October 30, 2012

Discussing the ethics of research projects that collect data from people

The Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology has posted an electronic resource that helps faculty teach students about ethics in scholarly endeavors that require the collection of data from human participants.

Beyond Milgram: Expanding research ethics education to participant responsibilities (Barber & Bagsby, 2012) describes participant ethics and an educational approach to participant rights and responsibilities with a special focus on the reciprocal nature of the researcher-participant relationship. It includes four instructor resources

(a)	websites that discuss participants rights and responsibilities,
(b)	a student learning module,
(c)	supplemental module resources (a Knowledge Retention Quiz, answers to the quiz, a questionnaire to assess students’ beliefs about research ethics, and suggested discussion questions), and
(d)	references for additional resources and readings.

These resources might be useful to faculty who teach research methods courses in disciplines that depend on data collected from people.  These resources will also be useful to any faculty who are engaged in research projects on teaching strategies (Scholarship of Teaching and Learning) that depend on assessment data gathered from students as evidence.

The development of this 33-page resource (downloadable as a PDF document) was supported by a 2011 OTRP Instructional Resource Award to Dr. Barber.  The document is available at:

http://teachpsych.org/otrp/resources/index.php?category=Scientific%20Misconduct

Thanks to Ted Bosack, Executive Director, Society for the Teaching of Psychology and Professor Emeritus, Providence College, for contributions to this teaching tip.

 

10/30/12 cdw