The American Psychological Association urged psychologists today to take a leading role in ending discrimination based on gender identity, calling upon the profession to provide “appropriate, nondiscriminatory treatment to all transgender and gender-variant individuals” and encouraging more research into all aspects of gender identity and expression.

The action came at APA’s Annual Convention when the association’s governing Council of Representatives adopted a resolution supporting full equality for transgender and gender-variant people. The resolution also calls on APA to:

support legal and social recognition of transgender individuals consistent with their gender identity and expression;

In addition to adopting the wide-ranging resolution, the Council of Representatives received a report by APA’s Task Force on Gender Identity and Gender Variance. The six-member task force spent more than two years reviewing the scientific literature, as well as APA policies regarding transgender issues. It was also charged with developing recommendations for education, professional training and further research into transgenderism, and proposing how APA can best meet the needs of psychologists and students who identify as transgender or gender-variant.

Noting that transgender people, their families, friends and employers are increasingly turning to psychologists for help, “this trend underscores the need for psychologists to acquire greater knowledge and competence in addressing transgender issues,” the report states.

Among the report’s recommendations:

• APA should encourage training programs and graduate internships to welcome and support transgender and gender-variant people;

• APA should develop separate practice guidelines for transgender clients;
• APA should encourage more research into gender identity and expression, including the reliability and validity of diagnostic criteria for gender identity disorders;
• APA should advocate for antidiscrimination protection for transgender people in jurisdictions that lack such laws.

With regard to research, the task force listed a series of recommended areas of focus, including social stigma and public attitudes toward gender identity; identity development, including prospective studies of children and adolescents; the process and outcome of transgender-specific health care; and the variables associated with the efficacy of sex reassignment.

As a direct result of the task force’s work, APA added gender identity to its nondiscrimination policy earlier this year. This builds upon prior adoption of gender identity nondiscrimination language in APA’s bylaws, Code of Ethics and its Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Professional Programs in Psychology.

In addition, the task force developed a brochure, Answers to Your Questions about Transgender Individuals and Gender Identity (http://www.apa.org/topics/transgender.html), which APA published in 2007 and has made available on its Web site.

The task force recommended that APA take no position with respect to the diagnosis of gender identity disorder, which is sometimes required for transgender clients to obtain needed care. “Psychologists who work with clients with gender identity issues are not of one mind on this issue,” task force members wrote. They noted that the psychiatric profession publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which contains GID, “and thus revision is their responsibility.”

The report noted that APA has previously adopted resolutions discouraging psychologists from using diagnoses that are potentially harmful or discriminatory. “Accordingly, if there were evidence showing the GID diagnosis to be similarly harmful and discriminatory against gender-variant, transgender or transsexual people, there would be a precedent for a resolution discouraging psychologists from using this diagnosis,” the task force wrote. “However … there is a great deal of disagreement about the GID diagnosis and whether it is helpful or harmful; therefore, the Task Force does not recommend that APA take a position on GID at this time.”

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It is APA’s position that no psychological disorder should be stigmatized or used as the basis for discrimination.

Task force members:

Chair: Margaret Schneider, PhD, University of Toronto, Canada;
Walter O. Bockting, PhD, University of Minnesota Medical School;
Randall D. Ehrbar, PsyD; New Leaf Services Our Community, San Francisco;
Anne A. Lawrence, MD, PhD, Seattle; Katherine Rachlin, PhD, New York;
Kenneth J. Zucker, PhD, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada

Full text of the task force report is available from the APA Public Affairs Office and at http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/transgender/2008TaskForceReport.pdf. The resolution is at http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/policy/transgender.pdf.

The American Psychological Association (APA), based in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world’s largest association of psychologists. APA’s membership includes more than 148,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.

