Evidence-Based Ethical Problem Solving (EBEPS)

ABSTRACT— Although there is usually agreement about the ethical principles that should govern human research, there may be little agreement on how those principles should be interpreted into research procedures in some instances. Empirical research on ethical issues can often elucidate ways to improve on existing research practices and resolve debates with one's institutional review board.     

Anxiety within families: interrelations, consistency, and change

In a community sample of mothers (N = 763), each with a focal child aged 4.5 years, anxiety levels were high. Only 54% of mothers had anxiety scores within the "normal" Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) range, compared with 85% for depression. A subsample (N = 116) was selected for two-parent families, one to three children, and mothers spread over low, medium, and high anxiety levels. Mothers' anxiety was not significantly related to age, education, or work status, but rather to mothers' and fathers' independent ratings of marital satisfaction and family functioning, and to fathers' own anxiety and depression. Fathers' anxiety was related not to their own views of marital satisfaction and family functioning, but rather to mothers' views and to maternal anxiety. Assessments 8 years later--of anxiety, depression, and family functioning--showed high consistency over time, particularly maternal anxiety (r = .70) and paternal depression (r = .81). Although means did not change significantly over time for fathers, mothers' anxiety, depression, and perceptions of family functioning all improved (p < .001). For parents who were later to separate (compared with the others), initial family functioning, dyadic adjustment, and maternal anxiety were significantly "worse." The strongest predictor of later break-up was fathers' dyadic adjustment.     

Children's living arrangements following separation and divorce: insights from empirical and clinical research

When parents separate, children typically enter into new living arrangements with each parent in a pattern determined most often by one or both parents or, failing private agreement, as a result of recommendations and decisions by lawyers, therapists, custody evaluators, or family courts. Most of these decisions have been based on cultural traditions and beliefs regarding postseparation parenting plans, visitation guidelines adopted within jurisdictions, unsubstantiated theory, and strongly held personal values and professional opinions, and have resulted since the 1960s in children spending most of their time with one residential parent and limited time with nonresident, or "visiting," parents. A large body of social science and child development research generated over the past three decades has identified factors associated with risk and resiliency of children after divorce. Such research remains largely unknown and untapped by parents and professionals making these crucial decisions about children's living arrangements. This article highlights empirical and clinical research that is relevant to the shape of children's living arrangements after separation, focusing first on what is known about living arrangements following divorce, what factors influence living arrangements for separated and divorced children, children's views about their living arrangements, and living arrangements associated with children's adjustment following divorce. Based on this research, it is argued that traditional visiting patterns and guidelines are, for the majority of children, outdated, unnecessarily rigid, and restrictive, and fail in both the short and long term to address their best interests. Research-based parenting plan models offering multiple options for living arrangements following separation and divorce more appropriately serve children's diverse developmental and psychological needs.     

Foundations of generativity: Personal and family correlates of emerging adults’ generative life-story themes

Recently, the Eriksonian midlife personality strength of generativity has been described as existing in many forms and in persons of differing ages (McAdams, 2001). In this longitudinal study, narratives of life “turning points” and significant accomplishments were examined for generative themes in 32 adolescent/emerging adults (aged 16 and 20 years). We also explored these emerging adults’ volunteering behavior, prosocial reasoning, and parental influence as potential factors in generativity. Several parenting factors when adolescents were 16 (parents’ autonomy-encouraging practices, their emphasis on caring in stories of family value teaching, and adolescents’ reports of authoritative parenting style) were associated with more generative themes in narratives at age 20. Adolescents’ levels of prosocial reasoning, volunteering behavior, and personal value choices were also associated as expected with generative theme usage at age 20 in life stories, supporting the meaningfulness of this construct in emerging adulthood.     

Weakly aggressive behaviour towards nymphs in the cockroach Schultesia nitor (Blattaria: Zetoborinae)

This paper describes aggressive behaviour in the cockroach Schultesia nitor, a tropical forest species living in bird nests. Young S. nitor nymphs are known to show active dispersal while old nymphs and adults are contrastingly strongly gregarious, a combination of features never observed in other cockroach species. Our laboratory experiments using video recording of confrontations between pairs show that aggressive behaviour towards conspecific nymphs is not exhibited towards nymphs of the species Phoetalia pallida, and thus can be considered species specific in S. nitor. But, it is not kin oriented: the mother and all adults of both sexes in different physiological states exhibit this behaviour as well. Six types of aggressive interactions were discriminated, occurring in age-symmetric pairs of nymphs and adults. Even more frequent aggression was exhibited by adults and last instar nymphs towards younger nymphs of all instars. The frequency of aggressive acts and types of aggressive interactions varied according to sex and size of the two interacting individuals. The possible function and evolution of this behaviour is discussed, with emphasis on the difficulty of interpreting obvious but weak and not kin-biased aggression.     

