What does the Thinking about Relationalism and Humanness in African Philosophy imply for Different Modes of Being Present in the Metaverse?

In this article, I interrogate whether the deployment and development of the Metaverse should take into account African values and modes of knowing to foster the uptake of this hyped technology in Africa. Specifically, I draw on the moral norms arising from the components of communal interactions and humanness in Afro-communitarianism to contend that the deployment of the Metaverse and its development ought to reflect core African moral values to foster its uptake in the region. To adequately align the Metaverse with African core values and thus foster its uptake among Africans, significant technological advancement that makes simulating genuine human experiences possible must occur. Additionally, it would be necessary for the developers and deployers to ensure that higher forms of spiritual activities can be had in the Metaverse to foster its uptake in Africa. Finally, I justify why the preceding points do not necessarily imply that the Metaverse will have a higher moral status than real life on the moral scale that can be grounded in Afro-communitarianism.

Cultural values, parenting, and child adjustment in the United States.

We examined whether cultural values, conformity and parenting behaviours were related to child adjustment in middle childhood in the United States. White, Black and Latino mothers (n = 273), fathers (n = 182) and their children (n = 272) reported on parental individualism and collectivism, conformity values, parental warmth, monitoring, family obligation expectations, and child internalising and externalising behaviours. Mean differences, bivariate correlations and multiple regression analyses were performed on variables of interest. Collectivism in mothers and fathers was associated with family obligation expectations and parental warmth. Fathers with higher conformity values had higher expectations of children's family obligations. Child internalising and externalising behaviours were greater when Latino families subscribed to individualistic values. These results are discussed in the context of cultural values, protective and promotive factors of behaviour, and race/ethnicity in the United States.

["Let's put our nursing values and ideals back at the center!"] / « Remettons nos valeurs et idéaux infirmiers au centre ! ¼.

Professor Emerita of Nursing at the University of Connecticut and Editor Emerita of Advances in Nursing Science, Peggy L. Chinn has worked for many years on issues relating to the processes to develop theories. In particular, she has devoted herself to studying the conceptual and philosophical foundations of nursing as a distinct discipline.

Personal values, food habits and lifestyles in a sample of adolescents with different adherence to the Mediterranean Diet.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to explore the personal values system of an Italian adolescent sample and examine the interrelations of their values with some variables characterizing their lifestyles. METHODS: A representative sample of 365 adolescents (56.2% females), 15-16 years old from the randomly selected second classes of public/private upper secondary schools of an Italian model region was investigated. The lifestyle of adolescents was explored through a 37-items structured, self-administered questionnaire. Ponderal status was evaluated from measured weight and height. The adherence to the Mediterranean Diet of the sample was determined by the KIDMED Test. The adolescents completed the 21-item Portrait Values Questionnaire, which assesses respondents' endorsement of the ten basic human values. RESULTS: The results suggest that variables related to their eating habits may be associated with their basic values. Some not healthy eating habits, such as eating while "watching TV"/using PC"/ "studying," were negatively related to tradition, conformity, and security values. The adolescents with both moderate and strong alcohol use, and with smoking habits also showed the highest percentage of low adherence to the Mediterranean Diet. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings might provide some useful information to support the development of more effective and targeted health promotion interventions approaches tailored for this age group.

Children's voices on their values and moral dilemmas when being cared and treated for cancer- a qualitative interview study.

BACKGROUND: Childhood cancers affect about 350 children every year in Sweden and are life-threatening diseases. During the treatment period, situations arise that can become morally challenging for the child. When knowing children's values and morally challenging situations in childhood cancer care, targeted ethics support could be developed and used in care. AIM: To explore children's values and moral dilemmas ​​when undergoing cancer treatment. METHODS: This is a qualitative study based on empirical data. The data collection was conducted through three focus group interviews and six individual interviews with children between 10 and 18 years (n = 16). A content analysis methodology was used to generate themes. Children who were/have been treated for cancer at three childhood cancer centres in Sweden were invited to participate. The study was approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority. The children's participation was based on voluntariness and consent/assent. FINDINGS: During the analysis, five themes of values emerged: Personal relationships, Bodily ease and identity, Feeling in control and being involved, Positive distractions and Right care that is needed. Their moral dilemmas were thematized into: Should I consider others or not? Should I rest or not? and Should I refuse treatment or not? CONCLUSION: Children undergoing cancer treatment want to have personal relationships with healthcare professionals. Their moral dilemmas were about questioning their own physical and psychological well-being against their expectations, the values of others and the treatment required. Further research is needed to understand how to deal with moral dilemmas in children undergoing cancer treatment.