Source: Kim I. Mills
American Psychological Association

The American Psychological Association is deeply concerned about the alleged involvement of a psychologist in an abusive interrogation of a Guantanamo detainee. While the psychologist who has been named is not an APA member, the Association’s position is steadfast. No psychologist - APA member or not - should be directly or indirectly involved in any form of detention or interrogation that could lead to psychological or physical harm to a detainee. APA has specifically prohibited 19 interrogation techniques as torture, noting that this list is not exhaustive. No psychologist should ever have any involvement, direct or indirect, in the use of such techniques, which include waterboarding, hooding, forced nudity or stress positions, in an interrogation. Doing so would be a clear violation of the profession’s ethical standards.

APA calls on the Department of Defense and Congress to continue to investigate the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo and elsewhere to ensure that all professional ethical standards are being upheld. In 2007, the APA Council of Representatives stated that all psychologists “have an ethical responsibility … to cooperate fully with all oversight activities, including hearings by the United States Congress and all branches of the United States government.”

APA strongly supports the full implementation of the U.S. Supreme Court decision holding that Guantanamo detainees have a constitutional right to judicial review of their detentions. We are closely monitoring all available information relevant to the role of psychologists in detainee treatment. APA will pursue ethics investigations where evidence indicates that an APA member has violated our ethical standards.

APA’s policies on detainee welfare

APA members to vote on new resolution

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world’s largest association of psychologists. APA’s membership includes more than 148,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.

American Psychological Association

Asian Americans whose families experience a high degree of interpersonal conflict have a three-fold greater risk of attempting suicide when compared with Asian Americans overall, according to a new study by University of California, Davis, researchers. The risk is tripled even among those who have never had a diagnosis of depression.

The findings were reported during a poster session, “Improving Our Practice — Focus on Ethnic Psychology,” on Sunday, Aug. 17, at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Boston.

“Because of the great emphasis on harmony and family integration in many Asian cultures, family conflict is an important factor to consider when studying suicidal behaviors among Asian Americans,” said Stanley Sue, a professor of psychology and Asian American studies at UC Davis and one of the study’s authors. “Our study suggests that we need to more precisely determine the kinds of family conflicts that are associated with suicide risk among Asian Americans, and find means of preventing these family problems.”

Sue’s study is a new analysis of data from the 2002-2003 National Latino and Asian American Study, the largest nationally representative survey ever conducted of Asian Americans. Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the landmark survey involved in-person interviews with more than 2,000 Asian Americans nationwide. Subjects were asked about income, marital status, age at time of immigration or number of generations their families have been in the United States, English language proficiency, family conflict, and suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts, among other questions, yielding a wealth of raw data for researchers to examine for insights into Asian American mental health.

In the national survey, 2.7 percent of the Asian Americans interviewed reported having attempted suicide at some point during their lives; 9.1 percent of the total group reported having had suicidal thoughts.

Further mining the survey data, Sue and lead investigator Janice Cheng, a psychology graduate student, sorted out the suicide-prone individuals’ answers to additional survey questions that asked about past diagnosis of depression and family income. The researchers compared the answers with those of interviewees who had not reported suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts.

The researchers found that among Asian Americans in the national survey, family conflict was a significant risk factor for suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts — independent of depression, low income or gender.

“This is the first nationally representative investigation of family conflict and suicidal behaviors among Asian Americans,” Sue said. “Our findings suggest that high family conflict has an independent and additive effect in predicting lifetime suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts among Asian Americans.”

Previous studies by other researchers have shown that certain subgroups of Asian Americans, including college students and Asian American women older than 65, have relatively high rates of suicide or suicide attempts compared with the rest of the nation. However, the UC Davis study was not designed to compare rates of suicide among different groups.

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Source: Claudia Morain
University of California - Davis

A new study of Chinese-Caucasian, Filipino-Caucasian, Japanese-Caucasian and Vietnamese-Caucasian individuals concludes that biracial Asian Americans are twice as likely as monoracial Asian Americans to be diagnosed with a psychological disorder.

The study by researchers at the Asian American Center on Disparities Research at the University of California, Davis, was reported in a poster session, “Clinical, Counseling, and Consulting,” on Sunday, Aug. 17, at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Boston.

