Hi --
I don't think there's a specific case like this mentioned in the APA
guildelines.
I'm not sure I'd call it "blatantly unethical," as long as the students
are real volunteers. The ethics would only come into this if they are
coerced (especially if they're minors!), but it sounds like they are
free to complete the q'aire or not. Whether they make that decision
inside the classroom (before going out to be tested) or after they're in
the testing situation shouldn't matter, as long as there are not
different consequences in the two cases.
I would be more worried about the fact that high schoolers are typically
minors. If they are minors, there should be mention in the methods of
getting consent from their guardians or parents.
You can get the APA guidelines here
<http://www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html>, if you want to poke around
them.
HTH,
m
-------
"Mauchly's Test of Sphericity:
Tests the null hypothesis that the error covariance matrix of the
orthonormalized transformed dependent variables is proportional
to an identity matrix."
---
SPSS
________________________________
From: Steven Specht [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 12:53 PM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: [tips] survey research ethics
Dear Colleagues,
I am reviewing a research article for publication and I have a
question for which I need a specific reference. I assume someone from
this list can help.
The researchers are asking high school students to complete a
survey. The students are individually taken out of a class by a "staff
member" and are asked to complete a survey. They are informed about
their right not to complete the survey. It is unclear whether the "staff
member" remains in the room during the survey completion or not.
However, given the fact that the students are "tested" individually
means that if they do not complete the survey, they can be identified.
This procedure strikes me as blatantly unethical. I wouldn't have as
much of a problem with it if the students were tested in groups so that
non-compliant students could not be specifically identified.
I am assuming this is covered in the APA Ethics document. I
don't happen to have one of those handy. Would someone direct me to a
specific resource or send me the specific paragraph that addresses this
particular procedure?
Thanks so much.
Cheers,
-S
========================================================
Steven M. Specht, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Utica College
Utica, NY 13502
(315) 792-3171
"Mice may be called large or small, and so may elephants, and it
is quite understandable when someone says it was a large mouse that ran
up the trunk of a small elephant" (S. S. Stevens, 1958)
---
To make changes to your subscription go to:
http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
