SENG TAMU 433 EXAM 2

Which of the following options completes the "Wingspread statement" of the precautionary principle: "When an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken..."

"...even if the cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically

Which of the following projects are exempt from the requirement to be sealed by a licensed engineer? - A public project costing less than $8000 involving electrical or mechanical engineering. A public project that does not cost more than $20,000. - Anyn oil or gas well drilling on public lands - Any publically funded project not in a hurricane coastal region of the state - Wastewater or treatment public works projects owned by multiplicities

- A public project costing less than $8000 involving electrical or mechanical engineering. A public project that does not cost more than $20,000.

What are the rules on professional conduct and ethics among the TEPA

- Engineers shall be objective and truthful - Engineers shall not perform any engineering function that is likely to endanger the public - Engineers shall practice only in the area of their competence

Which of the following operational changes were made after the loss of the Challenger?

- Management of the Space Shuttle program was moved from the Johnson Space Center to NASA HQ in Washington, DC - Establishment of an Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance at NASA HQ

Following symptoms of Groupthink

- Self-censoring country opinions - Constructing silence as consent - Holding an illusion of morality regarding group actions

What are a common criticisms of the Risk- Benefit Principle?

- The Risk-Benefit Principle attempts to assign values to things that cannot be assessed in monetary terms. - The Risk-Benefit Principle does not adequately address reasonable intuitions about risk aversion. - The numbers used in a risk-benefit analysis are very often uncertain.

What is an antidote suggested for impediments to moral responsibility?

- Train oneself to question what others take for granted - Cultivate a robust moral imagination - Foster a culture of responsible dissent - Maintain a level or personal courage

Which of the following are claims made by critics of the precautionary principle? Choose all that apply: - It does not base risk evaluations on scientific data. - What may be perceived as a threat at one point in time may at a later time prove to be no threat at all. - The precautionary principle does not place a high enough value on human life. - The principle is too vague to be used as a regulatory standard. - The precautionary principle is overly rigid and absolutist.

- What may be perceived as a threat at one point in time may at a later time prove to be no threat at all. - The principle is too vague to be used as a regulatory standard. - The precautionary principle is overly rigid and absolutist.

Which of the following impediments to moral responsibility played a role in the Challenger and Columbia disasters?

-Uncritical acceptance of authority - Ignorance - groupthink

An unlicensed engineer who works for a licensed engineer can preform

A design of engineered products or projects under the supervision of that license engineer

The rules outlined in the TEPA should be considered

A law binding on all engineers licensed by TBPE

Which of the following is a possible antidote to microscopic vision?

A robust moral imagination

What is the definition of 'groupthink'?

A situation in which groups come to apparent agreement at the exposure of genuine and independent critical thinking

In addition to the 11 lives, what reflects the extent of the environmental damage caused by the Macondo blowout?

After the sinking of the rig, the subsequent failure to contain the well head allowed five million barrels of crude oil to escape into the Gulf of Mexico.

What prompted the Texas state legislature to pass the Engineering Practices Act

An explosion at a school that was caused by a gas leak killing nearly 300

What is NOT an antidote suggested for impediments to moral responsibility?

Construct mental models to direct our thinking

The purpose of the NSPE code of ethics is to

Convey that "the services provided by engineers require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and equality , and must be dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety, and welfare.

One factor in the foam shedding was the result of...

Defects resulting from a non-optimal design, because the bipod structure and foam application processes were designed separately

What are the characteristics of a proper management decision?

Does not force engineers to make unacceptable compromises to their own technical or ethical standards

Avoiding the moral impediments of self-interest, groupthink and microscopic vision is best accomplished by

Encouraging personal traits to overcome their influence

Although an overall majority of teachers involved in Milgram's experiment were willing to administer painful shocks to the learners genders, social class, and nationality appeared to play a significant role in the types of people demonstrated this willingness.

