Exam 3: A: Ethics: Making Ethical Decisions in Research

Correct Answer:

Verified

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is an example of an unethical research study in which medical researchers failed to tell participants that they had the syphilis infection.Moreover,when penicillin became available,these researchers failed to administer the medication,causing participants to suffer needlessly from their ailment.Other research studies that violated ethical standards were those conducted in prison camps during World War II.As a result of these (and other)unethical research studies,both the Nuremberg Code for Human Experimentation and the Belmont Report were created to spell out ethical principles for working with humans.Further,the American Psychological Association has offered a set of five guidelines designed to uphold ethical treatment of humans.Finally,all research must be approved by an Institutional Review Board prior to administration to ensure that potential benefits outweigh the costs and that studies adhere to the mandated guidelines.

Correct Answer:

Verified

Researchers have an obligation to maintain an open and honest approach to science that adheres to ethical guidelines throughout the research process.Researchers may diminish scientific integrity through the falsification and/or misrepresentation of their data.Falsification occurs when researchers make up their results.It can also occur when researchers "mine" their data in unethical ways.For instance,in pursuit of significant findings a researcher may remove participants from their dataset without substantial justification.Other unethical practices include examining and reporting only select variables,rather than the complete dataset.In such cases,unethical researchers are strategically using data analyses and reporting practices that serve the goal of confirming hypotheses.Researchers can also misrepresent their findings by overstating or drawing conclusions that are not backed up by the data.Misrepresentation also occurs when researchers alter graphs to make results look more impressive.Finally,when researchers plagiarize they take credit for ideas or efforts that are not their own.This is also a violation of ethical standards that impugns scientific integrity.

Correct Answer:

Verified

The ethical principles included in the Belmont Report are beneficence,justice,and respect.Beneficence means actively promoting the welfare of others.It requires researchers to maximize the benefits of a research study.Benefits include those to society,the field of psychology,and the participants involved in a particular research study.Justice pertains to fairness in selecting study participants,as well as determining who will receive the benefits of participation and who will bear the burden of risks.Researchers aim to equitably distribute both costs and benefits of their research efforts.Respect for persons ensures that the decision to participate in a research study is made freely and with all of the necessary information.Researchers much ensure autonomy,which is the idea that people are capable of making deliberate,informed decisions about their participation in research.Each of these three principles shares the goal of upholding ethical standards in studies of humans.Each is different in focus,clarifying specific principles for different steps in the research process.