What’s Human Rights Got to Do with It? On the Proposed Changes to SSHRC Ethics Research Policy

What’s human rights got to do with it? That is, what’s human rights got to do with the June 2004 report of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Ethics Special Working Committee to the Inter-Agency Advisory Panel on Research Ethics. The disturbing answer is “not enough.” Certain key recommendations of the working committee, it is suggested, would unacceptably weaken the researcher’s legal and moral accountability to research participants. Those particular recommendations rely on misguided references to academic freedom and the nature of the non-medical research context. In fact, universal human rights, and the legal instruments in which they are embodied ought to inform the research endeavor at every stage; from problem selection to analysis and conclusions. This will lead us closer to shared truths rather than simply to the academic elite’s vision of truth. Without sufficient regard for the human rights of research participants academic freedom itself is not possible.     

卫生保健政策与医学伦理学

卫生保健政策是卫生资源、价值目标和伦理原则三者的结合。医学伦理学是卫生政策的重要基础。当代卫生事业的特点,卫生保健服务面临的挑战以及医学伦理主体与客体的变化,决定了医学伦理学在当代卫生保健政策中的特殊意义。在医学面临全民保健的阶段,一个科学的符合人民健康利益的卫生保健政策是不言而喻的。摆脱当前卫生政策面临的困难,要求必须在医学伦理学方面作出正确的选择。     

The effects of language conditioning on various aspects of anxiety

Staats' three-function learning theory provides the basis for investigating the effects of emotionally-relevant self-verbalizations (SV) on the physiological, subjective-affective and behavioural aspects of anxiety. Using aversive electric UCSs and slides of snakes (CS), anxiety was classically conditioned in 88 volunteer Ss. In 20 subsequent language-conditioning trials (without aversive electric UCSs), the same snakes slides were paired with UCS verbalizations having either positive or negative connotative meanings. Half of the Ss were exposed to a living snake prior to language conditioning. The results show a complete extinction of the conditioned anxiety response in groups with positive SV whereas negative SV impeded extinction; the latter effect could only be found in groups without exposure to snakes prior to language conditioning. In general, the affective evaluation of snakes improved in groups with positive SV and deteriorated in groups with negative SV. However, these effects were more pronounced in groups without exposure to snakes. Although the results indicate that Ss in all groups with positive SV exhibited more approach behaviours than Ss with negative SV, this trend was not statistically significant. The possible relevance of the results for a language-conditioning approach to anxiety reduction is briefly discussed.     

American and Danish police “dropout” rates: Denmark's force as a case study in high job satisfaction,low stress,and low turnover

An excessive “dropout” rate among police officers—quitting prior to normal retirement—wastes resources and may result in a low level of experience. Denmark's police force appears to be a case study in low turnover and may provide valuable insights. A primarily qualitative analysis contends that factors related to Danish culture and police practices produce relatively low stress and high “need fulfillment” for Danish officers in comparison with their counterparts in typical U.S. police departments—variables previously found related to low turnover. Results of a mail questionnaire show rates of early leaving (prior to retirement) notably lower for the Danish police than for a U.S. national sample of 87 police departments in large cities, and a special subsample of 39 small-city departments in California. Qualifications and implications are discussed.     

Time perspective in vocational maturity and career decision making

This study investigated the hypothesis that time perspective is a component in vocational maturity and career decision making. Ninety-seven college freshmen responded to two measures of time perspective and seven measures selected to represent attitudinal vocational maturity, cognitive vocational maturity, and career decision making. The nine variables were intercorrelated and the resulting matrix was subjected to alpha factor analysis. Three factors were extracted and titled Attitudinal Vocational Maturity, Cognitive Vocational Maturity, and Career Decision Making. As predicted, time perspective was a component in the Attitudinal Vocational Maturity and Career Decision-Making factors. The results supported the hypothesis and specifically linked time perspective to planfulness and degree of indecision.     

Relationships between Growth need Strength and selected individual differences measures employed in job design research

The present study examines the degree to which the Growth Need Strength scales (Job Choice and Would Like formats) of the Job Diagnostic Survey (Hackman & Oldham, Journal of Applied Psychology, 1975, 60, 159–170) correlate with (a) other measures of needs and values employed in research as moderators of the job scope-job satisfaction relationship and (b) a measure of social desirability. Results showed (a) only moderate correlations between the Growth Need Strength scales and the other measures of needs and values and (b) a relatively high degree of correlation between social desirability and the Would Like measure of Growth Need Strength. Implications of these findings for job design research are considered.     

The role of the perioral reflex in lip motor control for speech.

The analysis of spinal and brainstem reflexes has been shown to be a useful method of quantifying the various inputs to motoneuron pools involved in voluntary motor control. This work is selectively reviewed as a background to a discussion of the role of the perioral reflex in lip motor control for speech. Data on the sensorimotor innervation of the lips and the static and dynamic properties of the perioral reflex are presented in support of the notions that (1) perioral reflex analysis provides a viable technique for analyzing brainstem excitability changes underlying lip muscle contraction for speech, and (2) the perioral reflex loop is an important functional element in lip motor control for speech.     

Left thalamic hemorrhage with dysphasia: a report of five cases.

A specific type of “thalamic speech” is being recognized with increasing frequency. Paucity of spontaneous speech, fading vocal volume, anomia, perseveration, and neologisms, with intact comprehension and word repetition, characterize the speech disorder associated with thalamic lesions. Nine cases of left thalamic hemorrhage and speech disturbance have been reported previously. This report details the speech, neurological, and neuroradiological findings in five additional cases of thalamic hemorrhage with dysphasia.