Two Contrasting Explanations of Involvement Violations:

Among the theories that address the impact of variations in immediacy behaviors during ongoing interactions are expectancy violations (EV) and discrepancy arousal (DA) theories. This study of the effects of violations of expectations on arousal, reciprocity, and compensation in the medical practitioner-patient relationship contrasts EV predictions with DA predictions. EV theory predicts that given a communicator with high reward valence, high and very high involvement (including touch and close proximity) should be met with reciprocation (increased involvement), and low and very low involvement should be met with compensation (increased involvement). DA theory predicts compensating very high involvement with decreased involvement, reciprocating high involvement with increased involvement, compensating low involvement with increased involvement, and reciprocating very low involvement, with decreased involvement. Results supported neither theory as all involvement changes were met with reciprocity. Additionally, although all violations/discrepancies were followed by changes in arousal, size of arousal change was not monotonically related to size of involvement change, as predicted by DA theory. Finally, although positive versus negative emotional experiences were not related to physiological indicators of arousal change, size of involvement change was directly related to the experience of positive and negative emotions. Thus, it appears that involvement change size directly predicts emotional experience and is not mediated by arousal change.     

Autonomy and the Free Speech Principle

ABSTRACT Autonomy may be used to justify free speech claims where the right is raised against the state but also to justify state intervention intended to promote autonomy which may entail restraints on others' speech. The appeal to diversity and autonomy may be used by both sides of the pornography and censorship debate. Although autonomy may be invoked in defence of pornography as part of the general defence of free speech, it is argued that autonomy favours the regulation of pornography. The 'free speech'defence of pornography is critically examined here and an alternative argument advanced for regulation.     

Different Voices, Still Lives: Problems in the Ethics of Care

ABSTRACT Recent writings in feminist ethics have urged that the activity of caring is more central to women's lives than are considerations of justice and equality. This paper argues that an ethics of care, so understood, is difficult to extend beyond the local and familiar, and is therefore of limited use in addressing the political problems of the modern world. However, the ethics of care does contain an important insight: if references to care are understood not as claims about women's nature, but as reflections on the extent to which moral obligations are both unchosen and conflicting, then an ethics of care can supplement an ethics of justice, and can also provide a more realistic account of both men's and women's moral life.     

COMMUNICATING PEER FEEDBACK IN A TASK GROUP

Through an analysis of a feedback session among members of a small task-oriented group, the multifaceted nature of feedback was explored. Dynamism, trust, clarity, mood, and criticism emerged as important underlying dimensions of peer feedback. Additionally, this study explored the communicator style in giving feedback. Significant communicative differences across group members were found in their manner of giving feedback. Effectiveness of feedback was significantly related to the feedback's dynamism and with a verbally assertive style. This study appears to demonstrate that both feedback content and form influence judgments of feedback effectiveness.