Title
Professional Decision-Making in Research (PDR): The Validity of a New Measure
Abstract
In this paper, we report on the development and validity of the Professional Decision-Making in Research (PDR) measure, a vignette-based test that examines decision-making strategies used by investigators when confronted with challenging situations in the context of empirical research. The PDR was administered online with a battery of validity measures to a group of NIH-funded researchers and research trainees who were diverse in terms of age, years of experience, types of research, and race. The PDR demonstrated adequate reliability (alpha = .84) and parallel form correlation (r = .70). As hypothesized, the PDR was significantly negatively correlated with narcissism, cynicism, moral disengagement, and compliance disengagement; it was not correlated with socially desirable responding. In regression analysis, the strongest predictors of higher PDR scores were low compliance disengagement, speaking English as a native language, conducting clinical research with human subjects, and low levels of narcissism. Given that the PDR was written at an eighth grade reading level to be suitable for use with English as a second language participants and that only one-fourth of items focused on clinical research, further research into the possible roles of culture and research ethics training across specialties is warranted. This initial validity study demonstrates the potential usefulness of the PDR as an educational outcome assessment measure and a research instrument for studies on professionalism and integrity in research.
Year
DOI
Venue
2016
10.1007/s11948-015-9667-8
Science and Engineering Ethics
Keywords
Field
DocType
Research ethics,Responsible conduct of research,Research integrity,Educational,Assessment,Measurement,Professionalism
Research ethics,Social psychology,Research design,Moral disengagement,Vignette,Public relations,Psychology,Disengagement theory,Applied psychology,Empirical research,First language,Personality
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
22
2
1353-3452
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
3
0.67
4
Authors
7