“Up to 2.4 percent of the U.S. population self-identifies as mixed race, and most of these individuals describe themselves as biracial,” said Nolan Zane, a professor of psychology and Asian American studies at UC Davis. “We cannot underestimate the importance of understanding the social, psychological and experiential differences that may increase the likelihood of psychological disorders among this fast-growing segment of the population.”

Zane and his co-investigator, UC Davis psychology graduate student Lauren Berger, found that 34 percent of biracial individuals in a national survey had been diagnosed with a psychological disorder, such as anxiety, depression or substance abuse, versus 17 percent of monoracial individuals. The higher rate held up even after the researchers controlled for differences between the groups in age, gender and life stress, among other factors.

The study included information from 125 biracial Asian Americans from across the U.S., including 55 Filipino-Caucasians, 33 Chinese-Caucasians, 23 Japanese-Caucasians and 14 Vietnamese-Caucasians.

The information was obtained from the 2002-2003 National Latino and Asian American Study, the largest nationally representative survey ever conducted of Asian Americans. Funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the landmark survey involved in-person interviews with more than 2,000 Asian Americans nationwide. The survey yielded a wealth of raw data for researchers to analyze for insights into Asian American mental health.

Zane and Berger did not look at the mental health of non-Asian Americans.

Future research should investigate the factors that explain the higher rate of diagnosed psychological disorders among biracial Asian Americans, Zane said. Possibilities include influences of ethnic identification and experiences of ethnic discrimination.

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Source: Claudia Morain
University of California - Davis

Adults are easily fooled when a child denies that an actual event took place, but do somewhat better at detecting when a child makes up information about something that never happened, according to new research from the University of California, Davis. The research, which has important implications for forensic child sexual abuse evaluations, was presented Sunday, Aug. 17, at the annual meeting of the American Psychology Association in Boston.

“The large number of children coming into contact with the legal system - mostly as a result of abuse cases - has motivated intense scientific effort to understand children’s true and false reports,” said UC Davis psychology professor and study author Gail S. Goodman. “The seriousness of abuse charges and the frequency with which children’s testimony provides central prosecutorial evidence makes children’s eyewitness memory abilities important considerations. Arguably even more important, however, are adults’ abilities to evaluate children’s reports.”

In an effort to determine if adults can discern children’s true from false reports, Goodman and her co-investigators asked more than 100 adults to view videotapes of 3- and 5-year-olds being interviewed about “true” and “false” events. For true events, the children either accurately confirmed that the event had occurred or inaccurately denied that it had happened. For “false” events - ones that the children had not experienced - they either truthfully denied having experienced them or falsely reported that they had occurred.

Afterward, the adults were asked to evaluate each child’s veracity.

The adults were relatively good at detecting accounts of events that never happened. But the adults were apt to mistakenly believe children’s denials of actual events.

“The findings suggest that adults are better at detecting false reports than they are at detecting false denials,” Goodman said. “While accurately detecting false reports protects innocent people from false allegations, the failure to detect false denials could mean that adults fail to protect children who falsely deny actual victimization.”

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Goodman’s co-authors include Donna Shestowsky, acting professor of law at UC Davis, and doctoral students Stephanie Block, Jennifer Schaaf and Daisy Segovia.

Goodman was among the first researchers to undertake academic study of children’s eyewitness accounts. She is the author of three books and more than 170 scientific articles in the field; some have been cited in U.S. Supreme Court decisions. She is the 2008 recipient of the American Psychological Association’s Urie Bronfenbrenner Award for Lifetime Contributions to Developmental Psychology. She delivered the invited Urie Bronfenbrenner address summarizing her life’s work on Aug. 15 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Source: Claudia Morain
University of California - Davis

People taking prescription antidepressants appear to drive worse than people who aren’t taking such drugs, and depressed people on antidepressants have even more trouble concentrating and reacting behind the wheel.

These were the conclusions of a study released Sunday at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.

