Not Your “Typical” Research: Inclusion Ethics in Neurodiversity Scholarship

Research focusing on neurodiversityFootnote1 is critical for including all marginalized populations in the organizational diversity literature and for promoting theoretical innovation. It is imperative that such research models the ethics of inclusion (Gowen et al., Reference Gowen, Taylor, Bleazard, Greenstein, Baimbridge and Poole2019; Nicolaidis et al., Reference Nicolaidis, Raymaker, Kapp, Baggs, Ashkenazy, McDonald, Weiner, Maslak, Hunter and Joyce2019). Despite positive intent, majority group researchers have historically produced biased scholarship on novel marginalized populations (Colella et al., Reference Colella, Hebl and King2017). As all research includes some subjective bias, neurotypical researchers are likely to publish information that further marginalizes neurodivergentFootnote2 people as they inherently do not have the lived experience of being neurodivergent themselves. Researchers should include the perspectives of the members of the populations they are conducting research on and aim to support neurodivergent voices. We recommend that researchers (a) include neurodivergent research team membersFootnote3 when researching neurodiversity and (b) strengthen the marginalized participant impact on research findings through methods like qualitative and participatory action research, especially if including neurodivergent research team members is not feasible despite legitimate attempts to do so

Third-wave, Mindfulness-based Therapies as Treatments for Obsessive-compulsive Disorder: a Randomized Controlled Trial

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a severe, difficult-to-treat neuropsychiatric condition that affects millions of people throughout the world. The current first-line psychotherapy for OCD is exposure and response prevention (ERP). ERP is effective but flawed, and researchers seek alternative OCD treatments. We examined two third-wave, mindfulness-based therapies (1) acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and (2) mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) as treatments for OCD. We expected ACT/MBCT to have (1a) significantly higher OCD symptom reduction rates, (1b) higher treatment response rates, and (1c) lower dropout rates than a control (progressive relaxation training/PRT), as well as (2a) equal/higher OCD symptom reduction rates, (2b) equal/higher treatment response rates, and (2c) lower drop-out rates than ERP. One hundred participants diagnosed with DSM-IV-TR OCD participated in an eight-session, between-subjects, randomized controlled trial (RCT). Participants were randomly assigned across the four conditions evenly. Treatment effectiveness was tested using one-way ANOVA. Results indicated the following. OCD symptom reduction: ACT (M = 41.30%, SD = 16.30%), MBCT (M = 35.89%, SD = 11.99%), PRT (M = 27.26%, SD = 9.66%), ERP (M = 30.30%, SD = 12.03%); only significant differences were ACT/PRT, p \u3c .01. Treatment response: ACT (54.17%), MBCT (41.67%), PRT (12.50%), ERP (32.00%). Dropout: ACT (16.00%), MBCT (13.04%), PRT (16.67%), ERP (28.00%). Results suggest ACT may be an effective OCD treatment compared to a control, whereas MBCT may not be, and that both ACT and MBCT may be viable alternatives to the current first-line psychotherapy for OCD. This contradiction is explained by factors outlined in the paper