sues, which are relevant to the ethics and the validity of human research,
can only be resolved through empirical research that can tell us how to do
what is right.

This book is the product of a symposium convened by the APA Commit-
tee for the Protection of Human Participants in Research (CPHPR) at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln to examine the role of empirical study on
ethical issues in research. This meeting critically reviewed studies of (1)
ethical decision-making bodies, (2) privacy protection, (3) subject and ex-
perimenter bias, (4) communication in the research setting, and (5) in-
formed consent and competency. Participants were Gary Melton, Joan Sie-
ber and Barbara Stanley (conference organizers), Robert Boruch, Thomas
Grisso, Craig Lawson, Douglas Peters, Robert Rosenthal, Michael Saks,
Lawrence Tancredi, and William Thompson, with staff support from Eric
Meslin of APA and Denise Herrell of the University of Nebraska. We grate-
fully acknowledge the support of the APA through CPHPR and APA Divi-
sions 12 (Clinical Psychology) and 37 (Child, Youth, and Family Services),
of the Interdisciplinary Applied Ethics Program of the University of Ne-
braska-Lincoln, and of Craig Lawson, professor of Law, for graciously fa-
cilitating, as well as participating in the conference.

It is our hope that the following reviews of ethics-relevant empirical re-
search will demonstrate to investigators the usefulness of empirical study
of ethical issues in research and that the research agendas proposed herein
will inspire others to conduct useful empirical research on problems of re-
search ethics.

-x-