Contributions of Psychological Science to Empirical Bioethics

Multiple disciplines can be brought to bear on the investigation of ethical issues in medicine (Sulmasy and Sugarman 2010). One way in which a multidisciplinary approach can be useful is through the application of theories and concepts outside one’s own field of study to ethical questions. For example, theories of cognitive and psychosocial development drawn from psychology have been used to understand when and how children and adolescents become capable of making their own health care decisions (Steinberg and Cauffman 1996; Weithorn and Campbell 1982). A second way is through the use of different methods, some of which are discipline specific or cut across multiple disciplines, to understand different aspects of an ethical question. An example is the use of discourse analysis, from the field of linguistics, to explore the way in which characteristics of consent discussions or consent documents influence participants’ understanding (Ilic et al. Forthcoming; Ness, Kiesling, and Lidz 2009). A multidisciplinary approach to ethical problem solving, both clinically and in the research arena, is important because it ensures that the problem is examined from several different points of view and yields solutions that are relevant and coherent to a broad audience (Miller et al. 2009; Streiner and Norman 1995; Sulmasy and Sugarman 2010). Psychological insights into how people think, make decisions, communicate, and behave are closely linked to the ethical dilemmas that arise in medical settings. The history of psychology as a discipline has its roots in philosophy. Philosophers with strong influences on modern psychological science include Rene Descartes, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and John Stuart Mill, all of whom were interested in the nature of the mind, learning, and experience (Lundin 1996). Wilhelm Wundt, originally a philosopher, was the first to establish psychology as a discipline separate from philosophy and biology in the late 19th century, applying scientific methods to the study of human thought and behavior (Lundin 1996). Since that time, the fields of psychology and philosophy have been interested in many of the same questions, and psychological theories and methods