Question 1

Which statement below about an Institutional Review Board (IRB)is false?

Accepted Answer

The statement that all members of the IRB must have expertise concerning special populations is false. While it's important for an IRB to have diverse expertise, including knowledge about special populations, not all members are required to have this specific expertise. The IRB must include members of varying backgrounds to promote complete and adequate review of research activities commonly conducted by the institution.

Question 2

Current APA ethical guidelines concerning euthanasia of animal participants:

Accepted Answer

The APA ethical guidelines require that any procedure involving animals, including euthanasia, must be conducted in a way that minimizes pain and distress. This is part of the broader ethical framework aimed at ensuring humane treatment of animal subjects in research.

Question 3

One of the major goals of debriefing is simply to inform the participant about the study.

Accepted Answer

Debriefing aims to ensure that participants are fully informed about the nature of the study, including its purpose and any deceptions used, after their participation has concluded.

Question 4

One argument against using animals in research is that it is dehumanizing to the human scientist.

Accepted Answer

The argument suggests that conducting experiments on animals can desensitize scientists, potentially leading to a diminished sense of empathy and ethical consideration, which can be seen as dehumanizing.

Question 5

The ethical investigator respects the participant's right to decline to serve in the study or to withdraw at any time,as long as the purposes of the research are not undermined.

Accepted Answer

The ethical investigator respects the participant's right to decline or withdraw from a study at any time, regardless of the research purposes. Participants' autonomy and consent are paramount in ethical research practices.

Question 6

According to current APA ethical guidelines for research involving animal participants,pain and discomfort can ethically occur only in the absence of an alternative procedure and if there is a justification for the research in terms of its value on ____ grounds.

Accepted Answer

According to current APA ethical guidelines, research involving animal participants that may cause pain and discomfort is considered ethical only if there is no alternative procedure available and if the research can be justified on scientific, educational, or applied grounds. This means that the potential benefits of the research in any of these areas must outweigh the ethical concerns regarding the welfare of the animals involved.

Question 7

The responsibility to determine and prevent scientific fraud lies with:

Accepted Answer

The responsibility to determine and prevent scientific fraud is a collective effort that involves the individual researcher, the Institutional Review Board (IRB), and the granting agency. Each plays a crucial role in ensuring the integrity of scientific research.

Question 8

Adherence to one ethical principle rarely leads to the violation of another.

Accepted Answer

Ethical principles can sometimes conflict with one another, leading to situations where adhering to one principle may result in the violation of another. For example, the principle of autonomy (respecting an individual's right to make their own decisions) can conflict with the principle of beneficence (acting in the best interest of others), requiring careful consideration and balance.

Question 9

It is reasonable and standard practice to share with a participant his/her individual results during debriefing.

Accepted Answer

The answer of It is reasonable and standard practice to...

Question 10

All of the following represent major APA ethical guidelines for research conducted with animals except:

Accepted Answer

The APA guidelines emphasize humane treatment and legal compliance in the handling of animals for research, but they do not guarantee protection and removal from harmful consequences as research often involves exposure to harm.

Question 11

Animal welfare supporters want to end animal research.

Accepted Answer

Many animal welfare supporters advocate for the ethical treatment of animals in research and seek alternatives to animal testing, but not all want to end animal research entirely. They often support research that adheres to strict ethical guidelines and minimizes animal suffering.

Question 12

It is critical that confidentiality regarding a participant's performance always be maintained,even when it may conflict with another ethical principle.

Accepted Answer

While confidentiality is a crucial ethical principle, it is not absolute and may need to be balanced with other ethical principles, such as the duty to protect others from harm. In certain situations, maintaining confidentiality may conflict with other ethical obligations, and a careful consideration of all ethical principles involved is necessary to determine the appropriate course of action.

Question 13

The animal rights position on the sanctity of animal life is not a testable hypothesis.

Accepted Answer

The animal rights position on the sanctity of animal life is a moral or ethical stance, not a hypothesis that can be empirically tested or measured.

Question 14

Scientific fraud:

Accepted Answer

Scientific fraud involves deliberate deception, including the manipulation of data, fabrication of research, and plagiarism, which is a form of bias intentionally introduced by the scientist.

Question 15

The textbook depicts the "Piltdown Man",which was based on a 1912 report of a humanoid-like skull with an apelike jawbone (and thus,a potential find of the "missing link"),as a likely case of ____.

Accepted Answer

The "Piltdown Man" was a hoax involving the fabrication of supposed evidence of a previously unknown early human. This involved forging data, specifically the creation of a skull made to look like it belonged to a "missing link" between humans and their ape ancestors.

Question 16

The case of Sir Cyril Burt,where identical correlations were obtained across studies,is discussed in your textbook as a likely example of:

Accepted Answer

Sir Cyril Burt's case is often cited as an example of data fudging, where he was accused of fabricating data to support his theories on the heritability of intelligence.

Question 17

A researcher decides to do a study that closely follows a design that is suggested by a colleague,but does not include the colleague as a co-author or cite him/her for the suggestion.This situation can most accurately be described as a case of:

Accepted Answer

This situation is best described as idea plagiarism because the researcher uses a design suggested by a colleague without giving appropriate credit through citation or co-authorship. Plagiarism involves using someone else's ideas or work without proper acknowledgment.

Question 18

Pain stimuli can be ethically administered to animal research participants as long as the pain is minimized,there are no adequate alternative stimuli available,and the project has been deemed scientifically justified by the IRB.

Accepted Answer

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) or an equivalent ethics committee, along with guidelines such as those from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) in the United States, allow for the administration of pain stimuli to animals under strict conditions. These conditions include the necessity for the research, the lack of alternative methods, and the minimization of pain and distress to the animals.

Question 19

In some instances it is necessary and appropriate for the researcher to withhold relevant information about an experiment when obtaining consent from the participant.

Accepted Answer

This is known as a deception technique, which can be ethically justified in certain research contexts to prevent the alteration of participants' behavior that could skew the results, provided that the deception does not harm the participants and they are debriefed afterwards.

Question 20

Which of the following can most accurately be described as an example of "cooking" data?

Accepted Answer

Changing a few numbers to make the data more consistent with hypotheses is considered "cooking" data, as it involves manipulating the data dishonestly to fit a desired outcome.

Quiz 4: Conducting Ethical Research

Which statement below about an Institutional Review Board (IRB) is false?