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Public relations literature laments the lack of a theoretical base for the practice and ethics of public relations. Drawing primarily upon Koehn (The Ground of Professional Ethics, 1994) and Hutton (Public Relations Review, 1999), this paper proposes such a theoretical ground.The paper adopts Hutton's assertion that "the central organizing theme of public relations theory and practice" is relationships(Hutton, 1999, p. 209). It also relies upon Koehn (1994) to provide a theoretical discussion of the nature of professions, and the ground upon which professional ethics and public trust in the professions are based. It concludes, from a Koehnian perspective, that for public relations to move from the expertise and contractual models of practice into a covenantal model as a profession worthy of public trust, the field must devote itself to a defined human good (relationships), and must be grounded in a public pledge to serve this good.

Developmental susceptibility to four forms of the horizontal-vertical (HV) illusion was examined in subjects ranging in age from 3 to 20 years. For each form of the HV illusion, one standard and six comparison stimuli were developed, with subjects first inspecting the standard and then selecting the matching comparator. The magnitude of the illusion, estimated from the difference between the size of the standard and that of the selected comparator, was found to be similar to values reported previously and determined through the use of a wide range of stimuli, procedures, and subject groups. Susceptibility to the HV illusion was greatest for the youngest subjects. It decreased for older subjects in accordance with the development of spatial coordinates, as suggested by Piaget.