Distressed couples often become polarized and caught up in power struggles, with competing claims and perspectives. When escalated, partners may become reactive and unkind. The ...competitive‐individualistic worldview of the Euro‐American culture feeds polarization between partners. This article explores relational views of the self and relational ethics developed in philosophy, psychology, feminist theory, neurobiology, and couple and family therapy that counter this individualistic view. A major focus is on the ways in which partners impact each other's identity and well‐being for better or worse, and the ethical responsibility this entails. The discussion addresses couple relational ethics within the larger sociocultural context that privileges power and competition. The paper offers applications to couple relationships and couple therapy, with interventions to promote mutual responsibility, fairness, dialogue, and care—helping partners to identify their higher values and interact with greater intentionality. A case example is offered to illustrate therapeutic techniques to enhance relational ethics in couples.
Participatory studies involving children are a growing topic of debate concerning research on early childhood education and care (ECEC). Developments in ethnographic methods and the use of video ...recordings to collect data have raised new challenges for researchers who study children regarding such issues as formal procedures for informed consent and obtaining children's assent to research encounters. A growing number of studies have explored children's and researchers' relationships, as well as the ethical aspects of research encounters. We contribute to this discussion by adopting a cultural-historical (wholeness) approach to research that involves children, partnering as researchers with a child participant. By using a cultural-historical approach, we analyzed a critical incident that involved a child's assent and dissent process through dynamic motive orientations. We focused on the importance of considering dynamic motive orientation as researchers navigate new ethical challenges. Our findings reveal that adopting a wholeness approach requires researchers to serve as activity partners, reflecting on and recalibrating their own motives and centering child participants in the research process.
Growing homelessness in Aotearoa New Zealand stems primarily from rising inequalities and poverty. Drawing from scholarship on relational ethics, principled practice and Māori cultural concepts, this ...paper offers our reflections on nearly two decades of collective work to document and address homelessness. Central to the approach outlined are enduring community partnerships, the cultivation of reciprocal relations, and time spent with homeless people and those trying to work with them. We present exemplars for how we draw on everyday interactions with homeless people and agency staff to enhance local service and broader systemic responses to homelessness.
In psychology, where a natural science epistemology holds sway, relationships between the researcher and the researched are usually hierarchical and transactional, bound in procedural and legal ...ethics. This limited view of ethics fails to account for issues of power and privilege, as well as inequalities in economic and sociocultural structures. We argue for a more complete philosophy of science (and practice) consisting of complementary first principles—relational ethics and epistemology. Valuing relational ethics as a first principle means that how knowledge is produced and acted on is complementary in importance with what knowledge is produced. Collaborative relationships grounded in sincerity, reciprocity, and shared purpose become the basis for how psychological knowledge is produced, disseminated, and acted upon. We present two case studies to show how taking action in an ethical manner through relationships formed in the process of doing psychology deepens our conception and practice of psychology as human science.
Abstract
The emergence of the ‘child‐safe’ organization requires close attention to practices that contribute to children's wellbeing and safety. Based on data collected in schools, residential care ...and disability services, this article argues for a more nuanced understanding of the ethical frameworks informing practice in these settings. Findings suggest both young people and adults predominantly describe ethical practice in terms of intersubjective relations. This ethical relationality is understood, less in terms of vertical responsibilities of care (largely the domain of adults and shaped by institutional norms), and more in terms of vertical and horizontal (interpersonal) relations, giving way to more empowered inclusion.
eHealth is a broad term referring to the application of information and communication technologies in the health sector, ranging from health records to telemedicine and multiple forms of health ...education and digital tools. By providing increased and anytime access to information, opportunities to exchange experiences with others, and self-management support, eHealth has been heralded as transformational. It has created a group of informed, engaged, and empowered patients as partners, equipped to take part in shared decision making and effectively self-manage chronic illness. Less attention has been given to health care professionals' (HCPs) experiences of the role of eHealth in patient encounters.
The objective of this study was to examine HCPs' perspectives on how eHealth affects their relationships with patients living with multiple chronic conditions, as well as its ethical and practical ramifications.
