A Sensemaking Approach to Ethics Training for Scientists: Preliminary Evidence of Training Effectiveness

In recent years, we have seen a new concern with ethics training for research and development professionals. Although ethics training has become more common, the effectiveness of the training being provided is open to question. In the present effort, a new ethics training course was developed that stresses the importance of the strategies people apply to make sense of ethical problems. The effectiveness of this training was assessed in a sample of 59 doctoral students working in the biological and social sciences using a pre–post design with follow-up and a series of ethical decision-making measures serving as the outcome variable. Results showed not only that this training led to sizable gains in ethical decision making but also that these gains were maintained over time. The implications of these findings for ethics training in the sciences are discussed.     

A Quarter Century of Delayed Recall

Abstract

Maier, N. R. F. Studies of Abnormal Behavior in the Rat. New York: Harper, 1939. Pp. 81. Reviewed By Peter Hampton     

The Relationship Between Adult Happiness and Self-Appraised Childhood Happiness and Events

The primary purpose of the present research was to relate questionnaire-assessed self-reported childhood happiness and events to adulthood happiness in 387 nonclinical participants. Although childhood happiness and adult happiness were found to be significantly correlated (r = .28, p < .001), there was little relationship between reported adult happiness and reported specific childhood events and circumstances. Childhood events and circumstances, however, were much more highly correlated with childhood happiness (R = .64). Thirty-four percent of the persons who said they were unhappy or very unhappy as a child, but only 9% who said they were happy or very happy as a child, reported that they were unhappy or very unhappy as adults.     

Level of Perceptual Development as Reflected in Responses to the Holtzman Inkblot Technique

To investigate the relationships between chronological age and scores on 10 variables from the Holtzman Inkblot Technique, 586 normal Ss comprising five criterion age-groups ranging from 5.2 to 19.5 years were tested. Each group had an equal number of males and females. Following a statistical correction for number of rejections, a sex-by-age analysis of variance revealed no significant sex differences or sex-by-age interactions. However, significant age-group differences were found for all 10 variables, six of them resulting in steadily increasing means across the five groups. These age trends are consistent with the sequence of perceptual change outlined by developmental theory, and are interpreted as indicating a developmental shift in the dominance of perceptual functions.     

Interpersonal Dependency Correlates and Locus of Control Orientation Among Obese Adults in Outpatient Treatment for Obesity

Interpersonal dependency and locus of control orientation were studied in obese and nonobese samples. The Interpersonal Dependency Inventory (Hirschfeld, Klerman, Gough, Barrett, & Korchin, 1977) and the I-E Scale (Rotter, 1966) were administered to 106 obese adults in outpatient treatment for obesity. The I-E Scale was also administered to 97 nonobese control subjects. As predicted, the obese subjects were significantly more internally oriented than has been previously identified in obese populations. These findings challenge currently held assumptions about locus of control in obese groups. Although the obese and nonobese subjects maintained similar overall dependency scores, the obese subjects were more likely to show low levels of autonomy in comparison with the nonobese subjects. Interpersonal dependency and locus of control dimensions associated with obese conditions may serve as useful predictor variables influencing obesity treatment approaches and outcome.     

The Developmental Roots of Borderline Personality Disorder in Early Attachment Relationships: A Theory and Some Evidence

The paper suggests a way of understanding borderline personality disorder in terms of the failure of a secure base. We begin with an account of optimal self-development in a secure attachment context, highlighting the importance of the caregiver's ability to help the small child think about his own and others' minds. This optimal self-development is crucial in developing the child's capacity for mentalization, which can enhance his resilience in the face of later trauma. We discuss the impact of attachment trauma in later development, arguing that the extent of this impact depends on how well early attachment relationships facilitated the capacity for mentalization. We identify some of the consequences for the representations of the internal world of a failure of mentalization that may follow trauma in individuals made vulnerable by genetic predisposition or disorganized early attachment. We link these features to the clinical presentation associated with borderline personality organization. Finally, some of the necessary characteristics of successful psychotherapeutic treatment of borderline personality disorder are briefly considered.     

Probability of Criminal Acts of Violence: A Test of Jury Predictive Accuracy

The ability of capital juries to accurately predict future prison violence at the sentencing phase of aggravated murder trials was examined through retrospective review of the disciplinary records of 115 male inmates sentenced to either life (n = 65) or death (n = 50) in Oregon from 1985 through 2008, with a mean post‐conviction time at risk of 15.3 years. Violent prison behavior was completely unrelated to predictions made by capital jurors, with bidirectional accuracy simply reflecting the base rate of assaultive misconduct in the group. Rejection of the special issue predicting future violence enjoyed 90% accuracy. Conversely, predictions that future violence was probable had 90% error rates. More than 90% of the assaultive rule violations committed by these offenders resulted in no harm or only minor injuries. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How Much Distress Is Too Much on Deployed Operations? Validation of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) for Application in Military Operational Settings

The aim of this study was threefold: (a) to assess the factor structure of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) to determine whether interpreting the scale as a single dimensional measure of psychological distress is justified in military operational setting; (b) to validate the K10 for mental health surveillance in operational settings against self-reported occupational impairment; (c) to evaluate whether the K10 has better discriminatory power than de facto standards for mental health surveillance on deployment, namely the Patient Health Questionnaire and the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist, Civilian version. A convenience sample of Canadian Armed Forces personnel serving in Afghanistan (N = 1,264) completed self-report measures of psychological distress and occupational impairment. On examination of 6 competing models, the authors determined that interpreting the K10 as a measure of unspecified psychological distress is justified. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, they identified new cutoff values for dichotomous and polychotomous scoring methods. After comparing the area beneath the ROC curves for each of the 3 mental health surveillance questionnaires, the authors determined that all measures perform well as predictors of self-rated occupational impairment, with values ranging from .86 to .90. These results highlight the importance of cross-setting validation and demonstrate that validating psychological screening questionnaires against self-report measures of occupational impairment can be a useful strategy for understanding the manifestation of psychological distress on deployed military operations.