The Cultural Salience of Moral Character and Virtue Declined in Twentieth Century America

By Pelin Kesebir and Selin Kesebir
Journal of Positive Psychology - Future Edition

Abstract:     

In a large corpus of American books, we tracked how frequently words related to moral excellence and virtue appeared over the 20th century. Considering the well-established cultural trend in the United States toward greater individualism and its implications for the moral domain, we predicted that morality and virtue terms would appear with diminishing frequency in American books. Two studies supported our predictions: Study 1 showed a decline in the use of general moral terms such as virtue, decency, and conscience throughout the 20th century. In Study 2, we examined the appearance frequency of 50 virtue words (e.g., honesty, patience, compassion) and found a significant decline for 74% of them. Overall, our findings suggest that during the 20th century, moral ideals and virtues have largely waned from the public conversation.

The entire paper is here.

Thanks to Ken Pope for this lead.

Harvard accuses 125 students of cheating

By Mary Carmichael
Boston.com
Originally published August 31, 2012

Harvard University is investigating 125 students accused of collaborating on a spring take-home final exam, in what could prove to be the largest Ivy League cheating scandal in recent memory.

Nearly half the students in an introductory government class are suspected of jointly coming up with answers or copying off one another. Groups of students appear to have worked together on responses to short questions and an essay assignment, violating a no-collaboration policy that was printed on the exam itself, said Jay Harris, Harvard’s dean of undergraduate education.

Although no students appear to have lifted text from outside sources, some apparently plagiarized their classmates’ work, submitting answers that were either identical or “too close for comfort,” Harris said Thursday.

A teaching fellow noticed the similarities in May while grading a subset of the exams. He alerted the professor, who approached the college’s Administrative Board, the body that oversees student behavior. The board was worried enough to spend the summer interviewing some of the students and reviewing every exam in the class.

The students whose tests were flagged as problematic — nearly 2 percent of the college’s approximately 6,700 undergraduates — have been notified and will appear before the board individually in the next few weeks, Harris said. Some may be exonerated, but those found guilty could face a range of punishments up to yearlong suspensions.

The entire story is here.

Vignette 17: Titles, Roles and Boundaries

Dr. Thomas is a psychologist who is a part owner of a private practice in which they offer Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services.  The EAP service provides a solution-focused, three-session benefit for companies within Pennsylvania.  Dr. Thomas normally does not handle EAP services. Several staff members were either ill or overbooked, so Dr. Thomas responds to EAP requests during the day.

When dealing with the EAP program, she thinks her title of “doctor” might put people off, so she announces herself as “Sue” when dealing with EAP clients.  When returning a call from Chuck who works for a company with the EAP benefit, the psychologist indicates that she is "Sue" from the EAP program.  Chuck is a 20-year old man who immediately expresses a great deal of agitation and anger. He complains loudly about his parents and his girlfriend. In the process of conversation, Dr. Thomas realizes that Chuck is the son of her next-door neighbors.  While Chuck now lives in an apartment in town, she remembers him well.  She actually attended his graduation party briefly and hired him to cut her lawn for two years.

Also during the course of the phone contact, Chuck expresses some homicidal rage toward his parents, particularly around financial issues and early childhood sexual abuse from his father. Dr. Thomas wants him to come in immediately for a more in-depth evaluation. Chuck hesitated to have a face-to-face interview at the practice, but agreed only if he can talk with Sue.  Sue schedules the appointment for early in the evening.

What are the ethical concerns in this scenario?

How would you advise Dr. Thomas to handle them?

If you were a co-owner of the business, how would you feel about this situation?

Overtreatment Is Taking a Harmful Toll

By Tara Parker-Pope
The New York Times - The Well Column
Originally published August 27, 2012

When it comes to medical care, many patients and doctors believe more is better.

But an epidemic of overtreatment — too many scans, too many blood tests, too many procedures — is costing the nation’s health care system at least $210 billion a year, according to the Institute of Medicine, and taking a human toll in pain, emotional suffering, severe complications and even death.

“What people are not realizing is that sometimes the test poses harm,” said Shannon Brownlee, acting director of the health policy program at the New America Foundation and the author of “Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.”

“Sometimes the test leads you down a path, a therapeutic cascade, where you start to tumble downstream to more and more testing, and more and more invasive testing, and possibly even treatment for things that should be left well enough alone.”

The entire article is here.

Anorexic woman not to be force-fed, judge rules

BBC News UK
Originally published August 24, 2012

A High Court judge has ruled in favour of an NHS trust that force feeding would not be in the "best interests" of an anorexic woman.

Mrs Justice King, at the Court of Protection in London, heard that the 29-year-old woman, who weighs about 3st 2lb (20kg), does not wish to die.