Preexposure effects in the spatial domain: Dissociation between latent inhibition and perceptual learning

In 4 experiments, rats were given intermixed or blocked preexposure to an array of landmarks that subsequently defined the location of a hidden goal in a Morris pool task. Previous research has shown that intermixed preexposure to pairs of adjacent landmarks retards learning whereas preexposure to individual landmarks facilitates subsequent learning (J. Prados, V. D. Chamizo, & N. J. Mackintosh, 1999). Accordingly, in Experiment 1, intermixed and blocked preexposure to pairs of adjacent landmarks was found to retard learning. In Experiment 2, however, a scheduling effect was found: Rats given intermixed preexposure to the individual landmarks learned faster than rats given blocked or no preexposure. Experiment 3 showed that intermixed (but not blocked) preexposure to pairs of landmarks resulted in a facilitatory effect when preexposure and test were carried out in different contexts. Experiment 4 replicated within a single experiment the main results observed in Experiments 1 and 3. This pattern of results suggests that intermixed preexposure engages learning processes other than latent inhibition that facilitate subsequent learning of the navigation task.     

Freud's prehistoric matrix-Owing 'nature' a death

This paper is informed by contemporary literature in two fields-neonatal research, on the one hand, and the burgeoning interdisciplinary interest in Moses and monotheism, on the other. The author postulates that a cluster of traumatic events during the first two years of Freud's life compelled him to repeat what could not be remembered. Embedded in charged implicit schema, these affects remained unprocessed in Freud, who alone of all psychoanalysts did not have an analysis, manifesting in an uncanny dread/allure of the 'prehistoric' as a dark and dangerous era relating to the archaic feminine/maternal matrix and fratricidal murderousness. Furthermore, she cites evidence to suggest that for Freud this unconsciously excluded subtext of the preoedipal era became associated with ancient Egyptian and Minoan-Mycenaean cultures, a passionate fascination actualized in his collection of antiquities yet incongruously absent in his theoretical work, with three exceptions-Egyptian allusions in Leonardo's unconscious attachment to his archaic mother; the 'Minoan-Mycenaean' analogy on discovering the pre-oedipal mother shortly after the death of Freud's own mother; and Egypt as cradle of humanity in his uncharacteristically rambling, troubled text of Moses and monotheism. The author sees Freud's conceptual avoidance yet compulsive reworking of the prehistoric matrix as a symptomatic attempt to expose early unformulated representations that 'return to exert a powerful effect.'     

Effects of texture and shape on perceived time to passage: knowing "what" influences judging "when"

In the present study, we examined whether it is easier to judge when an object will pass one's head if the object's surface is textured. There are three reasons to suspect that this might be so: First, the additional (local) optic flow may help one judge the rate of expansion and the angular velocity more reliably. Second, local deformations related to the change in angle between the object and the observer could help track the object's position along its path. Third, more reliable judgments of the object's shape could help separate global expansioncaused by changes in distance from expansion due to changes in the angle between the object and the observer. We can distinguish among these three reasons by comparing performance for textured and uniform spheres and disks. Moving objects were displayed for 0.5-0.7 sec. Subjects had to decide whether the object would pass them before or after a beep that was presented 1 sec after the object started moving. Subjects were not more precise with textured objects. When the disk rotated in order to compensate for the orientation-related contraction that its image would otherwise undergo during its motion, it appeared to arrive later, despite the fact that this strategy increases the global rate of expansion. We argue that this is because the expected deformation of the object's image during its motion is considered when time to passage is judged. Therefore, the most important role for texture in everyday judgments of time to passage is probably that it helps one judge the object's shape and thereby estimate how its image will deform as it moves.     

Satisfaction and psychological well-being as antecedents of organisational commitment

Satisfaction and psychological well-being as antecedents of organisational commitment. The role of organisational commitment in public administration and its repercussions on the institution are examined in this study. It reports part of a larger research project that studies job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being as antecedents of organisational commitment. Data were collected from 697 public-sector employees, using questionnaires. Results showed that job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being were strong predictors of organisational commitment. Higher levels of job satisfaction, life satisfaction, and psychological well-being were associated with more favourable perceptions of organisational commitment. Furthermore, this study highlights the impact of dynamic work on the employee's commitment.     

Young mothers' play with their toddlers: individual variability as a function of psychosocial factors

There is no one style of parenting which characterizes young mothers as a group. In addition, life circumstances play an important role in shaping maternal behaviour. The aim of this study was to identify patterns of maternal play behaviour and contextual (social and personal) factors associated with these different patterns. In this study, 107 young mothers were observed at home during play with their toddlers; maternal behaviour was coded for joint attention (shared focus of mother and toddler attention) and emotional availability (e.g. sensitivity, intrusiveness, hostility). Mothers reported on aspects of their childhood history and current personal functioning and social support. A person‐centred analytic approach, using cluster analysis, revealed three distinct groups of maternal play behaviour: (1) ‘sensitive‐engaged’ (2) ‘inconsistent‐directive,’ and (3) ‘intrusive‐prohibitive’. Multivariate analyses revealed that contextual factors in mothers' lives (e.g. childhood abuse, depressive symptomatology, partner violence, social support, and parenting self‐confidence) were differentially associated with parenting clusters. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.