University of North Dakota psychologists Holly Dannewitz. PhD, and Tom Petros, PhD, recruited 60 people to participate in a driving simulation in which participants had to make a series of common driving decisions, such as reacting to brake lights, stop signs or traffic signals while being distracted by speed limit signs, pylons, animals, other cars, helicopters or bicyclists. The simulation tested steering, concentration and scanning. Thirty-one of the participants were taking at least one type of antidepressant while 29 control group members were taking no medications with the exception of oral contraceptives in some cases.

The group taking antidepressants was further divided into those who scored higher and lower on a test of depression. The group taking antidepressants who reported a high number of symptoms of depression performed significantly worse than the control group on several of the driving performance tasks. But participants who were taking antidepressants and scored in the normal range on a test to measure depression performed no differently than the non-medicated individuals.

“Individuals taking antidepressants should be aware of the possible cognitive effects as [they] may affect performance in social, academic and work settings, as well as driving abilities,” the researchers wrote. “However, it appears that mood is correlated with cognitive performance, more so than medication use.”

This research is important in light of the rapid increase in the number of Americans taking antidepressants. Americans’ use of antidepressant drugs such as Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft, nearly tripled in a decade, according to the 2004 Health United States report, issued by the National Center for Health Statistics. Among women, one in 10 takes an antidepressant drug, according to the government.

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“The Effects of Antidepressants on Cognitive and Driving Performance,” Presented by Holly J. Dannewitz, PhD, and Thomas Petros, PhD, University of North Dakota; Poster Session 4110, 10:00 - 11:50 AM, Sunday, Aug. 17, Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, Exhibit Halls A and B1.

The American Psychological Association (APA), based in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world’s largest association of psychologists. APA’s membership includes more than 148,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting human welfare.

Source: Kim I. Mills
American Psychological Association

View drug information on Paxil CR; Prozac Weekly; Zoloft.

Highly traumatized children living in war-torn Kosovo experienced significant reductions in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when treated with a comprehensive, non-drug model developed by The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), according to a new study published online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. The new study, “Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Post-War Kosovar Adolescents Using Mind-Body Skills Groups: A Randomized Controlled Trial,” is the first randomized controlled trial of any intervention with war traumatized children.

The study demonstrates that CMBM’s mind-body techniques, including biofeedback, meditation, guided imagery and self-expression (in words, drawings, and movement) produce lasting changes in levels of stress, flashbacks, nightmares and symptoms of withdrawal and numbing in adolescents living in a region of conflict.

Eighty-two Kosovo high school students participated in the study, all of whom met PTSD criteria as measured by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. Teachers trained in the CMBM mind-body model offered the 12-session program in small, supportive educational settings.

After participating in the three-month long program, the number of students having symptoms was dramatically reduced from 100% to 18%. The reduction was maintained at a three-month follow-up. The improvement was significantly greater than a control group of non-participating students. CMBM’s founder and director, and the study’s lead author, James S. Gordon, MD, describes the approach in his new book, Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven Stage Journey Out of Depression.

“This study provides scientific evidence for the efficacy of a model taught to almost 3,000 health and mental health professionals and educators worldwide,” said Dr. Gordon. “CMBM’s approach is educational and powerfully effective and can be taught and used by people of all ages on their own. We’ve used this small group model to give tens of thousands of children and adults practical tools that help them feel better quickly, and we’ve taught them to use their intuition and imagination to solve problems. Our approach is proving highly acceptable to populations which do not want to be given medication, and have no access to a doctor or therapist.”

This mind-body model is being used to treat war-traumatized populations in Israel and Gaza as well as in post-Katrina southern Louisiana. It is also widely used with depressed people and those with chronic illness in the US, and has been incorporated as a stress reduction program for students in a dozen US medical schools.

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine

If you’re one of the millions of Americans who suffer from allergies,* this story is for you. Scientists have determined that when it comes to allergies, it’s not just things like pets or pollen that are making you miserable- it might also be your job or your relationship. A new study is proving that there is a link between how bad your allergies are, and how much stress you’re under.

Whether it’s being outside around dust or pollen or inside around her friend’s cat- there are times that Megan Sheasby feels like she just can’t escape the grip of her allergies.