We interviewed HCPs about their experiences with eHealth and its impact on the office visit. Eligible participants needed to report a caseload of ≥25% of patients with multimorbidity to address issues of managing complex chronic conditions and coordination of care. We used a semistructured discussion guide for in-depth interviews, and follow-up interviews served to clarify and expand upon initial discussions. Constant comparisons and a narrative approach guided the analyses, and a relational ethics conceptual lens was applied to the data to identify emergent themes.
A total of 12 physicians and nurses (6 male, 6 female; median years of practice=13) participated. eHealth tools most frequently described were Web-based educational resources for patients and Web-based resources for HCPs such as curated scientific summaries on diagnostic criteria, clinical therapies, and dosage calculators. Analysis centered on a grand theme of the two-way conversation between HCPs and patients, which addresses a general recentering of the ethical relationship between HCPs and patients around engagement. Subthemes explain the evolution of the two-way conversation, and having, using, and supporting the two-way conversation with patients, primarily as this relates to achieving adherence and health outcomes.
Emerging ethical concerns were related to the ambiguity of the ideal of empowered patients and the ways in which health professionals described enacting those ideals in practice, showing how the cultural shift toward truly mutually respectful and collaborative practice is in transition. HCPs aim to act in the best interests of their patients; the challenge is to benefit from emergent technologies that may enhance patient-HCP interactions and effective care, while abiding by regulations, dealing with the strictures of the technology itself, and managing changing demands on their time.
This paper examines moral dilemmas faced by family caregivers of older adults who employ live-in migrant care workers. Being both a family caregiver as well as an employer of a live-in migrant care ...worker often puts family members at a crossroad, where moral decisions must be made. Lacking a formal role, family members do not have a professional code of ethics or other clear rules that can guide their actions, and their choices are rooted in cultural, community, familial, and personal values. This paper discusses moral dilemmas that result from family caregivers' dual commitment, to the wellbeing of their older sick relative who is the recipient of care, and to the wellbeing of the live-in care worker whom they employ. The paper uses relational ethics as a theoretical framework to discuss three cases that involve complex moral decision making in real life.
North America is currently suffering from one of the worst epidemics of illicit drug use in recent history: the opioid crisis. Pregnant women are not immune to the ravages of substance misuse which ...affects themselves, their pregnancies, and the wider community. The prevalence of drug misuse in pregnancy is not well quantified due to the lack of good validated tests, cooperation between clinicians and scientists developing tests, and consensus as to who should be tested and how results should be used. A wide range of tissues can be tested for drug use, including maternal blood, urine, and hair; neonatal meconium, urine, and hair; and placenta and umbilical cord tissues. Testing methods range from simple spectrophotometry and clinical chemistry to sophisticated analytical HPLC or mass spectrometry techniques. The drive for ever greater accuracy and sensitivity must be balanced with the necessities of medical practice requiring minimally invasive sampling, rapid turnaround, and techniques that can be realistically utilized in a clinical laboratory. Better screening tests have great potential to improve neonatal and maternal medical outcomes by enhancing the speed and accuracy of diagnosis. They also have great promise for public health monitoring, policy development, and resource allocation. However, women can and have been arrested for positive drug screens with even preliminary results used to remove children from custody, before rigorous confirmatory testing is completed. Balancing the scientific, medical, public health, legal, and ethical aspects of screening tests for drugs in pregnancy is critical for helping to address this crisis at all levels.
In this article, we reflect on our teaching practices that include the development of an artist-in-residency program in one teacher education course and one graduate course in the Fall of 2022 at The ...University of British Columbia. During these residencies, Carrier Wit’at artist and printmaker Whess Harman and Indigenous scholar and a/r/tographer Jocelyne Robinson of the Algonquin Timiskaming First Nation demonstrate through their art practices how love and land are central tenets to relational ethics. We engage with Cherrie Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua’s theory in the flesh alongside the artists-in-residencies as we consider an anti-colonial future in art education. We propose the concept of relational ethics through the flesh as a reflexive, embodied, social justice–oriented way of being in the world.
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