1. Ethics in Psychological Research

Transcription

1 Author: Dr. Kathy LaFontana Department of Psychology 1. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: Why study science in Psychology? Jennifer and Bethany have both recently declared Psychology as their majors. evening, as they are looking over the required courses, they start talking. One Jennifer: I don t see why we have to learn statistics and research methods! I am never going to use them anyway. I want to be a counselor, and I am just going to deal with each person as an individual. Science treats everyone as if they are interchangeable and totally predictable. In fact, I think people would be better counselors and teachers and social workers if they didn t take research classes at all, because then they would treat everyone as individuals, not clones. Bethany: People are a lot more predictable than you think. Psychologists have learned so much about human behavior in the last 100 years or so using the scientific method. I really believe that if you can figure out all of the factors that are affecting someone s behavior, you can be pretty accurate in figuring out what they are going to do. I ve decided that I want to be a researcher, because I think I can help more people in the long run than you will as a therapist. As a researcher, I can develop programs that will help lots of people who suffer from the same problem. A therapist can only help one person at a time, and sometimes it takes years for a person to get better. 1. How do Jennifer and Bethany differ in their understanding of what people are like? Who do you agree with more and why? 2. What is ethically troubling about taking Jennifer s position to the extreme? What would happen if therapists received no training in the scientific study of human behavior? 3. What is ethically troubling about taking Bethany s position to the extreme? What is the problem with assuming that if you can figure out all the variables (genes, environment, etc.) that you can perfectly predict people s behavior? 4. From the six general principles listed at the beginning of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct near the end of this textbook, why would it be helpful for Jennifer to review Principle A (Competence)? Why would it be helpful for Bethany to review Principle D (Respect for People s Rights and Dignity)?

2 2. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: Is it ethical to observe public behavior? As part of their class requirements, the students in a Research Design and Analysis class are sent over to XYZ Mall to observe interactions between mothers and their toddleraged children. They are told not to interact with the moms at all, but just record certain behaviors, like the number of times they speak harshly to their child and the number of times the child whines or cries. One of the mothers notices that the students are watching people, and she complains to mall security. The manager of the mall asks the students where they are from, then writes a letter of complaint to their professor. Here is an excerpt: I am requesting that you do not engage in any more observational research at XYZl Mall. I don t think it is right to allow students to observe people s behavior without getting their permission first. It is a violation of people s privacy, and it s wrong even if they don t realize they are being watched. People come to the mall to shop, not to be watched. 1. What are some good reasons for the manager s concerns? Explain. 2. What are some good reasons why the students should be able to do this type of research? Explain. 3. If you were the professor, how would you handle the situation? 4. Why does the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct say in Ethical Standard 6.10 that research involving naturalistic observation does not require obtaining consent from the people the researcher will be observing?

3 3. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: What ethical problems could you face in choosing certain variables? Kelly wants to do a study on binge drinking in college students. Specifically, she wants to know whether people are honest in admitting how much they actually drink, and she also wants to see how their grades are affected by their drinking. To measure binge drinking, Kelly decides to use a multi-method approach and measure the variable in several different ways. She asks a group of students to fill out a brief questionnaire which asks them questions such as, How many drinks do you have in a typical week? and How many drinks do you typically have in a single evening of partying? Then, to make sure people are telling the truth, she goes to some of the popular bars off campus and surreptitiously counts the number of drinks each person actually has in an evening. To measure grades, she also asks participants to report on their grades, then she verifies whether they are telling the truth by looking at their returned tests and assignments on their desks in their dorm rooms. Specifically, she is looking to see if the tests that were taken after a night of partying were worse than the other tests a student took. 1. What are some potential ethical problems with Kelly s study? 2. What are the benefits of Kelly collecting her data this way (think in terms of benefits to society as well as benefits to participants)? 3. Do you feel that the benefits of Kelly s study outweigh the risks? Explain why you do or do not feel this way. 4. According to Ethical Standard 5.05 of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, why might Kelly be put in a very difficult position after collecting her data?

4 4. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: Why is reliability important? Doctor X designed a treatment for panic attacks and tried it with all of his clients who suffered from panic attacks, and he had great success. Over a ten year period, Dr. X treated over 100 clients, and the technique significantly reduced panic in all his clients. The treatment consisted of the therapist leading the patient through a series of relaxation exercises in the office. He was so excited about the success of this treatment that he decided to market it to therapists nationwide. For $300 (which is pretty reasonable for a psychological measure or technique), he sent the therapist a script of everything he said to the patient during the relaxation exercises. A lot of therapists purchased the treatment, because they were very impressed with the success rate that Dr. X reported. However, six months later, Dr. X started to receive calls, letters, and s from therapists all over the country, who complained that the treatment was completely useless for their clients. 1. How would you explain the fact that Dr. X had so much success and the other therapists experienced such failure? How would reliability analyses have helped this problem? 2. From an ethical point of view, why should Dr.X have done reliability analyses before marketing his treatment program? 3. Keeping in mind that he never gave any false information to anyone who purchased his treatment program, do you think Dr. X should give them a refund of their money? Why or why not? 4. Why does Ethical Standard 2.08 a of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct apply to this situation?

