Situational ethics

About: Situational ethics is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 4023 publications have been published within this topic receiving 145379 citations.

Identification as the basis for a theory of motivation.

Abstract: R OLE theory has suffered since inception from lack of a satisfactory account of motivation. It is all very well as far as it goes to state that a person learns to recognize standard situations and to play expected roles in them according to the status defined for him in each. But this is not enough when the person encounters alternatives and must resolve conflicting definitions of his appropriate behavior.1 Nor is it enough to account for the emergence of new roles in his conduct, nor for his more or less unique variations upon conventional roles. A striking revelation of the need for some theory of motivation to back up situational analysis2 is disclosed by apathy in the performance of conventional roles, when these are on the verge of abandonment or are accepted only under duress. Roles as such do not provide their own motives. Most of the recent writers on role theory3 have recognized this deficiency and have endeavored to make it up through the expedient of eclecticism. Like a Ford car with a Chevrolet motor, each of these "integrators" puts on the road his own model of role theory, one powered by psychic energy, another by a system of tensions or a drivereduction apparatus, a third by some hierarchy of innate and derived needs. Also, a

The Prison As a Community

Abstract: a\ SITUATIONAL explanation of crime calls for a situational approach to prevention and treatment. As sociologists, we are not true to the logical implications of our science if we recommend individual treatment as the only solution of penal ills. If the function of a prison is to protect society, the convict must learn, during his period of incarceration, how to live in society. It is the purpose of this paper to point out some of the major obstacles which prevent the present-day American penal system from performing this function and to indicate changes in administrative policy to overcome them. The concept of the prison as a community is the guiding principle for this analysis. The prisoner comes from a community and, after an average stay of two and one third years, will return to a community. If he is to be accepted as a law-abiding person on his return, he must learn in prison to play the role of a citizen. He cannot learn those things that will enable him to participate as an acceptable member of the outside community, if he is engaged in activities that are foreign to people on the outside. If the prisoner learns on the inside, that to fit in with institutional routine, he must walk close to the wall, this will not help him on the outside. In fact, it may mark him as peculiar. We are aware of the real difficulties in the way of fundamental reforms. Unless there is a dramatic escape, a bloody riot, or a "mass whipping," as reported recently at San Quentin, the press and the public are apathetic. J. Edgar Hoover's vigorous defense of the "machine-gun school of criminology" with its hatred of "slimy criminals" and its belief in long prison terms as the only means of punishment and his pungent attacks on "the creampuff school" with its "moo-cow sentimentalities" and its faith in rehabilitation have swung the pendulum of public opinion in this country in the direction of a hostile attitude toward the offender and away from an attitude of inquiry. It is our conviction, however, that the punitive attitude has been adequately tried and found wanting. The most promising method of progress is through experimentation. Why not, for example, make a sincere attempt to save money for a higher salary level and a better quality of personnel by housing a larger proportion of carefully selected prisoners in the less expensive minimum security institutions? Furthermore, why not make "the prison as a community" the guiding concept for administration? As it is, the present-day American treatment of men in prison reminds us of the relations between lions and their trainer. The function of a trainer is

A re-examination of relevance: toward a dynamic, situational definition

Abstract: Although relevance judgments are fundamental to the design and evaluation of all information retrieval systems, information scientists have not reached a consensus in defining the central concept of relevance In this paper we ask two questions: What is the meaning of relevance? and What role does relevance play in information behavior? We attempt to address these questions by reviewing literature over the last 30 years that presents various views of relevance as topical, user-oriented, multidimensional, cognitive, and dynamic We then discuss traditional assumptions on which most research in the field has been based and begin building a case for an approach to the problem of definition based on alternative assumptions The dynamic, situational approach we suggest views the user — regardless of system — as the central and active determinant of the dimensions of relevance We believe that relevance is a multidimensional concept; that it is dependent on both internal (cognitive) and external (situational) factors; that it is based on a dynamic human judgment process; and that it is a complex but systematic and measurable phenomenon

How do you Make it to the Top? An Examination of Influences on Women's and Men's Managerial Advancement

Abstract: Confirmatory modeling was used to test models of situational and individual influences on women's and men's managerial advancement. Although an overall model fitted the data well, separate models f...