False

T or F: The term 'organizational culture refers to the basic values, norms, beliefs, and practices shared across institutions within a profession

False

True or false: 'Microscopic vision' allows for small details to generate greater awareness of the larger issues involved.

False

True or false: After testifying that the decision-making process leading up to the launch of the Challenger was flawed and earning the label of a whistleblower, Roger Boisjoly was vindicated and afforded a high degree of reverence from the aerospace industry

False

True or false: Although an overall majority of "teachers: involved in Milgrim's experiment were willing to administer painful shocks to the "learners" gender, social class, and nationality appeared to play a significant role in what types of people demonstrated this willingness

False

True or false: Failures in moral decision-making are often attributable to narrow or distorting regulations that preclude consideration of the moral dimension of our action.

False

True or false: a fundamental problem with the risk-benefit analysis is that the principle of maximizing expected value is based solely on human intuitions

False

True or false: that the subjective and objective risks of an activity sometimes differ demonstrates that subjective risks are irrational or irrelevant.

False

True or false: the precautionary principle is the dominant way of approaching rise in the United States.

False

True/ False - The NSPE does not conduct reviews of actual cases in order to determine whether certain behavior is consistent with their Code of Ethics

False

True/False - After the blowout at Macondo, subsequent investigations revealed that only one or two crucial engineering decisions were made that tended to favor economy rather than safety.

False

True or false: A potential solution to impediments to moral responsibility such as uncritical acceptance of authority is to foster a culture of responsible assent.

False--dissent

Which impediment to moral responsibility corresponds to the following scenario: After NASA-Marshall was "appalled" by the initial np-launch recommendation for Challenger Thiokol managers asked for a break in the teleconference to reconsider

Fears of retribution

Which impediment to moral responsibility corresponds to the following scenario: When NASA management was considering whether to solicit in-flight images of the damage to Columbia one employee remarked, "I'm not going to be chicken little about this."

Groupthink

John thinks that there is a 50% chance of injury if he rides the ferris wheel. The actual risk of injury on the ride is much lower. However. What can be said of John's thoughts regarding this situation?

His sense of subjective risk is greater than the objective risk involved.

The cause of Columbia's breakup during reentry was determined to be....

Hot gases entering a breach in the wing leading edge and destroying the structural integrity of the wing

The cause of Columbia's breakup during reentry was determined to be.....

Hot gases entering a breach in the wing leading edge and destroying the structural integrity of the wing

What is the hallmark of proper engineering decision?

Involves technical matters of affects public health, safety, or welfare

Dr. Harris's father's failure to consider the environmental impact of his engineering work is an example of......

Microscopic vision

What was an attitude at NASA identified as a factor in the loss of the Columbia?

NASA felt that it was along it is ability to execute a program of human space flight, and didn't readily accept constructive criticism such as the Rogers commission report following the Challenger disaster

Although foam strikes were below performance specifications for the shuttle, management convinced themselves that past success were an indication that a known defect would not cause problems, instead of deciding the issue on the basis of testing and sound engineering analysis. This is an example of....

Normalizing deviance

What is generated widespread concern about the risk of technology in the 1970's and 80's?

Nucluear Power

When analyzing risk using the basic notion that it is better to be safe than sorry, engineers are employing the ________.

Precautionary Princple

By testifying about the questionable process that led up to the decision to launch the Challenger, Roger Boisjoly was exercising what type of ethics?

Preventative

Concern about impediments to moral responsibility is best considered which king of applied ethics?

Preventive ethics

The risk benefit principle uses

Quantitative information for weighing the benefits of a risk against its costs

The risk-benefit principle uses...

Quantitative information for weighing the benefits of a risk against its costs

What are important distinctions for risk analysis?

Risk-benefit and precautionary principles Subjective and objective risk

'Normalizing deviance' is a good example of the moral impediment of ________

Self-deception

Which impediment to moral responsibility corresponds to the following scenario: Although foam-shedding is outside design specifications for the space shuttle engineers began to treat this deviant behavior as normal.