She ruled "all reasonable steps" should be taken to gain the woman's co-operation, without "physical force".

Anorexia creates a fear of ingesting calories that stops a person eating.

The woman from the north of England, who cannot be identified for legal reasons and is referred to as L, has suffered from anorexia from the age of 12.

Since turning 14 she has spent 90% of her life as an in-patient.

The entire story is here.

Priest apologizes after sex abuse comments draw ire

By Laura Koran
CNN
Originally published August 31, 2012


A prominent Catholic friar has apologized for saying that child victims of sex abuse may at times bear some of the responsibility for the attacks because they can seduce their assailants, and that first-time sex offenders should not receive jail time.

"I did not intend to blame the victim," the Rev. Benedict Groeschel, of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said Thursday. "A priest (or anyone else) who abuses a minor is always wrong and is always responsible."

As founder of the Trinity Retreat House, which operates "to provide spiritual direction and retreats for clergy," Groeschel has worked with priests involved in abuse.

His initial comments were published by the National Catholic Register, a conservative Christian publication, which also issued an apology.

"Child sexual abuse is never excusable," the newspaper said in a statement. "The editors of the National Catholic Register apologize for publishing without clarification or challenge Father Benedict Groeschel's comments that seem to suggest that the child is somehow responsible for abuse. Nothing could be further from the truth."

The entire story is here.

Priest Puts Blame on Some Victims of Sexual Abuse

By Sharon Otterman
The New York Times
Originally published August 30, 2012

A prominent Roman Catholic spiritual leader who has spent decades counseling wayward priests for the archdiocese provoked shock and outrage on Thursday as word spread of a recent interview he did with a Catholic newspaper during which he said that “youngsters” were often to blame when priests sexually abused them and that priests should not be jailed for such abuse on their first offense.

The Rev. Benedict Groeschel, who made the remarks, is a beloved figure among many Catholics and a founder of Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, a conservative priestly order based in New York. He hosts a weekly show on the Eternal Word Television Network and has written 45 books.
        

The comments were published on Monday by The National Catholic Register, which is owned by EWTN, a religious broadcaster based in Alabama.

       

“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him,” Father Groeschel, now 79, said in the interview. “A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer.”

      

He added that he was “inclined to think” that priests who were first-time abusers should not be jailed because “their intention was not committing a crime.”

 

The entire story is here.

Genes Now Tell Doctors Secrets They Can’t Utter

By Gina Kolata
The New York Times
Originally 25, 2012

Dr. Arul Chinnaiyan stared at a printout of gene sequences from a man with cancer, a subject in one of his studies. There, along with the man’s cancer genes, was something unexpected — genes of the virus that causes AIDS.

It could have been a sign that the man was infected with H.I.V.; the only way to tell was further testing. But Dr. Chinnaiyan, who leads the Center for Translational Pathology at the University of Michigan, was not able to suggest that to the patient, who had donated his cells on the condition that he remain anonymous.

In laboratories around the world, genetic researchers using tools that are ever more sophisticated to peer into the DNA of cells are increasingly finding things they were not looking for, including information that could make a big difference to an anonymous donor.

The question of how, when and whether to return genetic results to study subjects or their families “is one of the thorniest current challenges in clinical research,” said Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health. “We are living in an awkward interval where our ability to capture the information often exceeds our ability to know what to do with it.”

(cut)

Such ethical quandaries grow more immediate year by year as genome sequencing gets cheaper and easier. More studies include gene sequencing and look at the entire genome instead of just one or two genes. Yet while some findings are clear-cut — a gene for colon cancer, for example, will greatly increase the disease risk in anyone who inherits it — more often the significance of a genetic change is not so clear. Or, even if it is, there is nothing to be done.

The entire story is here.

An Academic Ghostwriter, the 'Shadow Scholar,' Comes Clean

By Dan Berrett

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Originally published on August 21, 2012

When The Chronicle published a confessional essay two years ago by a writer for a student-paper mill who had spent nearly a decade helping college students cheat on their assignments, it provoked anger, astonishment, and weary resignation.

The writer, under the pseudonym Ed Dante, said he had completed scores of papers for students who were too lazy or simply unprepared for their work at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels.

The academic ghostwriter has retired, and in his new memoir, he reveals his true identity: Dave Tomar, 32, a graduate of the bachelor's program in communications at Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus and, now, a freelance writer in Philadelphia.

In The Shadow Scholar: How I Made a Living Helping College Kids Cheat, which is due out next month from Bloomsbury, Mr. Tomar seeks to cast himself as a millennial antihero while scolding colleges for placing the pursuit of money and status above student learning.

The entire article is here.