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Explain how the researcher's current procedures violate the ethical guidelines for confidentiality and privacy, and explain the conceptual reasoning behind the two corrective actions they must take.
Case context: A researcher is conducting a study on the relationship between academic burnout and sleep hygiene among college students. During data collection, the researcher has participants sign a consent form, which is then stapled directly to the front of their completed questionnaire. In addition to asking about sleep habits and burnout levels, the survey asks participants to disclose their religious affiliation and sexual orientation. The researcher then stores all the stapled packets in a single unlocked cabinet in their laboratory.
Question: Explain how the researcher's current procedures violate the ethical guidelines for confidentiality and privacy, and explain the conceptual reasoning behind the two corrective actions they must take.
Sample answer: The researcher has violated ethics in two main ways: first, by stapling the signed consent forms directly to the questionnaires, allowing any handler to link names directly to sensitive responses; second, by collecting unnecessary personal details (religious affiliation and sexual orientation) that are irrelevant to academic burnout and sleep. To correct this, the researcher must physically separate the signed consent forms from the questionnaire data to prevent linking identities to responses. They must also revise the survey to only collect personal information strictly necessary for their research question, omitting the irrelevant sensitive variables.
Key points:
- Stapling consent forms to questionnaires allows linking individual identities to responses.
- Signed consent forms must be kept physically separate from the collected data to minimize linkage risks.
- Collecting religious affiliation and sexual orientation violates privacy because they are irrelevant to burnout and sleep.
- Researchers should respect privacy by only collecting personal information strictly necessary to answer the research question.
Rubric: Responses should identify that: 1. Stapling consent forms to questionnaires permits linking individuals to responses, violating confidentiality. The correction is keeping consent forms physically separate. 2. Collecting religious affiliation and sexual orientation violates privacy because they are irrelevant. The correction is only collecting details strictly necessary to answer the research question.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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