5 5. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: What s wrong with making causal conclusions using descriptive data? Judy is a graduate student in developmental psychology. She is conducting research on attractiveness and popularity for her doctoral dissertation, and she is presenting and defending her research as the last step in obtaining her doctoral degree. Judy has done a very scientifically sound study in which she has measured the popularity of a group of schoolchildren in several different ways (using peer ratings, teacher ratings, and observational data), and she has also carefully measured the attractiveness of these same children (by using outside observers who did not know the status of the children, but were asked to rate the physical attractiveness of each child). She found a very strong relationship between attractiveness and popularity (with a correlation of.92). When she presents her research to the dissertation committee, they agree that she did an excellent job in making sure the study was scientifically rigorous. One committee member asks her about the implications of her research. She replies, The extremely strong correlation between attractiveness and popularity suggests that a child s looks play a very important role in making the child popular or unpopular. If unpopular children are provided with advice about clothing, grooming, hairstyles, etc., it will make them more popular. 1. In what way is Judy drawing unwarranted conclusions from her research? In other words, what is she assuming about the relationship between attractiveness and popularity? 2. What are some alternative explanations for why attractiveness and popularity are so strongly related? 3. What is the danger from an ethical point of view of assuming that there is a causal relationship between attractiveness and popularity? 4. What does Standard 2.02 a of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct suggest about the kinds of conclusions Judy should make based on her research?

6 6. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: Why is confidentiality important? Jeremy is working as a research assistant to Professor Y, who is conducting a survey of students motivation levels and personality factors. He administers the survey to a group of students on a Friday afternoon, and must wait until Monday to give the data to Professor Y. Each student has signed a consent form and then filled out the survey, and Jeremy has the surveys in a pile with each student s consent form directly on top of that student s survey. He places the pile of completed surveys and consent forms on his desk, so that he will remember to bring them to Professor. Y first thing Monday morning. 1. Even though Jeremy is just trying to be conscientious and careful about keeping the data accurate, what is the problem with the way he has organized the stack of data? What are some ethical problems that might occur as a result? 2. Why is it probably not a good idea for Jeremy to keep the surveys in a pile on his desk? What would be a better solution? 3. One of the participants was a girl that Jeremy is really interested in. Would it be a serious ethical violation for Jeremy to take a peek at her survey to learn more about what she is like? Explain why or why not. 4. Standard 5.02 of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct states that psychologists must take reasonable precautions to protect confidentiality. How far does Jeremy have to go in protecting the confidentiality of the surveys so that he can be described as reasonable?

7 7. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: How should a researcher deal with mistakes? Karen has been working with her professor on a research study for the last two years. They have collected data on flavor preferences in rats, and found some very impressive results. They presented their research at a conference, and they just submitted a paper about the project to an academic journal. When the reviews of their manuscript come back from the journal, the reviewers have several questions about the data. Her professor asks Karen to look over the data and the SPSS output from the study and double check that they did everything correctly. When Karen reviews the data, she realizes that she made a mistake in entering the data. Inadvertently, she had repeated some of the same data values twice in the data file, so it appeared there were 270 observations when there were actually only Why might Karen decide not to tell her professor about the error? 2. What are some possible negative consequences that might result if Karen tells her professor, and they both report it to the journal editors? 3. What are some possible negative consequences that might result if Karen tells her professor, but they agree not to report the mistake to the journal editors? 4. According to Standard 6.21 b of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, what should Dr. Tarner do? What would you do if you were in her professor s place and why?

8 Memory Memory 8. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: What is the problem with misleading graphs? Professor J has received funding from a major pharmaceutical company to do a study on the effects of estrogen on women s ability to think more clearly and remember more information. As part of her preliminary research report, she has included the following graph, showing the difference in memory (measured on a 40 point scale) between women who were and who were not given estrogen replacement therapy (using a patch made by the pharmaceutical company): Memory Scores of Women Who Do and Do Not Receive Estrogen With Estrogen Patch Receive Hormones Without Estrogen Patch After reading the report, the pharmaceutical company asked Professor J if she would agree to set up the graph like this: Memory Scores of Women Who Do and Do Not Receive Estrogen With Estrogen Patch Receive Hormones Without Estrogen Patch 1. What are the arguments in favor of Professor J changing the graph? 2. What are the arguments against Professor J changing the graph? 3. If you were in Professor J s place, would you change the graph? Why/why not? 4. How does Ethical Standard 3.03 a of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct suggest that Professor J should handle this situation?