“My nose completely clogs up, my throat will sometimes, depending on the type of allergy, close up as well, red, puffy eyes, just very itchy,” says Megan.

While it may be Megan’s surroundings that trigger her allergies, a new study says it’s stress that’s making them worse.

“We found that stress and anxiety make a big difference in terms of allergic responses,” says Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, PhD , Ohio State University Medical Center.

Researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center first put things like pollen and ragweed on the arms of volunteers, and monitored their skin.

“If you don’t have an allergy, you’re just going to see a little bit of redness temporarily and that’ll be the end of it. But if you’re a highly allergic person, you’re going to get something called a wheal,” says Ronald Glaser, PhD, Ohio State University Medical Center.

A wheal looks like a red, puffy area, and it tells doctors your allergic. In a relaxed setting the reactions were normal, but to see how stress would affect those with allergic reactions, experts asked the volunteers to give a speech- in front of others and into a microphone. As stress levels went up, the allergic reactions got worse, and in some cases it was 2 to 4 times as bad.

“So the take-home message is, if you’re allergic, stress and anxiety are a bad combination,” says Kiecolt-Glaser.

It’s a message some 50 million Americans* need to hear, because the $3.4 billion allergies cost usevery year in this country** is nothing to sneeze at. Experts from Ohio State say anything you cando to relax and reduce your stress, may end up helping to ease your allergies too. Things likemassages and meditation could help.

The findings of the study will be presented this month at the American Psychological Association Meeting in Boston.

*Allergy Facts & Figures, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, retrieved August 2008, from http://www.aafa.org
**American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, retrieved August 2008 from http://www.aaaai.org

Ohio State University Medical Center

A growing body of research suggests that there is a potent way to fight symptoms of depression that doesn’t involve getting a prescription.

This potent weapon? Hope.

“We’re finding that hope is consistently associated with fewer symptoms of depression. And the good news is that hope is something that can be taught, and can be developed in many of the people who need it,” said Jennifer Cheavens, assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

Cheavens and Laura Dreer of the University of Alabama at Birmingham discussed some of the latest research on how hope can battle depression during a symposium Aug. 16 in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Boston.

Cheavens measures hope in people using a 12-item questionnaire developed by her mentor, the late C.R. Snyder of the University of Kansas. In this measure, hope has two components: a map or pathway to get what you want, and the motivation and strength to follow that path.

“If you feel you know how to get what you want out of life, and you have that desire to make that happen, then you have hope,” Cheavens said.

Hope is different from optimism, which is a generalized expectancy that good things will happen, she said. Hope involves having goals, along with the desire and plan to achieve them.

The potential of hope as a way to fight depression is apparent in a recent study of patients and caregivers that Cheavens discussed in her APA presentation.

In this study, Cheavens and Dreer examined 97 adults, most over age 60, who had been diagnosed with macular degeneration or other conditions that would cause them to lose their sight.

The researchers looked at measures of hope and depression in these people with low vision, along with their caregivers.

As expected, the researchers found that, in general, caregivers were more likely to have significant depressive symptoms if the patients themselves had symptoms of depression.

But caregivers who scored higher on measures of hope showed fewer depressive symptoms, even if the people they care for were depressed. Higher-hope caregivers also showed higher satisfaction with life, and felt less of a sense of burden.

“Hope seems to be protective for caregivers,” Cheavens said.

The good news is that hope is something that can be developed in people, she said.

In a study published in the journal Social Indicators Research, Cheavens and her colleagues tested a hope therapy treatment with a sample of 32 people recruited through newspaper ads and flyers. The ads asked for participants willing to attend weekly group meetings designed to increase participants’ abilities to reach goals.

The researchers specifically looked for people who were not diagnosed with depression or other mental illnesses, but who felt dissatisfied with where they were in life.

“Many of the people who seek therapy are not mentally ill - they don’t meet criteria for depression or other illnesses,” Cheavens said. “So if you focus primarily on what is wrong with them, there may not be much progress.”

“Hope therapy seeks to build on strengths people have, or teach them how to develop those strengths. We focus not on what is wrong, but on ways to help people live up to their potential.”