How occupational physicians pay attention to the values of employees: a qualitative study.

PURPOSE: The Dutch Association for Occupational Medicine considers employee values to be an essential pillar in occupational medicine. The occupational physician should focus on what an employee finds valuable. However, it is unclear how occupational physicians comply with this policy and pay attention to employee values. The present study aims to fill this gap by mapping to what extent occupational physicians pay attention to employee values. METHOD: We used an exploratory qualitative research method through in-depth interviews with 10 Dutch occupational physicians. Additionally, two non-participating observations were conducted. RESULTS & CONCLUSION: The results show that values remain mostly implicit and are applied intuitively or unconsciously but not explicitly. Hence, the ethical requirements of the Dutch Association for Occupational Medicine policy remain underexposed and under-executed. Multiple facets foster or impede a conversation about values. As far values were mentioned they were mainly extrinsic, social, and prestige-oriented. Intrinsic values were hardly mentioned. However, a few occupational physicians explicitly stated that they pay attention to values and reported that heeding to employee values contributes to better collaboration and decision-making with the employee. We argue that paying attention to intrinsic values may improve the overall work quality of occupational physicians and benefit employee well-being.

Translational Bioethical Decision-Making: Human Brain Organoids as a Case Study.

In an earlier essay, I advocated that translational bioethics uses the public's values, determined through social science, in its analysis of translational science technologies. It may be unclear what those values might be, and whether such a translational ethics would necessarily conclude that cutting edge technologies should not be developed. In this essay, I show the public's values relevant to human brain organoids and argue that a translational bioethics analysis using these values would support continued organoid research.

Values and Ethics Domain for Professional Identity in Nursing.

A crucial domain of professional identity in nursing is the area of values and ethics. Comprising a set of core values and principles, values and ethics are used to guide nurse conduct. Professional development specialists can use the nursing code of ethics and organizational structure and examples to teach nurses the values and ethics domain of professional identity in nursing. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2024;55(6):279-281.].

Professional Values and Mental Health Tribunals: How Healthcare Professionals' and Lawyers' Views Are Shaped by Values, and How This Might Impede Reform.

Most countries that provide for compulsory treatment for mental illness have a system by which this treatment is subject to independent legal oversight. Many countries use a special type of legal body for this purpose, called a mental health tribunal. Mental health tribunals have been subject to criticism from the points of view of both legal professionals and mental healthcare practitioners. Similar themes have manifested in these criticisms and have been consistent across several decades; legal professionals tend to focus on the tribunals being biased toward the medical opinion, and acting as a 'rubber stamp', whereas healthcare practitioners tend to focus on the adversarial nature of the trial, and the adverse effect that this can have on clients. However, empirical studies of the tribunals have not separated and directly compared these perspectives. This study aimed to explore this dynamic between lawyers' views and healthcare practitioners' views of mental health tribunals. We used thematic analysis to re-analyse data from two previous research studies, one which looked at lawyers' views of the tribunals, and one which looked at healthcare practitioners' views. Our results are divided into three themes: views of the problems with tribunals, professional roles in relationship to the tribunals and professional values demonstrated through these views and roles. We then consider if the 'clash of values' represented by these findings, and found in the literature, may pose an impediment to tribunal reform. Identifying and exploring this barrier is an important step to moving beyond critique to reform.

Ethical Decision-Making Confidence and Professional Values Among Nurse Leaders.

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to describe differences in nurse leaders' ethical decision-making confidence and their professional values based on identified characteristics and to explore the relationship between ethical decision making and professional values. BACKGROUND: Nurse leaders have multiple duties and obligations toward their patients, other staff, and the organizations where they work. However, ethical decisions can be complex, requiring the guidance of professional values and critical appraisal of the situation. METHODS: This study was conducted using a correlational design. Convenience sampling was used, resulting in a sample of 56 nurse leaders in various positions. RESULT: Ethical decision making and professional values were found to be strongly correlated. CONCLUSION: Ethical decision making and professional values are highly correlated in this sample. Understanding the importance of the effects of certain factors on ethical decision making can assist in forming an environment supportive of ethical practices for nurses.

