Teaching Today's Students how to Examine Ethical Issues and Be More Actively Involved in the Learning Process

In response to the difficulty of teaching an increasingly large number of students who are ill prepared for the sort of abstract thinking and well-structured essay writing that are essential to the field of Philosophy, I have discovered a five-step method for teaching students in my Philosophy and Social Ethics course how to examine any ethical issue and write well-structured essays discussing the issue. Just as important, students are now required to take more responsibility for the learning process which, I believe, is an appropriate goal for a course in Ethics.     

An extension of the Bourne typology of reference group influence on product-related decisions

The Bourne (1957) typology of reference group influence on product ownership and brand decisions has received broad exposure and generated recent research on aspects of the typology's foundations. Although updates have recently been offered to the proposed product placements forwarded by Bourne, the typology itself is believed to be of limited present use without incorporating a third decision to the framework—the type or style of product. The merit of adding this third dimension was assessed using two samples of undergraduate students and a set of thirty student-generated product categories. Results of student perceptions provided general support for the study's basic premise. Implications and research directions are provided.The contributions of Parsu Parasuraman and Richard Sullivan are gratefully acknowledged.     

Virtual subjects: Using the Internet as an alternative source of subjects and research environment

This paper presents a rationale for why some researchers might consider using the Internet for research by addressing four issues. First, a few unique research opportunities afforded by the Internet are discussed. Second, the utility of using newsgroups and theTelnet protocol is described. Third, Internet research ethical guidelines in five areas are developed. Fourth, the data validity issue is addressed, and previous research using Internet and introductory psychology subject samples is replicated. The samples were similar on 5 of 7 demographic variables but differed in age and sex compositions, and response patterns for the two samples were similar to those reported previously . Finally, some limitations of the Internet are considered, as are its potentials to fulfill traditional research requirements and its use as an educational aid.     

‘Heroines in the making’: The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as an instance of amour-propre in education

This paper addresses Rousseau's contribution to educational practice by illustrating the ways in which his notion of amour-propre distorts the teacher-student relationship in Muriel Spark's novel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Though some of Rousseau's pedagogical methods may appear impractical and problematic, his insights into the psychological distortions of amour-propre bear directly on teaching because it is such an important instance of the relationship between self and others. The protagonist, Jean Brodie, is shown to be not only an inadequate teacher but a morally destructive one as well because she violates the teacher-student relationship by both encouraging amourpropre among her students and using those same students primarily to satisfy her own need for power and self-aggrandizement. Her eventual ruin at the hands of her best student results from the amour-propre both share. Miss Brodie's failure illustrates the dangers of looking at teaching as self-expression, personal fulfillment etc., to the extent of forgetting what it actually is — the careful addressing of students' experience both as individuals and as learners.The author wishes to acknowledge the comments of two anonymous reviewers of an earlier draft of this paper for their very helpful suggestions. Whatever errors and omissions remain result from insufficient attention to their advice.     

AUTHORITY,RULES AND AGGRESSION

Etude inter-nation de L'acquisition de L'obéissance aux autorités et de L'attitude des enfants vis-à-vis des lois, des règies et de L'agression. Le Danemark, la Grèce, L'Italie, L'Inde, le Japon et les Etats-Unis participent à la recherche. Les sujets testés dont le milieu socio-économique est la classe ouvrière ou moyenne, se situent dans le 4^e, 6^e ou 8^e grade scolaire; un échantillon de ces enfants subit en outre une interview. Les moyens techniques ont été élabores pour obtenir des données sur trois types d'attitudes et de comportement: I) un questionnaire portant d'une part sur les attitudes à L'egard des tenants de L'autorite dans le système familial, le système scolaire, L'église, la communauté, la nation, d'autre part, sur les attitudes vis-à-vis des lois et des régies, les conséquences de la non-obéissance, la participation politique, L'apport d'un système au renforcement des règles d'un autre et la réaction a L'autorité injuste; 2) une série d'images à juger conçues pour étudier les attitudes à L'égard de L'agression entre enfants et adultes, enfants et camarades, femmes et hommes. La variable dependante est le comportement en classe des enfants qui participent à la recherche. II est estimé au moyen d'un questionnaire dans lequel les enfants jugent leurs camarades de classe du point de vue de leur obéissance aux normes et aux règies de L'école et de leur conduite antisociale vis-à-vis du maitre et des camarades. Les données sont analysées en fonction des paramètres suivants : statut socio-économique, sexe, niveau scolaire et pays d'origine et les corrélations calculées entre le comportement en classe et les résultats du questionnaire et des images à juger. Des comptes rendus destinés à L'US Office of Education sont en cours de rédaction.     

Improving understanding and recall of the probation service contract

The role of the probation service within the Criminal Justice System is to provide support to probationees so they can serve out their probation orders in accordance with certain regulations. These regulations are expressed in a formal contract. The current article reports an assessment of the readability of the current Kent Probation Service's users' contract. A Flesch (1948) analysis of the original document indicated that it required an IQ of 111+ for full comprehension. Using several criteria suggested by the Flesch formula and other literature, the document was revised to improve its readability. Analysis revealed the revised document to require an IQ of 84+ for full comprehension, indicating that the revised contract should be considerably easier to understand than the original. An exploratory study revealed that both understanding and recall were significantly greater for the revised contract than for the original. We conclude that in assessing readability of written materials, it is important that (in conjunction with a Flesch analysis) documents are actually tested on the intended readership. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Death feigning by grass snakes (Natrix natrix) in response to handling by human "predators."

Death feigning, a variant of tonic immobility, is usually interpreted as a last-resort antipredator measure. The authors describe death feigning in grass snakes (Natrix natrix) and test some of its potential correlates. Death feigning was seen in 66% of wild-caught snakes but was not seen in hatchlings from laboratory-incubated eggs. Minimal indication of death feigning was mouth gaping, often with the tongue hanging free, but more dramatic cases involved voluntary supination and/or lack of muscle tone. Aside from hatchlings, which did not feign death, there was little variation in frequency or intensity of death feigning with body size. There was no effect of body temperature on death feigning nor were snakes that were moving when caught less likely to feign death than those that were not moving. Interpretation of the adaptive value of death feigning in grass snakes or in other animals is hampered by lack of evidence of this behavior in the field in response to natural predators.