This paper examines the effects of Privacy laws on the conduct of legitimate social research. The report focuses on national legislation dealing with individual privacy, in particular the Privacy Act of 1974, and considers several new statutes which concern the privacy of participants in research. A large portion of the paper discusses (1)…

When people talk about themselves, psychologists have noted that their verbal reports can be categorized as simple factual communications about the self, i.e., self-disclosure, or as ways to instruct others about how one is to be regarded, i.e., self-presentation. Responses to items on objective self-report measures of personality similarly can be…

The foundations of the public's right to know what the government is doing and the limitations placed on that right are explored in this paper. The role of the press in furthering the people's right to know is also discussed. Sections in the paper deal with the following topics: (1) general and historical thought on the right to know; (2) the…

The effects of modeling and instructions on self-disclosure were investigated. High school students (N=54) were presented with a non-disclosing model contrasted with a highly-disclosing model and with a no-model condition, and verbal instructions that either did not elaborate on self-disclosure, described it as a virtue ("positive") or indicated…

Distortion and selective disclosure limit data that are available to program evaluators, producing a bias that tends to maintain the status quo. Paradoxically, attempts to objectify the data only increase the potential for distortion. Ironically, one way to encourage innovation may be to not measure it. Additional solutions are suggested.…

Areas of privacy protection provided by FERPA are discussed and related to: coverage of institutions; former students; admissions records and letters of recommendation; exclusion of private records, law enforcement records, and employment records from education records; student access to records; challenges to information in records; disclosure;…

Examined intimacy levels of college female pairs reporting no sexual contact between them, including pairs selected for high (N=25) and low disclosure (N=25). Results indicated that best predictor of intimate friendship was self-actualization. Perceived attitude similarity, but not actual attitude similarity, was also predictive of intimacy.…

Serving the public interest is the basis for most state open meeting laws (sunshine laws). To education administrators, the public interest lies in allowing public officials freedom to make decisions according to procedures they determine best meet the needs of their institutions. The conflict among viewpoints is discussed. (MLW)

Reports findings from a 1985 study which contacted legislative research commission council, state librarian, and Department of Education officials in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the six United States trust territories to update the status of privileged communication statutes pertaining to school counselors and students they…

Notes that although fiction writing is a somewhat problematic part of upper elementary/middle school writing, it is important for children to be able to compose good fiction. Suggests two methods to benefit young writers: (1) expose them to a wide range of good fiction, and (2) preserve their right to create personal fictions. (NH)

Self-disclosure patterns of Anglo Americans and Mexican Americans were analyzed according to overall frequency of reported self-disclosure and preferred targets (i.e., mother, father, male friend, female friend). Results revealed that Anglo Americans reported the most disclosure and Mexican-American men the least. Some suggestions are provided for…

The first of two articles on privacy considers its development in U.S. tort law and its social and ethical aspects in the context of changing technology. The second, by Linowes and Bennett, examines the role of data-protection as a policy problem using the concepts and approaches of political science. (Author/EM)

The first of two articles is an overview of the contexts in which secrecy is applied to business information as a matter of public policy. The second covers restrictions on dissemination of scientific and technical information including statutory and administrative mechanisms for its control, and implications of the current system. (Author/EM)

Groups of 30 children (kindergarten, second, fourth, and sixth grades) were shown videotapes of four types of conversations between two stimulus children. In each videotape, one child began conversation, and other child responded, each of them making either a high- or low-intimate self-disclosure. Findings indicated that norm of reciprocity…

To assess client expectations and evaluations of self-involving statements, subjects read transcripts of a counseling session in which the counselor used either positive or negative statements. Subjects rated counselors using positive self-involving statements as more expert, attractive, trustworthy, and appropriate, and they expressed a greater…