In this study, about half the participants took part in eight, two-hour group sessions led by trained leaders. As part of these sessions, they were taught new hope-related skills, including identifying goals, ways to achieve them, and how to motivate themselves.

Results showed that those who participated in the hope therapy had reduced depressive symptoms compared to the control group that did not participate.

“We’re finding that people can learn to be more hopeful, and that will help them in many ways,” Cheavens said.

“What I think is exciting about hope therapy is the way we are learning from people who are doing very well. We have been figuring out what hopeful people are doing right, and taking those lessons and developing therapies and interventions for people who are not doing as well,” Cheavens said.

“And the great news is that it seems to work - we can teach people how to be more hopeful.”

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Contact: Jennifer Cheavens
Written by Jeff Grabmeier

Source: Jennifer Cheavens
Ohio State University

While many studies have examined cheating among college students, new research looks at the issue from a different perspective - identifying students who are least likely to cheat.

The study of students at one Ohio university found that students who scored high on measures of courage, empathy and honesty were less likely than others to report their cheating in the past - or intending to cheat in the future.

Moreover, those students who reported less cheating were also less likely to believe that their fellow students regularly committed academic dishonesty.

People who don’t cheat “have a more positive view of others,” said Sara Staats, co-author of the research and professor of psychology at Ohio State University’s Newark campus.

“They don’t see as much difference between themselves and others.”

In contrast, those who scored lower on courage, empathy and honesty - and who are more likely to report that they have cheated - see other students as cheating much more often than they do, rationalizing their own behavior, Staats said.

The issue is important because most recent studies suggest cheating is common on college campuses. Typically, more than half - and sometimes up to 80 percent - of college students report that they have cheated.

Staats conducted the research with Julie Hupp, assistant professor of psychology and Heidi Wallace, an undergraduate psychology student, both at Ohio State-Newark.

They presented their results Aug. 16 and 17 in Boston at two poster sessions at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association.

Staats said this continuing research project aimed to find out more about the students who don’t cheat - a group that Staats and her colleagues called “academic heroes.”

“Students who don’t cheat seem to be in the minority, and have plenty of opportunities to see their peers cheat and receive the rewards with little risk of punishment,” Staats said. “We see avoiding cheating as a form of everyday heroism in an academic setting.”

The research presented at APA involved two separate but related studies done among undergraduates at Ohio State’s Newark campus. One study included 383 students and another 73 students.

The students completed measures that examined their bravery, honesty and empathy. The researchers separated those who scored in the top half of those measures and contrasted them with those in the bottom half.

Those who scored in the top half - whom the researchers called “academic heroes” - were less likely to have reported cheating in the past 30 days and the last year compared to the non-heroes. They also indicated they would be less likely to cheat in the next 30 days in one of their classes.

The academic heroes also reported they would feel more guilt if they cheated compared to non-heroes.

“The heroes didn’t rationalize cheating the way others did, they didn’t come up with excuses and say it was OK because lots of other students were doing it,” Staats said.

Staats said one reason to study cheating at colleges and universities is to try to figure out ways to reduce academic dishonesty. The results from this research suggest a good target audience for anti-cheating messages.

When the researchers asked students if they intended to cheat in the future, nearly half - 47 percent - said they did not intend to cheat but nearly one in four - 24 percent - agreed or strongly agreed that they would cheat.

The remaining 29 percent indicated that they were uncertain whether or not they would cheat.

“These 29 percent are like undecided voters - they would be an especially good focus for intervention,” Staats said. “Our results suggest that interventions may have a real opportunity to influence at least a quarter of the student population.”

Staats said more work needs to be done to identify the best ways to prevent cheating. But this research, with its focus on positive psychology, suggests one avenue, she said.

“We need to do more to recognize integrity among our students, and find ways to tap into the bravery, honest and empathy that was found in the academic heroes in our study,” she said.

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Contact: Sara Staats
Written by Jeff Grabmeier

Source: Sara Staats
Ohio State University