Confidentiality issues in psychological research

There has been increased attention in recent years to the importance of individual privacy and professional confidentiality both in Australia and overseas. At the same time, psychologists' growing research interests in areas such as AIDS, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence have led to new ethical dilemmas over the contract of confidentiality between researchers and their research participants. The present paper discusses a number of issues regarding the ethics of confidentiality in psychological research. Following Bok (1989), the issues are highlighted within the context of four ethical principles that underlie researchers' obligations to preserve confidentiality. These principles are derived from considerations of privacy, loyalty, the pledge of silence, and professional codes of ethical standards. Each of these principles is illustrated with examples taken from recent research. We devote special attention to instances that appear to provide a clash between moral principles.     

Across the divide: Religious objections to brain death

This article reviews the evolution of the medical-legal definition of brain death, as well as the normative debate surrounding this reconceptualization. It offers a clinical approach to address religious objections to brain death, which prefers negotiation over confrontation when families and practicitioners must discern the boundaries between life and death.He also serves as physician-ethicist-in-residence at the Hospital Chaplaincy in New York City. An earlier draft of this essay was presented to the Metropolitan New York Ethics Committee Network at the New York Academy of Medicine on 16 November 1994.     

Pastoral care and AIDS: Assessing the stress and satisfaction from caring for persons with AIDS

Members from religious communities in New York City (17 men, 8 women) who volunteer pastoral care to persons with AIDS completed and returned through the mail the (AIDS) Caregiver Scale and the Attitudes toward AIDS Scale. Results indicated that satisfaction from providing care was related to pastoral training, an understanding of the spiritual nature of death, and a positive attitude toward persons with AIDS. Self-reported stress from providing care was inversely related to pastoral training to deal with death. The pastoral volunteers also reported greater satisfaction and lower stress from caregiving than volunteer buddies from upstate New York.     

Ecological influences in youth crisis shelters: Effects of social density and length of stay on youth problem behaviors

For 472 consecutive days we monitored the number of youths residing in a crisis shelter for adolescents, the average length of stay for the youths residing in the shelter on each day, and the number of problem behaviors occurring within the shelter on a daily basis. We analyzed these data using a combination of time series and logistic regression techniques to fit a model that would predict the occurrence of a problem behavior on any given day. After controlling for significant time trends in the data, our results indicate that both the number of youths in the shelter and the proportion of youths who have resided in the shelter longer than 14 days are significantly associated with a problem behavior occurring on any given day. The number of youths in the shelter and the probability of a problem behavior occurring correlated significantly. However, as the proportion of youths who resided in the shelter longer than 14 days increased, the probability of a problem behavior occurring decreased.     

A multiple option observation system for experimental studies: MOOSES

The purpose of this article is to outline the development of the Multiple Option Observation System for Experimental Studies (MOOSES), a flexible data collection package for applied behavioral research. Several data collection options are available to users of MOOSES. Event-based recording, interaction-based recording, duration recording, and interval recording are available to the users and can be used individually or together, depending upon the research question. The collection program can incorporate any of the keys on the keyboard. Function keys on the top or side are used for toggle (duration states) type data collection. Types of analysis include frequency and duration of discrete events, frequency of general behavior states, frequency and duration of events within behavioral states, percent interval analysis, sequential analysis, and interobserver agreement. Data obtained from MOOSES is easily incorporated with other data for further statistical analysis with standard statistical packages or popular spreadsheet programs. Applications of MOOSES and its uses in social interaction research are presented. Comparisons with other similar systems are provided.     

Cognitive Science: What One Needs to Know

Cognitive science is a new paradigm that informs and involves several disciplines, including artificial intelligence, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, cognitive ethology, and the philosophy of mind. Cognitive science studies the mind as an information processor, with the computer often operating as a metaphor for the operations of the mind. Developments in the cognitive sciences stand to affect tremendously how we think of the mind and, consequently, how we think of theological and religious claims that concern the human subject. The unity of self, claims of human uniqueness, the relation of mind and body, human nature, and the personal agency of God are all areas of religious import in which the cognitive sciences need to be taken into account.     

Men's and women's ratings of life satisfaction by age of respondent and age interval judged

A total of 432 people in six age groups rated the satisfaction of their current, past, and projected future lives. Average ratings for men and women did not differ. However, the triple interaction of sex × age of respondent × age interval judged indicated an optimism toward the future on the part of women. Compared with men of the same age, women judged the age interval prior to their own, as well as their present age interval, as being less satisfying than did the men. But women expected levels of satisfaction in the future to be higher than men expected. This optimism is attributed to socialization differences as well as the hope engendered by the current feminist movement.