Getting Values for Text-Based Custom Profile Variables

I'm able to get & set address and boolean type profile variables using this code:

$state = $my->getFieldData($key);

However, this doesn't seem to be the code to retrieve values for text-based variable types which are returning an empty string for me:

1. html
   
2. Textarea
   
3. text
   

Is there a different member function to set/call?