Self-deception

Which impediment to moral responsibility corresponds to the following scenario: Although Halliburton recommended 21 centralizers for use in the Macondo oil well BP managers elected to use only 6 centralizers in order to reduce cost and time.

Self-interest

In regard to an engineer's responsibility to protect the public welfare

The NSPE code of ethics is perhaps more empathic than the TBPE rules in describing this responsibility as "paramount"

What is NOT a common criticism of the Risk-Benefit Principle?

The Risk-Benefit Principle prevents progress because the calculations involved make it impossible to introduce novel designs

Thiokol's concerns about low temperatures centered on...

The low temperature would impair the sealing function of the polymer o-ring seal

The Texas Engineering Practices Act(TEPA) defines the practice of engineering as

The performance of an or offer or attempt to perform any public or private service or creative work, the requirement of engineering education, training, and experience in applying special knowledge or judgment of the mathematical, physical or engineering sciences.

The lottery experiment conducted by economist Maurice Allais indicates that...

The principle of maximizing expected value sometimes calls for individuals to make the counterintuitive choices

The TEPA, in a section commonly referred to as the "industry exemption" allows employees of a private company to do certain work without a license if

The work can include tasks considered to be the practice of engineering so long as the engineering services are not offered to the public.

A person is allowed to practice engineering in Texas without a license from the State if

They do not offer to perform engineering services for the public

In what way was Robert Lund's behavior leading up to the loss of the Challenger similar to that of the teachers in Milgram's experiment?

They were overly deferential to authority

"Groupthink" was one of the impediments that affected the decision-makers involved in the Columbia disaster.

True

T or F: The decision of whether to launch Challenger would be an appropriate opportunity to employ the line-drawing technique

True

The fact that groupthink can influence self-deception is an example of the interrelatedness of impediments to moral responsibility

True

True or False: the decision of whether to launch Challenger would be an appropriate opportunity to employ the line-drawing technique.

True

True or false: According to one of the most famous formulation of the precautionary principle, the "Rio Declaration," lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.

True

True or false: The principle of maximizing expected value hold that we must always be willing to accept a risk if the benefits of doing so are large enough.

True

True or false: although a human life has no precise monetary value, even a precautionary analysis would consider it irrational to spend enormous sums of money preventing a statistical death

True

True or false: someone who subscribes to the precautionary principle believes that safety and the avoidance of risk often outweigh the potential benefits that taking a risk may offer

True

True or false: subjective risk depends upon what one perceives about a technology or situation.

True

True/False - Often lawyers work on a contingency basis, whereby they only receive a fee from the client for their services when their services result in a financial award to their client. In regard to this type of practice in engineering, The TBPE rules do not address this specifically, which the NSPE code specifically prohibits it.

True

Which impediment to moral responsibility corresponds to the following scenario: After he was told to "take off his engineering hat and put on his management hat" Robert Lund reversed his recommendation not to launch the Challenger

Uncritical acceptance to authority

An example of a conflict of interest according to the definition in the TBPE rules is

When an engineer accepts an assignment in which the decisions they make will make for the client may be impacted by their financial interests

Which state was the first to pass a law to regulate the practice of engineering?

Wyoming (1907 methane explosion - 169 died)

Which of the following are common objections made against risk-benefit analysis? Choose all the apply: a - It seems morally problematic to assign monetary value to the occurence of a preventable death b - Risk-benefit analysis favors caution over innovation and hinders the implementation of new technologies c - Risk-benefit analysis is often performed by individuals who are biased and stand to gain from certain results d - The numbers used in such quantitative analysis can be uncertain

a - It seems morally problematic to assign monetary value to the occurence of a preventable death d - The numbers used in such quantitative analysis can be uncertain

The likeliness that a negative event will actually occur is called _________ risk.

objective

"The exact risk that a new pesticide X will have on people of the environment is uncertain. RAther than quantify the known risks, we are better off to not allow it to enter the market until the risks are more fully understood." This statement best illustrates...

precautionary princible