Deck 5: Ethical Issues in Social Work Research

Question 1

The ethical research issue(s)raised by the Trouble in the Tearoom study was/were:

A) invasion of privacy.
B) deception.
C) confidentiality.
D) invasion of privacy and deception.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Concealing the nature of the study from those being observed violates the norm of voluntary participation.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The norm of voluntary participation threatens the social research goal of generalizability.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Because social scientists rarely plan studies that could physically harm subjects,the issue of no harm to subjects is not a real problem.

Question 5

Science can be affected by political matters.

Question 6

As soon as you tell subjects that you are doing research,the ethical issue of the researcher's identity is no longer a problem.

Question 7

It is often as important to report that variables are not related as to report that they are related.

Question 8

Once people are told that their participation in a research study is voluntary,there are no ethical problems.

Question 9

Ethical considerations are invoked by

A) the kinds of individuals serving as participants.
B) the setting in which the research is to take place.
C) the analysis of the data.
D) the reporting of the data.
E) All of these may invoke ethical considerations.

Question 10

What ethical guideline(s)is are violated in the following study? A child therapist thinks the new,untested psychotherapy she recently developed is more effective than physician-prescribed medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.To research the effectiveness of her therapy,she tells parents that the therapy replaces the need for the medications and then provides the therapy to half of her clients,without telling parents about the study or which treatment group their child is in.

A) voluntary participation and informed consent.
B) no harm to the participant.
C) deceiving subjects.
D) all of these.

Question 11

Which of the following statements is true about the dilemma involving the right to receive services versus the responsibility to evaluate service effectiveness?

A) This is not really a dilemma, since no conflict in values is involved.
B) All professionals agree that services should never be delayed, even if their effects have not yet been verified.
C) No professionals question the ethics of providing untested services, as long as we have good intentions.
D) None of these.

Question 12

When names are removed from questionnaires and are replaced with identification numbers so that only the researcher can later link a response to a name,the researcher should tell the respondent that the information is

A) anonymous.
B) confidential.
C) anonymous and confidential.
D) harmless.

Question 13

The lack of intrusion of the researcher's own political position on research is called

A) value-free research.
B) anonymity.
C) confidentiality.
D) the identity of the researcher.
E) deception.

Question 14

The NASW Code of Ethics stipulates that social workers should:

A) use research to guide their practice.
B) critically examine and keep current with emerging knowledge relevant to social work.
C) base practice on empirically based knowledge.
D) All of these.
E) None of these.

Question 15

Which of the following can harm subjects?

A) having them face aspects of themselves that they do not normally consider.
B) asking them to reveal their unpopular attitudes.
C) asking them to identify their deviant behavior.
D) allowing them to easily identify themselves in the final report.
E) All of these.

Question 16

The PRIMARY ethical research issue raised by the Milgram study was

A) the willingness of people to harm others when "following orders" required it.
B) the administering of electrical shocks.
C) the effects of the methods on the experimental subjects.
D) the effects of the methods on the learner.
E) the examination of obedience as a topic for study.

Question 17

Ethical issues are distinguished from political issues in research in that

A) ethics deals more with the substance of research.
B) politics deals more with the methods of research.
C) formal codes of accepted political conduct are not comparable to the codes of ethical conduct.
D) ethics deals more with the use of research.

Question 18

Ethical obligations regarding analysis and reporting

A) require that technical shortcomings and failures of the study be revealed.
B) allow the researcher to determine whether or not to report negative findings.
C) Encourage the researcher to always describe the findings as the product of a carefully preplanned analytical strategy.
D) all of these.

Question 19

According to the NASW Code of Ethics,social workers violate their ethical responsibilities if they refrain from using research to guide their practice.

Question 20

The ethical issues are always readily apparent in research projects.

Question 21

Are there any situations in which a researcher is justified in deceiving subjects? Explain your answer.

Question 22

Illustrate how ethics and politics can affect social work research.

Question 23

Choose an ethical issue presented in this chapter,create a research situation in which this issue could arise,and tell how you would handle it.

Question 24

Briefly summarize both sides of the arguments regarding Epstein's study of a bogus article to test journal bias.

Question 25

Explain why bias and insensitivity regarding gender and culture in a study's methodology can be relevant to the ethics of the study.