Exam 4: Ethical Guidelines for Psychology Research

Dr.Johnson is planning on conducting a study in which he observes the ways people approach each other in bars.He plans to sit at a local bar and listen to the ways men introduce themselves to women and the ways women introduce themselves to men.To avoid detection, he plans to sit at the bar and write down the information he collects on cocktail napkins.Dr.Johnson concludes that he does not need to have participants sign a written informed consent.Explain the concept of informed consent and why Dr.Johnson does not need to collect informed consent in this study.

RESEARCH STUDY 4.1: Dr.Kushner is planning on conducting a study next semester.He is curious as to whether sleep deprivation is associated with poorer cognitive performance.For example, if you sleep poorly the night before a big exam, will you do worse? Dr.Kushner is especially curious about selective sleep deprivation, where people are kept from entering REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.Using an electroencephalograph (EEG) to monitor brain waves, he plans to let participants sleep until they enter REM sleep and then wake them.After the participants are awake for one minute, Dr.Kushner plans to let them return to sleep.As they enter REM sleep again, he will wake them again and follow the same procedure.He plans to do this through the entire eight-hour sleep session.The following morning, participants will be asked to take a sample SAT test. Dr.Kushner plans to use deception in his study and is thinking about a debriefing session.Which of the following is true of the debriefing?

RESEARCH STUDY 4.2: Dr.Van Ryan is a social psychologist who is curious about how clothing affects people's perceptions.Specifically, she is curious how women who wear high heels are perceived in the workplace.Does the addition of height make co-workers take them more seriously? Are women who wear high heels seen as less professional? She is considering using an experimental design where some participants are instructed to wear high heels to work for a week and some participants are instructed to wear flat shoes.Each day of the week, Dr.Van Ryan will have the women's employer and co-workers rate how competent and professional the female participant is. What is the principle of justice? Explain how the principle of justice needs to be addressed by Dr.Van Ryan as she considers conducting her study.

Dr.Smitherman conducted a study 5 years ago, and his graduate student now recommends that they conduct the study again to see if the effect still occurs.Dr.Smitherman says, "No, I cannot do that study now; I think it is unethical." Which of the following is NOT a reasonable explanation for Dr.Smitherman's response?

What are the three primary arguments provided in favor of animal research?

When is it acceptable for a researcher to study only participants from a specific group, such as a researcher studying depression in a sample of Native American women?

Which of the following ethical violations proposed by the Belmont Report was NOT committed in the Tuskegee Study?

Which of the following is NOT an example of coercion?

Which of the following studies would probably require written informed consent?

Ethical decision making done by researchers can change in response to all of the following EXCEPT:

An in-person institutional review board (IRB) meeting would probably be required for all of the following studies EXCEPT:

Which of the following is NOT a reason that psychologists might fabricate or falsify their data?

State the five ethical principles proposed by the APA.How do these principles differ from the Belmont principles?

The issue of obtaining informed consent deals with which of the following principles of the Belmont Report?

State the three principles of the Belmont Report and explain how the Tuskegee Study violated each of them.

Explain why the Belmont principle of respect for persons requires participants to provide informed consent.

In addition to being ethical violations, why are data falsification and fabrication problematic?

Which of the following is true of the Belmont Report?

According to the Belmont Report, which of the following groups of people is entitled to special protection?

RESEARCH STUDY 4.2: Dr.Van Ryan is a social psychologist who is curious about how clothing affects people's perceptions.Specifically, she is curious how women who wear high heels are perceived in the workplace.Does the addition of height make co-workers take them more seriously? Are women who wear high heels seen as less professional? She is considering using an experimental design where some participants are instructed to wear high heels to work for a week and some participants are instructed to wear flat shoes.Each day of the week, Dr.Van Ryan will have the women's employer and co-workers rate how competent and professional the female participant is. After Dr.Van Ryan conducts her study, a colleague accuses Dr.Van Ryan of deleting some of the data that does not match her hypothesis.If this is true, in what type of research misconduct did Dr.Van Ryan engage? Why is this behavior a problem for the science in general?