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Case Study

Explain why the team's shared agreement on broad moral principles was not enough to prevent their deadlock, and describe how consulting the professional organization's ethics code will help them resolve it.

Case context: A research team is designing a study on human memory. All members of the team agree on the broad moral principle that they must avoid causing unnecessary distress to participants. However, they reach a deadlock when deciding whether a specific task in their study design counts as causing 'unnecessary distress.' To resolve the deadlock, they decide to consult the ethics code of their professional organization.

Question: Explain why the team's shared agreement on broad moral principles was not enough to prevent their deadlock, and describe how consulting the professional organization's ethics code will help them resolve it.

Sample answer: The team's shared agreement on broad moral principles was insufficient because, although they agreed on the general principle of avoiding distress, they disagreed on how to apply that principle to the specific memory task. Consulting the professional organization's detailed and enforceable ethics code helps them because it translates broad principles into clear, actionable guidance on frequent ethical issues that arise during studies.

Key points:

  • Agreement on broad moral principles does not prevent disagreement on applying them to specific situations.
  • The deadlock arose over a specific application within the study design.
  • Ethics codes address these application disagreements by providing detailed guidance.
  • Ethics codes provide clear, actionable guidelines on frequent ethical issues.

Rubric: The response must explain: 1) Why the agreement on broad principles failed to resolve the deadlock (disagreements arise over application to specific situations), and 2) How the ethics code assists them (by providing detailed, enforceable, and actionable guidance on frequent ethical issues).

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Updated 2026-05-26

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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU

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