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Analyze Dr. Aris's proposed protocol. Diagnose two distinct ethical violations regarding informed consent and fairness in placebo-controlled research, and explain why her plan fails to meet these standards.
Case context: Dr. Aris is conducting an experiment to evaluate a new web-based therapy for mild depression. To control for expectation effects, she uses a placebo control group that receives general wellness newsletters. In her draft protocol, she decides not to mention the placebo group to participants during the consent process to avoid causing disappointment, and planned to debrief them afterward. She also decides that once the study ends, she will simply thank the control group participants and dismiss them since the study is complete.
Question: Analyze Dr. Aris's proposed protocol. Diagnose two distinct ethical violations regarding informed consent and fairness in placebo-controlled research, and explain why her plan fails to meet these standards.
Sample answer: Dr. Aris commits two ethical violations. First, she violates the principle of informed consent by failing to notify participants beforehand that they could be assigned to either the genuine web-based therapy or an inactive placebo condition (the wellness newsletters); concealment of assignment is allowed, but the possibility of placebo assignment must be disclosed upfront. Second, she violates the principle of fairness by not offering the control group participants the opportunity to receive the actual web-based therapy after the study has ended, leaving them without the potentially beneficial treatment tested.
Key points:
- Diagnose the informed consent violation: failing to notify participants beforehand about the possibility of being assigned to an inactive placebo.
- Differentiate between acceptable assignment concealment (blinding) and unacceptable failure to disclose the existence of a placebo group.
- Diagnose the fairness violation: failing to offer the active treatment to control group participants post-study.
Rubric: Assess the learner's ability to diagnose and explain the ethical issues: (1) identifying the failure to disclose the placebo control option during the pre-study informed consent phase, and (2) identifying the failure to offer the active therapy to the control group participants after the study concludes.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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