Research Methods Unit #1

Ethics in Research

Beneficence and nonmaleficence (Ethics 1)

Consider the benefits and costs of participating in research for participants. Conduct a risk-benefit analysis that considers the least risk and most benefit. Also want to minimize harm

Harm

Most: Very invasive

Intermediate: Minimally invasive

Least: Participants may feel bored

Benefit

Most: Research will help the participant and others directly

Intermediate: Research will not help the participant

Least: Will not help anyone

Fidelity and responsibility (Ethics 2)

Researchers must maintain transparency with participants

• Informed consent about the risk to potential to participants and the truth (before experiment begins)

• Add knowledge to aid society

• Demonstrate professionalism

Free from coercion (Without giving an offer participants can refuse and drawing in vulnerable subjects)

Research must be easy to understand

Assent or surrogate consent

Individual is not of the legal age or has diminished capacity, so a parent may agree to the term on their behalf.

Integrity (Ethics 3)

Researcher should be honest and not make up or manipulate data, therefore making sure to report ALL collected data and results

• Deception: misleading others by any means of distorting of or withholding of fact (Can sometimes be used in cases where it is necessary for the research, beneficial to society, there are no alternatives, and there is no harm to the participant)

Justice (Ethics 4)

Being fair to participants, free from bias, and competent. Participant must also benefit from the research findings

• Ex: Tuskegee syphilis injustice by using a disadvantaged group and not providing treatment in the benefit they were “promised”

Respect for people’s rights and dignity (Ethics 5)

Psychologists should maintain participant confidentiality and anonymity

• Code participant data to protect from knowing whom that data belonged to

• Can be violated if an only if the participant intends to harm themselves or others, are being abused, or the participant is a minor

IRB

Institutional review board

• Every researcher must be approved before conducting the studies

• Judge the ethical merit of the study

Exempt: Less than “minimal risk”

Expedited: Not greater than minimal risk

Full board: More than “minimal risk” to subjects

IACUCs

Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee

• Considers both use and care of vertebrate animals

• Set the standards for that use and care

Make sure that using vertebrate animals in research is necessary, original, and asks just how many animals are going to be used, and will the animals experience pain, distress, or discomfort as part of their experiment?

PACUC

Purdue Animal Care and Use Committee

• Review animal care and use protocols for potential ethical violations

• Random visits for enrichment qualities

LAP

Laboratory Animal Program

• Veterinarians who care for the laboratory animals and farm animals

• Assure animals housing, environment and husbandry practice are met and consistent with federal policies

AAALAC

Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International

• Independent, non-profit organization which reviews animal care facilities and provides accreditation of housing and care are exceptional

• Promotes humane treatment of animals

REM

Radiological Environmental Management

• OSHA for laboratories and human safety

Reduction

Minimize the number of animals used per experiment

• Use the same control group for multiple experiments

• Share tissues with other investigators (collaboration)

Refinement

Minimize pain and discomfort and improve animal welfare and enrichment

• Changing experiments or procedures (modify them)

• “Refine the treatment plan in order to minimize pain and discomfort”

Replacement

Use other methods instead of live (vertebrate) animals

• Non-animal techniques like computer software

Authority with training in their area of interest

Some influentials such as an expert says so

Common sense

Information everyone knows and is corroborated by personal expereince

Intuition

“Feeling of knowing” something, but you’re not sure quite sure where that knowledge came from

• Gut feeling

• Most subjective source of knowledge

Rationalism

Knowledge derived from reasoning and logic (deduction or inference)

• Premise 1 + Premise 2 yields conclusion

Empiricism

Knowledge from experience or observation

• De-emphasizes personal experience (testimonials)

• More important way of knowing in science

• Use the scientific method to acquire data

Least subjective and most objective source of knowledge

Placebo

When improvements in a procedure are due to expectations only

Scientific method

1. Asks questions that can be answered (empirical questions/ solvable problems)

2. Prioritizes empirical evidence (distinguish between points of view)

3. Makes data publicly available (peer review for method and justification)

4. Makes claims and predictions that are falsifiable (self-correcting mechanism)

Pseudoscience

Uses scientific methods, theories, and assumptions that are similar to but NOT exactly the scientific method

• Is more convincing than true and often misleading

• Focuses on evidence that is confirming, rather than evidence that is against a claim

• Sources often do not review the validity of the methods/procedures and there is no official peer review

Language of science and mimics the procedure

Testimonials are used as evidence in pseudoscience without following the scientific method

• Names often sound similar to science words

• Used highly selective information through testimonials that are distorted by expectations and biases

Confirmation bias: Prioritize both evidence that confirms pre-existing own ideas and dismiss evidence that doesn’t fit original opinion

Availability heuristic: Something that is particularly memorable or salient

Shifts burden of proof

When claims are challenged, defense for why your data and approach are compelling

• Requires justification, fails to provide sufficient evidence, yet demands others to provide the evidence opposite of their claim (Flat earth beleivers)

Argument by exclusion

If the phenomenon is currently unexplained, then they say that the absence of evidence “supports their decision”

• However, lack of evidence is not proof of a claim

Shunning

Claim that their claims are true simply because they are not in the mainstream

Misuses rules of evidence

Pseudoscience reports successes only and leaves out failures

Basic research

Discover the natural laws of behavior that try to understand some phenomenon

• Not necessarily useful

Applied research

Direct and immediate relevance to problems in the natural world and provide a direct solution to problem

• Usefulness is the goal

Translational research

Combines both basic and applied research with the primary goal of advancing basic science research findings so they may be applied in everyday clinical practice to enhance health and overall well-being

Ex: Dr. Johnson conducted research on the variables that produce false memories and gave workshops to teach lawyers

Operational definitions

Definition for a construct in terms of the operations used to produce and measure a phenomenon (How researchers define concepts used in an experiment)

Functional: What the behavior does/produces

• If A, then B happens every time

• Ex: Mouth clean was defined as the participant having no food in their mouth (Not specific, any outcome as to where the food could be)

Topographical: What the behavior looks like (specific)

• If A, then B happens and looks like this..

• Ex: Physical activity was defined as the participant walking slowly around the track instead of running

Qualitive research

Collecting information or results in words

• Data collected through participant observation and interviews

• Analyzed by themes

Quantitative research

Collecting results in numbers

• Data collected through measuring concepts with numerical values