Ethical issues of behavior modification research in schools

Behavior modification research in the classroom was examined by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects because of the increasingly widespread use of behavioral procedures in the schools, the effectiveness of these procedures in changing academic and social behavior, and the consequent concern about potential misuse. In order to foster the responsible use of behavior modification procedures in the schools on a practical as well as a research basis, the following ethical issues being considered by researchers and the involved public are discussed: informed consent, determination of classroom goals, legitimacy of rewards and aversive controls in the classroom, conceptions of behavior modification as manipulative and mechanistic, who can implement the procedures, research design, and accountability. The authors conclude that the issues regarding protection of human subjects in behavior modification research are no different from other treatment-oriented research with children. However, the high degree of parental and teacher involvement in both research and practice requires shared responsibility for the prevention of misuse of behavior modification procedures.     

Intertribal dance and cross cultural communication: Traditional powwows in Ohio

Greater fear arousal is associated with greater engagement with persuasive messages, and negative information and events are more potent than their positive counterparts. Hence loss-framed persuasive appeals, which emphasize the undesirable outcomes of noncompliance with the communicator's recommendations, should elicit greater message processing than do gain-framed appeals, which emphasize the desirable outcomes of compliance. But a meta-analytic review (based on 42 effect sizes, N = 6,378) finds that gain-framed messages engender slightly but significantly greater message engagement than do loss-framed messages. This effect is apparently not a result of whether the appeals refer to obtaining or averting negative (e.g., “skin cancer”) rather than positive (e.g., “attractive skin”) outcomes.     

Use of Dewey Decimal Classification by Academic Libraries in the United States

Abstract

Nearly 25 years have elapsed since the last comprehensive measure of the percentage of academic libraries that employ the Dewey and Library of Congress systems of classification. To provide updated statistics, the researchers surveyed all 3793 academic libraries via their online catalogs. The findings indicate that the use of Dewey has declined over the past four decades. Teachers’ Colleges and Community Colleges in particular have higher rates of Dewey use than large research or professional universities. This information may help support academic library reclassification decisions.     

Counterpublicity and Corporeality in HIV/AIDS Zines

This essay demonstrates how two U.S. zines produced from 1990 to 1999 by and for gay men with HIV/AIDS—Diseased Pariah News (DPN) and Infected Faggot Perspectives (IFP)—constitute counterpublics. I demonstrate how DPN and IFP constitute counterpublics through thematization of two important forms of difference—blood status (HIV-positive or HIV-negative), and political ideology. I then specify and elaborate primary modes of corporeal expressivity in the zines—the erotic/sexual and the grotesque—to demonstrate the work that each mode does for the counterpublics.     

Archiving for self-ascertainment, identity-building and permanent self-questioning: archives between scepticism and certitude

Archives are facing many challenges as information overload and increasing societal diversity. These two trends ask for decided measures, one in terms of selection and the other in terms of expanded information preservation to document all societal groups appropriately. These opposing trends force archivists to rethink permanently their appraisal politics and their functional orientation. Basic archival functions have to be aligned on one hand with services for an organisation related to democratic standards as accountability and transparency and on the other hand with a memory politics aiming at an extensive documentation of the enormous societal diversity by preserving the (cultural) patrimony of all groups to facilitate their identity-building. By looking back in our institutional history and comparing the Swiss and the Canadian approach in appraisal as well as the larger political context of documenting, we aim to show that a clear functional orientation, a transparent and participatory process of selection, a cooperative approach in fulfilling existing challenges and duties as well as a sound understanding of our institutional past help to make the necessary choices. It is important to stress, firstly, that archives as multifunctional institutions serve the principles of democracy and support the rule of law, and secondly, that by selecting documents for preservation and by reducing the mass of information, we nonetheless will preserve an abundant documentary heritage, which will not only serve to stabilize societal (or communitarian) identity but it will still serve as a reservoir feeding essential scepticism as an engine for progress.     

The Puzzle of Museum Educational Practice: A Comment on Rounds and Falk

Abstract Museum practice is in the midst of a fascinating practical and theoretical trajectory. The mandate that museums place education at the center of their public service role has had the effect of framing a new set of questions and—inevitably—problems. If museums have primary value to society as educational institutions, what kind of learning actually happens in them? Jay Rounds and John Falk, writing at the leading edge of this inquiry, explore curiosity, motivation and self‐identity as paramount considerations for the special type of learning museums promote. Their analyses present interesting challenges for the museum practitioner, who may observe that people find the pursuit of curiosity pleasurable and value it more highly than knowledge acquisition. The practitioner may conclude that museums have a calling: They stand for the value of curiosity for its own sake, and for that reason will never wear out their welcome.