A comparative ethical analysis of the Egyptian clinical research law.

BACKGROUND: In this study, we examined the ethical implications of Egypt's new clinical trial law, employing the ethical framework proposed by Emanuel et al. and comparing it to various national and supranational laws. This analysis is crucial as Egypt, considered a high-growth pharmaceutical market, has become an attractive location for clinical trials, offering insights into the ethical implementation of bioethical regulations in a large population country with a robust healthcare infrastructure and predominantly treatment-naïve patients. METHODS: We conducted a comparative analysis of Egyptian law with regulations from Sweden and France, including the EU Clinical Trials Regulation, considering ethical human subject research criteria, and used a directed approach to qualitative content analysis to examine the laws and regulations. This study involved extensive peer scrutiny, frequent debriefing sessions, and collaboration with legal experts with relevant international legal expertise to ensure rigorous analysis and interpretation of the laws. RESULTS: On the rating of the seven different principles (social and scientific values, scientific validity, fair selection of participants, risk-benefit ratio, independent review, informed consent and respect for participants) Egypt, France, and EU regulations had comparable scores. Specific principles (Social Value, Scientific Value, and Fair selection of participants) were challenging to directly identify due to certain regulations embodying 'implicit' principles more than explicitly stated ones. CONCLUSION: The analysis underscores Egypt's alignment with internationally recognized ethical principles, as outlined by Emanuel et al., through its comparison with French, Swedish, and EU regulations, emphasizing the critical need for Egypt to continuously refine its ethical regulations to safeguard participant protection and research integrity. Key issues identified include the necessity to clarify and standardize the concept of social value in research, alongside concerns regarding the expertise and impartiality of ethical review boards, pointing towards a broader agenda for enhancing research ethics in Egypt and beyond.

Volunteering intentions during social crises: The role of considering the welfare of others and consequences of own behavior.

In the current paper, we investigate how people with experience with volunteering in their lifetime intend to engage in hypothetical crisis volunteering in the future. We took into account two types of hypothetical social crises: a pandemic and a refugee crisis. We suggest that individual differences in considering the welfare of others (social value orientation) and consideration of future/immediate consequences play a role in the volunteer responses to crises. We also control for the willingness to volunteer in the proximal (a month) and distal (3 years) future, gender, age, and length of volunteer experience. We conducted two survey-based online studies in October 2023. We recruited N = 287 people for Study 1 (Poland) and N = 231 for Study 2 (Italy). Our results suggested that people who declare they want to remain volunteers intend to engage during social crises, but not necessarily in a proactive way. Furthermore, consideration of future consequences can result in proactivity, which was especially visible in the Italian sample. Consideration of immediate consequences can have twofold correlates - one might be the engagement in volunteering in case of a sudden emergency or refraining from the voluntary activity. These results can be used by people leading volunteer activities to predict what to expect from their volunteers and plan the volunteer recruitment and retention processes during crises.

Incorporating diverse values of nature in decision-making-theory and practice.

Values play a significant role in decision-making, especially regarding nature. Decisions impact people and nature in complex ways and understanding which values are prioritised, and which are left out is an important task for improving the equity and effectiveness of decision-making. Based on work done for the IPBES Values Assessment, this paper develops a framework to support analyses of how decision-making influences nature as well as whose values get prioritised. The framework is used to analyse key areas of environmental policy: a) the present model for nature protection in market economies, b) the role of valuation in bringing nature values into decisions, and c) values embedded in environmental policy instruments, exemplified by protected areas for nature conservation and payments for ecosystem services. The analyses show that environmental policies have been established as mere additions to decision-making structures that foster economic expansion, which undermines a wide range of nature's values. Moreover, environmental policies themselves are also focused on a limited set of nature's diverse values. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bringing nature into decision-making'.

Individualism, collectivism and conformity in nine countries: Relations with parenting and child adjustment.

