Privacy and behavioral research

Bibliographic Data

ID8710432
AuthorsOscar M Ruebhausen (corresponding author), Orville G Brim
Year1966
Volume21
Issue5
Pages423-437
Publication date1966-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Psychologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-066X • E-ISSN: 1935-990X
PublisherAmerican Psychological Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1037/h0023526
PMID5939116
OpenAlexW2058620916
LanguageEN
Citations received16

A successful society is marked by an ability to maintain a productive equilibrium between numerous competing forces. The goal of our own federal political system is to assure for the individual an ample range of freedom, and an ample opportunity for diversity. By tradition and conviction our form of democracy jealously seeks to protect the individual from accumulations of power. This protection finds its expression, for example, in the separation of powers in government, the divorce of church and state, the civilian control over the military, and in the working of both the labor and antitrust laws against the concentration of economic power. The familiar and constructive tension which exists between science, with its need to be free and open, and society, with its need for restrictions on individual freedom, is thus only one of many examples of conflicting forces that must be held in balance to assure individual dignity, creativity and wellbeing in our society. This tension between society and science extends to all the disciplines in the social, physical and life sciences. It affects the practitioner as well as the research investigator. Examples of this tension are many, and one of the most familiar is the conflict of secrecy for purposes of national security with the free dissemination of knowledge. This conflict is especially complex since dissemination of knowledge is essential to the very developments in science, in industry, and in government upon which the security of the nation ultimately rests. Additionally, there is the equally familiar conflict between proprietary interests and the disclosure of scientific knowledge. The private property interest at odds with disclosure may be personal or institutional, commercial or nonprofit, but the conflict is essentially the same. In each of these two illustrative areas of conflict, tension still exists, but accommodations, imperfect as they may be, have been worked out to balance the competing needs and to serve the public interest. There is, however, another area of tension involving the freedom of science which is not nearly so well recognized. This is the conflict of science and scientific research with the right, not of private property, but of private

Internet privacy · Computer Science · Law, Rights, and Freedoms · Legal Systems and Judicial Processes · Neuroethics, Human Enhancement, Biomedical Innovations · Psychology · Applied Psychology

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