effective than hortatory associations. These results support further development of multidimensional attitude change models.