This study investigated how individualism, collectivism and conformity are associated with parenting and child adjustment in 1297 families with 10-year-old children from 13 cultural groups in nine countries. With multilevel models disaggregating between- and within-culture effects, we examined between- and within-culture associations between maternal and paternal cultural values, parenting dimensions and children's adjustment. Mothers from cultures endorsing higher collectivism and fathers from cultures endorsing lower individualism engage more frequently in warm parenting behaviours. Mothers and fathers with higher-than-average collectivism in their culture reported higher parent warmth and expectations for children's family obligations. Mothers with higher-than-average collectivism in their cultures more frequently reported warm parenting and fewer externalising problems in children, whereas mothers with higher-than-average individualism in their culture reported more child adjustment problems. Mothers with higher-than-average conformity values in their culture reported more father-displays of warmth and greater mother-reported expectations for children's family obligations. Fathers with higher-than-average individualism in their culture reported setting more rules and soliciting more knowledge about their children's whereabouts. Fathers who endorsed higher-than-average conformity in their culture displayed more warmth and expectations for children's family obligations and granted them more autonomy. Being connected to an interdependent, cohesive group appears to relate to parenting and children's adjustment.

Values and National Identification in Minority and Majority Youth: Longitudinal Multi-Study Findings.

Collective identification is vital for adolescents, fostering well-being and connection, but scant attention has been given to drivers of national identification and their contextual variations in youth. To address this, two longitudinal studies examined how values, as guiding goals defining what individuals consider important in their lives, relate to the trajectory of national identification in majority and minority youth. Study 1 (N = 568; Mage = 16.24, SD = 0.71) and Study 2 (N = 678; Mage = 13.78, SD = 0.73) focused on majority youth (Jewish-Israelis), while Study 2 also included minority (Arab citizens of Israel). The findings highlight values as important motivators of national identification over time. Conservation values, emphasizing the preservation of the status quo and a preference for stability, were prominent motivators for the majority of adolescents. In contrast, power values, which center around climbing the social ladder and accumulating wealth, held greater significance among their minority counterparts; however, both sets of values correlated with increased national identification. The discussion touches on motivations underlying national identification, their contextual diversity, and implications for future studies.

Ontological pluralism and social values.

There seems to be an emerging consensus among many philosophers of science that non-epistemic values ought to play a role in the process of scientific reasoning itself. Recently, a number of philosophers have focused on the role of values in scientific classification or taxonomy. Their claim is that a choice of ontology or taxonomic scheme can only be made, or should only be made, by appealing to non-epistemic or social values. In this paper, I take on this "argument from ontological choice," claiming that it equivocates on the notion of choice. An ontological choice can be understood either in terms of determining which taxonomic scheme is valid, or in terms of deciding which taxonomic scheme to deploy in a given context. I try to show that while the latter can be determined in part by social values, the former ought not to be so determined.

Balancing Ethics and Culture: A Scoping Review of Ethico-Cultural and Implementation Challenges of the Individual-Based Consent Model in African Research.

Objective: This review explores the ethico-cultural and implementation challenges associated with the individual-based informed consent (IC) model in the relatively collectivistic African context and examines suggested approaches to manage them. Methods: We searched four databases for peer-reviewed studies published in English between 2000 to 2023 that examined the ethico-cultural and implementation challenges associated with the IC model in Africa. Results: Findings suggest that the individual-based IC model largely misaligns with certain African social values and ethos and subverts the authority and functions of community gatekeepers. Three recommendations were proffered to manage these challenges, that researchers should: adopt a multi-step approach to IC, conduct a rapid ethical assessment, and generate an African-centered IC model. Conclusions: A pluriversal, context-specific, multi-step IC model that critically harmonizes the cultural values of the local population and the general principles of IC can minimize ethics dumping, safeguard the integrity of the research process, and promote respectful engagement.

Cultural values, parenting and child adjustment: Introduction to the special issue.

This introduction provides an overview of the major constructs that are the focus of this Special Issue. Individualism and collectivism have been the cornerstones of theoretical work on cultural values in psychological science, and conformity is an important component of theories related to motivational values. Individualism, collectivism and conformity values are reviewed in relation to parenting (warmth, knowledge solicitation, rules/limit-setting, parents' expectations regarding children's family obligations) and children's adjustment (internalising and externalising behaviours). Background on the Parenting Across Cultures project, a study of children, mothers and fathers, in nine countries (China, Colombia, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, the Philippines, Sweden, Thailand and the United States) is provided as a prelude to the country-specific papers from each of these countries that follow in the rest of the Special Issue before a final concluding paper that focuses on between-country versus within-country variation in cultural values, parenting and children's adjustment.