9 9. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: Why do we need a representative sample? Dr. K is interested in studying bullying behavior in middle school and high school students, and has designed a very strong study that will investigate the causes of bullying and some possible ways to prevent it. There are two middle schools and two high schools, both located on the east side of Bridgeport, where he has been able to convince the school administration to let him come in and collect data. The population in these schools is approximately 40% Latino, 50% African American, and 10% all other races. Based on the data he collects in this study, he designs an intervention program, and tries the program in several other schools in Hartford and New Haven. The program works really well, so he describes the program to teachers and parents across the country, and a lot of school systems decide to implement his intervention program, Most of the school systems that choose to do this are located in upper-middle-class, mostly White areas. 1. Why might the program fail to work in these other school systems? 2. Why do you think that most of the school systems that were interested in this intervention program were in White and upper-middle-class areas? Why is it so important, especially for a topic like bullying, for the researchers to test it with other race and socioeconomic status groups? 3. How far does a researcher have to go in making sure he or she has a representative sample? In other words, does a researcher have an ethical obligation to make sure that the results of his or her research have been tested with many different age, race, gender, ethnicity, language, disability, or socioeconomic status groups before sharing those results with the public? 4. What does Ethical Standard 2.04 c of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct suggest that researchers need to do when determining whether their results apply to other populations?

10 10. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: Is it ever permissible to make up data? Beverly really wants to go to graduate school in Psychology, and she has the grades to get in, but she knows that she needs to get some research experience. She begins working with her professor on a project in which she is observing white rats and measuring the amount of time it takes them to learn to navigate through a maze depending on whether the animal has been given a drug or a placebo. Beverly is supposed to collect data every day for six days in a row (Monday through Saturday) to see what happens as the drug gradually wears off. She collects the data Monday through Friday, but on Saturday she isn t able to get to campus because of a family emergency. She knows from talking to her professor about the study that it is too expensive to repeat the study, because both the rats themselves and the drugs are very costly. She also knows that if she tells her professor that she missed a day of data collection, she will be really upset. She considers making up the data just for Saturday based on the data she collected the rest of the week. She knows that her professor would never have to find out about what happened. 1. Assuming her professor never does find out about the made up data, what are some possible negative ethical consequences of Beverly s decision to falsify the data? 2. Why is it risky for Beverly to make up the data? 3. What would you choose to do if you were in Beverly s place? Explain. 4. According to Standard 6.07 b of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, what negative consequences might Beverly s actions have for her professor s reputation as a researcher?

11 11. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: Is it ethical to do a study where the results might be trivial? Mr. Richman is a very wealthy and somewhat eccentric person who is a big supporter of the university where Professor L works in the Psychology department. He is convinced that there is a link between the size of children s heads and their IQ levels. He talks to the administration of the university, and says that he would be willing to make a sizeable donation to the school if Professor L would do this research study in a group of 10 local elementary schools. He says he is prepared to donate the money even if the results do not come out the way he expects (although he is certain that they will). 1. If you were Professor L, what are some ethical arguments you would have against doing this study? 2. If you were Professor L, what are some ethical arguments you would have in favor of doing this study? 3. What do you think you would choose to do, if you were in Professor L s place? Explain your answer. 4. If Professor L wants to abide by Ethical Standard 6.06 a of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, what should she do?

12 12. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: Why do we have to be careful not to overemphasize group differences? Dr. Q is very interested in how popular and unpopular children differ from one another. She has developed a way to categorize children as either popular or unpopular, and she is currently conducting research with these two groups of children. She is very excited about the implications of her research, because she feels that popularity is at the root of a lot of children s social problems, especially in middle school and junior high. She proposes grouping young people by popularity (of course, not telling the students how they are being categorized) and having separate classes for popular and unpopular students. Her reasoning is that popular children are usually more academically talented than unpopular children, so the teacher could teach students at the right level, and if the unpopular kids are grouped together, they can form friendships with one another and not suffer teasing or other social problems. Dr. Q presents her idea to her senior psychology majors, many of whom are planning to go into Education, to see what they think of her proposal. 1. What are some concerns you might have about Dr. Q s plan from an ethical perspective? 2. Can you think of other examples where schoolchildren are categorized based on certain traits? Are there any ethical problems with these other methods of grouping children? 3. Dr. Q is a social psychologist, so she thinks in terms of groups. What advice could a clinical psychologist give her based on the clinical psychologist s views of people as individuals? 4. Why would it be helpful for Dr. Q to read Standard 2.04 b of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct?

13 13. Ethics in Psychological Research Question: Why is peer review important? Dr. B has been doing research for the last several years on programs to convince children not to take drugs. She has developed a program in which the police visit local middle schools and bring with them former drug dealers who are currently serving prison terms for drug possession to talk to the students and convince them not to take drugs. She has tried to publish the results of this research several times, but her work has been rejected by four different journals. She has posted her research on her own website, and a number of schools have expressed interest in her program. Several school systems have decided to implement the program. 1. What are some possible reasons that Dr. B s research has been rejected by journals? 2. What is the problem with the school systems adopting this program even though the results were not published in any academic journal? 3. If you were a member of the school board for one of the schools that is considering adopting this program, what advice would you give and why? 4. According to Standard 1.06 of the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, why is it important for Dr. Brown to get her research published in an academic journal before sharing it with school systems?