For each case study below: Discuss the ethics involved in the study using the ethical framework presented in your reading.
Case #1: Dr. Ron Popeil, a local psychologist, is upgrading his web site. Along with a variety of upgrades, the web developer/consultant suggests that he add a testimonial page where former patients describe their positive experiences in therapy. Since the web developer/consultant wants to get that page up and running, he suggests that they use some positive ratings and responses from Angie’s list and several other ratings sites that tell positive stories and experiences with Dr. Popeil.
Case #3: A professor and his student stretch the truth in a conference manuscript by describing their most complete data set as “a typical data set.”
Case #4: A graduate student decides that if she finds any outliers in her survey data, she will simply delete them from her data set.
Case #5: Two professors decide to survey their class without IRB approval, with the idea that if they find something interesting and want to publish it, they can always get IRB approval after the fact.
Case #6: A graduate research assistant strongly encourages a study participant to stay in an experiment by informing her that the professor gets very annoyed when students drop from his studies.
Cases from:
Artino, A. (2007). Assessing Ethical Dilemmas in Educational Research: Does Formal Ethics Training Make a Difference?, Journal of College and Character, 8(5), DOI: 10.2202/1940-1639.1616.
