Ethics

Wompa1

I have a couple of questions.

If a psychology student had to do a study. Using a sample group and decided to cut three people from the study because they weren't consistent with others, is that not completely unethical? Shouldn't the study include them and highlight the results are not inclusive of the entire group?

Also why don't college and universities track the activities of the students during their studies? It sickens me now when I see the like of Ruairi Quinn bringing in Psychology institutes to influence some policies on education.

Also how about if a student was dealing with very sensetive information and informed partcipants only them and their supervisor would see or hear the content. When in actual fact several others would be transcriping and hearing everything?

I had confronted said student about this before and was told that's how things are done in psychology and only thought to further question when discussing this with another PhD student in a different field of study. What say you guys?

The Black Oil

I'm not sure if it's unethical, maybe methodologically suspect. Hard to know from what you've said as I don't know the nature of the sample or the study. There may be a justification for it, so long as it's clear in the write up and limitations.

Tracking? How? What activities? If you mean the inner workings of every student's undergraduate project, I'm not sure supervisors/academics would have the time. I don't quite follow what you're sickened about.

The transcription one is difficult. I'm not going to pretend there aren't people who don't farm out stuff to be transcribed, but that this could happen in any discipline, potentially.

But, don't get me wrong, I'm not a psychologist and finished studying psych 4 years ago. I'm sure someone else will come along with a better response. Any properly accredited course will have a good spiel on ethics in the course handbook and an ethics committee/application process. Not trying to attack you personally, but maybe there's a difference between what you are perceiving as particular problems, the scope of the study and what training (if any) the person is following.

dambarude

Wompa1 wrote: »

If a psychology student had to do a study. Using a sample group and decided to cut three people from the study because they weren't consistent with others, is that not completely unethical? Shouldn't the study include them and highlight the results are not inclusive of the entire group?

That shouldn't be done. You can't select participant data once the participant data has been collected unless they request that their data be omitted, or they didn't fulfill a requirement that had been decided beforehand (e.g. age or achieving above a particular score in a test).

Wompa1 wrote: »

Also why don't college and universities track the activities of the students during their studies? It sickens me now when I see the like of Ruairi Quinn bringing in Psychology institutes to influence some policies on education.

What move by Ruairí Quinn are you referring to in particular?

Wompa1 wrote: »

Also how about if a student was dealing with very sensetive information and informed partcipants only them and their supervisor would see or hear the content. When in actual fact several others would be transcriping and hearing everything?

That's obviously completely unethical, and would go against the conditions on which they got ethical clearance. Any psychology research done under the aegis of third level institute will have gotten ethical clearance. If it was the case that others would be privy to this info it should have been said to the participants at the outset.

Wompa1 wrote: »

I had confronted said student about this before and was told that's how things are done in psychology and only thought to further question when discussing this with another PhD student in a different field of study. What say you guys?

That's not how things are done in psychology. There are unscrupulous researchers in every field who tweak data- it's not particular to psychology. That said, psychology may be particularly susceptible to it.

Wompa1

Black Oil wrote: »

I'm not sure if it's unethical, maybe methodologically suspect. Hard to know from what you've said as I don't know the nature of the sample or the study. There may be a justification for it, so long as it's clear in the write up and limitations.

Tracking? How? What activities? If you mean the inner workings of every student's undergraduate project, I'm not sure supervisors/academics would have the time. I don't quite follow what you're sickened about.

The transcription one is difficult. I'm not going to pretend there aren't people who don't farm out stuff to be transcribed, but that this could happen in any discipline, potentially.

But, don't get me wrong, I'm not a psychologist and finished studying psych 4 years ago. I'm sure someone else will come along with a better response. Any properly accredited course will have a good spiel on ethics in the course handbook and an ethics committee/application process. Not trying to attack you personally, but maybe there's a difference between what you are perceiving as particular problems, the scope of the study and what training (if any) the person is following.

It really brothers me about the transcribing thing because I tried to get participants and one of my close friends said he wouldn't do it because he didn't want other people hearing what he said...luckily he stuck to his guns...I was trying to convince him based on what the student had told me. That nobody else would hear it.

In regards to the study itself. As I said I was trying to get participants and even went around at a public even to recruit men for it. All using the speal that this study was with an aim to change health policies in Ireland for said men. I'm really uneasy that I participated but in the study and in the recruitment of men who I feel have been exploited to prove this students own assumptions. I'm afraid this will influence health policies and help possibly even the majority impacted out there currently but because data was omitted it can hurt those who were not mentioned..

I might be over-reacting. It's just been playing on my conscience for the last year or so. I actually attempted to meet with the University but they got really defensive before meeting with me and basically turned the screws.

I would think if the University made the students report on their study e.g. if they were to do an interview they need to record that with the university so they couldn't later just make it go away.

Wompa1

It's worth noting that the student in question has won an award and has been published in a high profile paper. So I guess the college has a lot to lose by a high calibre student being shown up as a fraud...if of course, what they are doing is wrong.

As for the Ruairi Quinn thing, I didn't disagree with whatever the change they were making was or anything. I can't remember what it was but I just remember hearing that there was a psychological study performed as part of the policy change and thinking if it was done in the University in question it could be falsified...

The Black Oil

Confidentiality is essential in my current work and another role I hope to start soon. I have little time for those who take it lightly. I've also seen a data breach in another field, we're talking more sensitive than lost customer information, so I know how important confidentiality is. I was a little uncertain at first, but in the end I was right and I went with my gut. It sounds like your gut is telling you something or at least tripping alarm bells.


Maybe it's a case of finding the right person to approach in the college. Trouble is you need to be somewhat sure you have a leg to stand on.

Wompa1

Black Oil wrote: »

Confidentiality is essential in my current work and another role I hope to start soon. I have little time for those who take it lightly. I've also seen a data breach in another field, we're talking more sensitive than lost customer information, so I know how important confidentiality is. I was a little uncertain at first, but in the end I was right and I went with my gut. It sounds like your gut is telling you something or at least tripping alarm bells.


Maybe it's a case of finding the right person to approach in the college. Trouble is you need to be somewhat sure you have a leg to stand on.

I have e-mails, instant message, text message, transcriptions and the recordings of the participants in my possession. I was one of the people who did transcribing when the student pleaded for help. So I do have a leg to stand on for sure. I'm just not likely to pursue it any further because my communication with the University in question made me feel they were really unprofessional. They took months to respond, when they did they were pretty dismissive and when I went to meet with them, they didn't show up so I left after 30 mins and 2 failed phone calls. I e-mail again when I got home that evening about my disappointment at how they wasted part of a work day for me. They got back to say they never received a phone call. This was nearly a year ago now. But anyway, I was typing a response with a screenshot from my phone with the attempts for calling them on the same number they called me from but I just lost the drive to pursue it.

It was like they were the mafia or something. I've never asked other psychology students about the credibility aspect so just wanted to know if I'm being unreasonable or not.

I might pursue it in a few years if it still plays on my head or if I see that the study is referenced by others or anything like that. Or I might go through the Pyschology associations rather than the University or something...maybe when the time is right for me.

Thanks for answers anyway

Wompa1

Oh, I should say I never mentioned the name of the student. I don't see the point of punishing the one student, the University should be more concerned with stopping students from doing things like that in the future. Said it in the mail too but the reaction was pretty f'd up