Rethinking Research Ethics

Contemporary research ethics policies started with reflection on the atrocities perpetrated upoconcentration camp inmates by Nazi doctors. Apparently, as a consequence of that experience, the policies that now guide human subject research focus on the protection of human subjects by making informed consent the centerpiece of regulatory attention. I take the choice of context for policy design, the initial prioritization of informed consent, and several associated conceptual missteps, to have set research ethics off in the wrong direction. The aim of this paper is to sort out these confusions and their implications and to offer instead a straightforward framework for considering the ethical conduct of human subject research. In the course of this discussion I clarify different senses of autonomy that have been confounded and present more intelligible justifications for informed consent. I also take issue with several of the now accepted dogmas that govern research ethics. These include: the primacy of informed consent, the protection of the vulnerable, the substitution of beneficence for research's social purpose, and the introduction of an untenable distinction between innovation and research.     

Replication and Extension of a Hierarchical Model of Social Anxiety and Depression: Fear of Positive Evaluation as a Key Unique Factor in Social Anxiety

Wang, Hsu, Chiu, and Liang (2012, Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 26, 215–224) recently proposed a hierarchical model of social interaction anxiety and depression to account for both the commonalities and distinctions between these conditions. In the present paper, this model was extended to more broadly encompass the symptoms of social anxiety disorder, and replicated in a large unselected, undergraduate sample (n = 585). Structural equation modeling (SEM) and hierarchical regression analyses were employed. Negative affect and positive affect were conceptualized as general factors shared by social anxiety and depression; fear of negative evaluation (FNE) and disqualification of positive social outcomes were operationalized as specific factors, and fear of positive evaluation (FPE) was operationalized as a factor unique to social anxiety. This extended hierarchical model explicates structural relationships among these factors, in which the higher-level, general factors (i.e., high negative affect and low positive affect) represent vulnerability markers of both social anxiety and depression, and the lower-level factors (i.e., FNE, disqualification of positive social outcomes, and FPE) are the dimensions of specific cognitive features. Results from SEM and hierarchical regression analyses converged in support of the extended model. FPE is further supported as a key symptom that differentiates social anxiety from depression.     

中小学教师PTSD和PTG的影响因素研究：灾难前-中-后的视角

采用事件影响量表、创伤后成长问卷、社会支持问卷、应对方式问卷等对汶川地震1年后极重灾区的106名中小学教师进行调查,考察前灾难因子、灾难当下因子和后灾难因子等对教师创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）和创伤后成长（PTG）的影响。结果发现：（1）灾后中小学教师的PTSD处于中低水平、PTG处于中上水平,其中女教师的PTSD和PTG水平高于男教师,班主任教师PTSD水平高于非班主任教师,有过被困经历的教师PTSD水平高于没有被困经历的教师,有亲朋或学生受伤的教师其PTSD和PTG水平均高于无亲朋或学生受伤的教师;（2）社会支持对PTSD没有显著的预测作用,社会支持中的信息支持可以促进PTG,而情感支持和实质性支持对PTG没有显著的影响;（3）逃避的应对方式能显著地正向预测PTSD,问题解决的应对方式能显著正向地预测PTG,而寻求帮助的应对方式对PTSD和PTG都不具有显著的影响。     

The Selfish Side of Self‐Control

Self‐control is a powerful tool that promotes goal pursuit by helping individuals curb personal desires, follow norms, and adopt rational thinking. In interdependent social contexts, the socially acceptable (i.e. normative) and rational approach to secure long‐term goals is prosocial behaviour. Consistent with that, much research associates self‐control with prosociality. The present research demonstrates that when norm salience is reduced (i.e. social relations are no longer interdependent), high self‐control leads to more selfish behaviour when it is economically rational. In three studies, participants were asked to allocate an endowment between themselves and another person (one‐round, zero‐sum version of the dictator game), facing a conflict between a socially normative and an economically rational approach. Across the studies, norm salience was manipulated [through manipulation of social context (private/public; Studies 1 and 2), measurement of social desirability (Studies 1 and 3), and measurement (Study 2) and manipulation (Study 3) of social power] such that some participants experienced low normative pressure. Findings showed that among individuals in a low normative pressure context, self‐control led to economically rational, yet selfish, behaviour. The findings highlight the role of self‐control in regulating behaviour so as to maximize situational adaptation. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Face recognition as a predictor of social cognitive ability: Effects of emotion and race on face processing

The human face conveys important social signals when people interact in social contexts. The current study investigated the relationship between face recognition and emotional intelligence, and how societal factors of emotion and race influence people's face recognition. Participants’ recognition accuracy, reaction time, sensitivity, and response bias were measured to examine their face‐processing ability. Fifty Caucasian undergraduates (38 females, 12 males; average age = 21.76 years) participated in a face recognition task in which they discriminated previously presented target faces from novel distractor faces. A positive correlation between participants’ emotional intelligence scores and their performance on the face recognition task was observed, suggesting that face recognition ability was associated with emotional or social intelligence. Additionally, Caucasian participants recognized happy faces better than angry or neutral faces. It was also observed that people recognized Asian faces better than Caucasian ones, which appears to be contradictory to the classic other‐race effect. The present study suggests that some societal factors could influence face processing, and face recognition ability could in turn predict social intelligence.     

社会支持的调节作用研究

为了考察社会支持在人格特征和心理健康水平之间的调节作用,利用症状自评量表、社会支持评定量表和艾森克人格问卷简式量表对1102名大学生进行施测。层级回归分析的结果不仅支持了社会支持的调节作用,而且表明社会支持与个体的心理健康水平之间存在三种不同的关系形式,即(1)社会支持的主效应显著,但是调节效应不显著;(2)社会支持的主效应和调节效应同时显著;(3)社会支持的主效应不显著,但是调节效应显著。     

儿童期社交退缩的亚类型及与社会适应的关系

对20世纪80年代以来有关儿童期社交退缩的研究进行了综述,包括社交退缩的概念、研究方法、亚类型以及不同类型社交退缩行为与儿童社会适应之间的关系。对社交退缩的概念进行了总结,指出社交退缩包括安静退缩、活跃退缩和焦虑退缩3种亚类型,其中安静退缩在儿童中后期与社会适应的关系较为紧密,活跃退缩在整个儿童期都与社会适应水平负向联系,而焦虑退缩与社会适应之间的关系具有情境性的特点,只有熟悉情境下的焦虑退缩行为才与社会适应具有负向联系。最后,文章指出了现有研究的不足和今后的研究方向。