Patient Perspectives on the Learning Health System: The Importance of Trust and Shared Decision Making

We conducted focus groups to assess patient attitudes toward research on medical practices in the context of usual care. We found that patients focus on the implications of this research for their relationship with and trust in their physicians. Patients view research on medical practices as separate from usual care, demanding dissemination of information and in most cases, individual consent. Patients expect information about this research to come through their physician, whom they rely on to identify and filter associated risks. In general, patients support this research, but worry that participation in research involving randomization may undermine individualized care that acknowledges their unique medical histories. These findings suggest the need for public education on variation in practice among physicians and the need for a collaborative approach to the governance of research on medical practices that addresses core values of trust, transparency, and partnership.     

New Ways of Making Babies: The Case of Egg Donation (Book)

This research was undertaken to explore audience members learning ethics from two national museum exhibitions: The Return of Sherlock Holmes (RSH) and Human Body Exploration (HBE) in Taiwan. Based on literature review of ethics for museums, there are four dimensions related to exhibition ethics: environment, marketing, education, and services. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to examine the relationships within the dimensions of environment, marketing, education, and services of exhibition ethics and to understand the differences in exhibition ethics between RSH and HBE. The total number of valid questionnaires was 191 for RSH and 152 for HBE. The research method analysis of variance was applied to examine whether there were significant differences between individual's basic data and four different dimensions of exhibition ethics in museums.

As survey data revealed, exhibition ethics had significant relationships with four dimensions (serviceability, education, environment, and marketing) and significant differences to the demographic variable, such as age. We suggest that exhibition agents should emphasize exhibition contents more than relative commodities, thereby possibly attracting audiences to visit the museum exhibitions. In addition, the exhibitions that were related to sensible issues should be divided into different levels regulated in terms of audience age and the degree to which parents, teachers, or narrators at the museum could negatively influence a younger visitor's perception of an exhibition and thereby museums. Finally, during busy periods, the museums should control visitor numbers to maintain visiting quality. Therefore, the museums should be able to create added value to attract more audience members to visit the exhibition.     

Students' Ethical Awareness and Conceptions of Research Ethics

The study focused on university students' understanding and conceptions of ethical issues in research. Domain-specific and domain-transcending measures were developed to gauge the students' awareness of ethical issues. Responses were obtained from 269 undergraduate and graduate students at a U.S. regional university. Participant withdrawal, the debriefing of research participants, the dissemination of findings, and giving credit to co-contributors were the most challenging ethical issues for the students. Ethical awareness was predicted by professional and organizational socialization, and perspective taking. Contextualization greatly improved the students' ability to recognize ethical issues. Simulations and role-taking are suggested as the means with which to teach students about the ethical issues perceived as challenging.     

Ethical Academic Judgments and Behaviors: Applying a Multidimensional Ethics Scale to Measure the Ethical Academic Behavior of Graduate Students

Using Reidenbach and Robin's Multidimensional Ethics Scale, this study investigated the relationships between background variables and students' ethical evaluations, judgments, and behavioral intentions using 3 scenarios involving dilemmas related to academic dishonesty. The sample included 436 master's students and 142 doctoral students. The study found that the participants used a combination of ethical philosophies to make ethical decisions. The respondents judged improper citations more harshly than acts of inappropriate authorship or the falsification of data. The doctoral students generally considered behaviors related to plagiarism and falsification to be more unethical than the master's students did, though no gender differences were found.     

Moral Management Methodology/Mythology: Erroneous Ethical Equations

Understanding the falsity of certain common beliefs helps students move toward better business ethics and a higher degree of moral management. This article explains one method for teaching moral management, by using ethical equation inequalities, and offers 10 implications and suggestions to managers.     

Believers and Skeptics: Where Social Worker Situate Themselves Regarding the Code of Ethics

Based on individual and focus-group interviews, this article describes how social workers in a variety of settings and geographical areas within Ontario approached ethical issues in their daily practices. Two primary approaches to professional ethics emerge from the data: principle based and virtue based, reflecting the orientation of groups we label believers and skeptics, respectively. The code of ethics appears to be the fulcrum from which our participants swing. The believers show faith in the code of ethics and the skeptics are dubious that codes are necessarily in the best interests of clients. The article describes the thinking behind the actions of the believers and skeptics and explores possibilities for future practice and research with respect to decision-making regarding ethical issues in the social work profession.     

An Examination of the Effects of Sport Involvement on Ethical Judgments in Sport and Business

Popular press headlines frequently reveal unethical or illegal activity in business and sports. Given these parallel ethical lapses in business and sport, our study examines potential relationships between student sport involvement (active and passive) and ethical judgments regarding issues in sport and business. Our results, based on a sample of 202 undergraduates in an upper-division management class, indicate a significant negative relationship between high passive sport involvement and ethical judgments about sport issues as well as a consistent significant positive relationship between female gender and ethical judgments about sport and business issues.     

Developing Moral Decision-Making Competence: A Quasi-Experimental Intervention Study in the Swiss Armed Forces

Moral development has become an integral part in military training and the importance of moral judgment and behavior in military operations can hardly be overestimated. Many armed forces have integrated military ethics and moral decision-making interventions in their training programs. However, little is known about the effectiveness of these interventions. This study examined the effectiveness of a 1-week training program in moral decision making in the Swiss Armed Forces. The program was based on a strategy-based interactional moral dilemma approach. Results of this quasi-experimental intervention study showed significant improvements in content-related (moral and instrumental awareness, quality of moral information processing, development of compensatory actions) as well as process-related (situational analysis, development and evaluation of alternative solutions, justification of decision) aspects in moral decision making. Results of a follow-up test indicated positive long-term effects with regard to moral and instrumental awareness and process-related aspects. Findings are discussed, and consequences for leadership development programs and further research are explored.     

Effects of Personality and Information Technology on Plagiarism: An Iranian Perspective

Information technology has played a remarkably important role in developing the contemporary educational system. It not only provides easy access to enormous stores of information but also increases students' scientific efficiency. However, the availability of this technology has also led to increased plagiarism. This study attempted to explore how access to Internet technology contributes to plagiarism problems from the perspective of university students in Iran. A qualitative method to semistructured interviews with 20 students suggested important themes: uncertainty avoidance, tendency to use shortcuts to progress, symbolic certification, social learning and modeling of faculty members as mentors, and plagiarism in the name of justice. Survey data from 180 university students suggest that the personality characteristic of conscientiousness had a negative effect on using information technology to commit plagiarism.     

Ethical Issues and Guidelines for Conducting Data Analysis in Psychological Research

Psychologists are directed by ethical guidelines in most areas of their practice. However, there are very few guidelines for conducting data analysis in research. The aim of this article is to address the need for more extensive ethical guidelines for researchers who are post–data collection and beginning their data analyses. Improper data analysis is an ethical issue because it can result in publishing false or misleading conclusions. This article includes a review of ethical implications of improper data analysis and potential causes of unethical practices. In addition, current guidelines in psychology and other areas (e.g., American Psychological Association and American Statistical Association Ethics Codes) were used to inspire a list of recommendations for ethical conduct in data analysis that is appropriate for researchers in psychology.