Thread Safety!!!! Is it? pls help

[Glenn Dickson]

Hi !   I have a problem where I'm not sure if this is thread safe can anyone pls tell me? Objective of this 2 classes is to support the porcessing of business rules. Hence, the follow classes?  (Questions are below class)         Criteria Class public abstract class Criteria implements IRule { protected Status criteriaStatus = new Status(Status.SUCCESS); // Holds status public synchronized void fire(RequestToValidate aRequest){     criteriaStatus.setStatus(Status.SUCCESS); // Intitalise for each request     setup(aRequest);     execute(aRequest);     cleanup(aRequest); }   protected void setup(RequestToValidate aRequest){} protected abstract void execute(RequestToValidate aRequest); protected void cleanup(RequestToValidate aRequest){     aRequest.setTestResult(this.getClass(), criteriaStatus, ""); }   }// end class   Question : Using Synchronized in Fire method will that stop anyone altering the criteriaStatus ? If not, what is rememdy? Should I create new fire signature of :         public synchronized void fire(RequestToValidate aRequest)  ?   Is it possible for criteriaStatus to be altered between Setup, Execute & CleanUp methods?