Applying “Place” to Research Ethics and Cultural Competence/Humility Training

Research ethics principles and regulations typically have been applied to the protection of individual human subjects. Yet, new paradigms of research that include the place-based community and cultural groups as partners or participants of environmental research interventions, in particular, require attention to place-based identities and geographical contexts. This paper argues the importance of respecting “place” within human subjects protections applied to communities and cultural groups as part of a critical need for research ethics and cultural competence training for graduate research students. These protections and benefits are extensions of the Belmont Principles and have been included in recent recommendations from research regulatory committees.     

Threat perception after the Boston Marathon bombings: The effects of personal relevance and conceptual framing

We examined how the Boston Marathon bombings affected threat perception in the Boston community. In a threat perception task, participants attempted to “shoot” armed targets and avoid shooting unarmed targets. Participants viewing images of the bombings accompanied by affectively negative music and text (e.g., “Terror Strikes Boston”) made more false alarms (i.e., more errors “shooting” unarmed targets) compared to participants viewing the same images accompanied by affectively positive music and text (e.g., “Boston Strong”) and participants who did not view bombing images. This difference appears to be driven by decreased sensitivity (i.e., decreased ability to distinguish guns from non-guns) as opposed to a more liberal bias (i.e., favouring the “shoot” response). Additionally, the more strongly affected the participant was by the bombings, the more their sensitivity was reduced in the negatively framed condition, suggesting that this framing was particularly detrimental to the most vulnerable individuals in the affected community.     

Psychosocial Distress and Knowledge Deficiencies in Parents of Children in Ireland Who Carry an Altered Cystic Fibrosis Gene

Significant gaps have been identified in parental understanding of CF newborn screening and the consequences of carrying an altered CF gene. Seven potential causes of psychosocial adversity arising from false positive newborn screening for CF have been identified. The current study aimed to increase parents understanding of CF, reduce their levels of stress, and investigate psychosocial adversity arising from false-positive screening. This national study was run over one year in the Republic of Ireland. Parents were recruited for the study following a diagnostic sweat test confirming their child carried a single altered CF gene. Parents were randomly assigned into a control and intervention group, with those in the intervention group receiving a carefully designed information pack. All parents took part in semi-structured interviews. Parents (n = 16) who received an information pack had significantly higher CF knowledge scores than parents (n = 16) in the control group. 66% of parents in the control group misunderstood the health implications of carrying an altered CF gene, no parents in the intervention group had the same misunderstanding. There was no significant difference in stress scores between the groups. Parents of infants who had more than one sweat test due to insufficient sweat quantity had higher overall stress percentiles (50%), than parents of infants who had one sweat test (30%), indicating greater parental stress. The combination of written and audio-visual information contained in the information pack successfully increased parents comprehension of CF. The study also evaluates the potential for psychosocial adversity following false positive newborn screening for CF.     

Gender Differences in Biobehavioral Aftereffects of Stress on Eating,Frustration, and Cardiovascular Responses1

Eating, persistence, and cardiovascular responses were evaluated after exposure to a 25‐min noise stressor with or without perceived control. Participants were healthy men (n = 29) and women (n = 34), aged 21 to 45 years. There were no group differences in cognitive task performance or blood pressure during the stressor. However, perceived control resulted in lower mean blood pressure and heart rate after cessation of the stressor for men and women. Women without perceived control displayed greater frustration levels following the stressor, and frustrated women ate more bland food than did nonfrustrated women. Perceived control and frustration did not affect food consumption among men following the stressor. These findings indicate that there are health‐relevant gender differences in biobehavioral responses that occur in the aftermath of stressor exposure. In addition, perceived control was especially important for women to attenuate the behavioral and biological effects of stressor exposure.     

Survey on Using Ethical Principles in Environmental Field Research with Place-Based Communities

Science and Engineering Ethics - Researchers of the Northeast Ethics Education Partnership (NEEP) at Brown University sought to improve an understanding of the ethical challenges of field...     

Metaplasticity rendered visible in paint: How matter ‘matters’ in the lifeworld of Human action.

Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences - Recent theoretical and philosophical movements within the study of material culture are more carefully attending to the variety of ways in which human...     

Interpersonal Features and Functions of Nonsuicidal Self‐injury

Etiological models of nonsuicidal self‐injury (NSSI) suggest interpersonal features may be important to understand this behavior, but social functions and correlates have not been extensively studied. This study addresses existing limitations by examining interpersonal correlates and functions of NSSI within a stratified random sample of 1,243 predominantly Caucasian college students (mean age = 21.52, SD = 4.15 years). Participants completed an anonymous online survey assessing NSSI features, perceived social support, and disclosure experiences. Approximately 15% of the students endorsed NSSI. Interpersonal reasons were endorsed proportionally more often for initiating rather than repeating the behavior. Individuals with repetitive NSSI reported significantly lower perceived social support from family members and fewer individuals to seek advice from than single‐act and control participants. Fifty‐nine percent had disclosed their NSSI, but rarely to mental health professionals. Conversations with others about NSSI were rated as being mostly unhelpful. These results emphasize the importance of interpersonal features and functions of NSSI, suggesting treatments should focus on strengthening interpersonal bonds alongside emotion regulation. Improving responses to disclosures of NSSI is needed to promote communication about this behavior and perceived helpfulness of such conversations.