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Monitoring Participants for Unanticipated Reactions
During an ongoing research study, investigators must continuously monitor their participants for any unanticipated reactions. If participants exhibit unexpected distress or negative responses, researchers should seek their feedback during the debriefing process and must be prepared to adjust the study's procedures to ensure ethical compliance and participant safety.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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Protocol Modification Approval
Monitoring Participants for Unanticipated Reactions
During an ongoing study, what must a researcher do if they need to make significant adjustments to their previously approved research plan?
In a psychology study, a researcher is ethically permitted to implement significant modifications to their approved plan as long as they notify the institutional review board shortly after the changes have been put into practice.
A researcher is conducting an approved laboratory study on attention. Halfway through data collection, the researcher decides to change the computer task to a more challenging version to better capture the effect they are looking for. Arrange the steps the researcher must take to ethically implement this change in the correct order.
Match each researcher's action to the appropriate analysis of their ethical obligation regarding protocol adherence.
A researcher is ethically obligated to adhere strictly to the submitted research protocol throughout the entire duration of a study, even after receiving institutional approval.
In psychological research, what does it mean for a researcher to have an 'ongoing ethical obligation' to adhere to their protocol after receiving institutional approval?
A researcher who has received IRB approval for a study later considers several adjustments during data collection. Match each adjustment to the appropriate protocol-adherence decision a researcher must apply.
When analyzing whether a mid-study change requires new institutional review board approval, the central distinction is whether the modification is _____ or significant—researchers can proceed with the former on their own authority, but must obtain IRB review and approval before implementing the latter.
A researcher is midway through an IRB-approved study and determines that a meaningful procedural change is needed—one that goes beyond a minor adjustment. Evaluate and arrange the steps below into the ethically correct order the researcher must follow before and after making the change.
In the ethical evaluation of a researcher's conduct, implementing a modification to an approved study without first obtaining permission from the _____ is considered a violation of protocol adherence, regardless of the researcher's personal justification.
Describe the scope and duration of a researcher's ethical obligations concerning protocol adherence after their study receives initial institutional approval, including the protocol modification process.
Based on the rules of protocol adherence, diagnose the ethical issue in the researcher's decision to change the task length and explain what action they should have taken.
A psychological researcher has institutional approval to conduct a study where participants view pictures of household objects. The researcher decides mid-study to change the stimulus to pictures of aggressive animals to investigate a different emotional response. Apply the rules of protocol adherence to state what the researcher must do before executing this change.
A researcher conducts a study on the effects of peer pressure on decision-making. Participants are led to believe they are in a group chat with other students making financial choices, but they are actually interacting with a computer program designed to pressure them into making risky decisions. After the session, the researcher tells each participant: "Thank you for participating. This study was about decision-making. Your data will be kept confidential and anonymous." Based on the ethical requirements for conducting research, evaluate the researcher's concluding statement to the participant.
Debriefing Script
Disclosing the Research Design
Disclosing Deception
Providing Practical Benefits During Debriefing
Seeking Participant Feedback During Debriefing
Research Protocol
Withholding the Research Question
Allocating Time for Consent and Debriefing
Monitoring Participants for Unanticipated Reactions
What is the primary purpose of debriefing in psychological research?
In psychological research, debriefing is a multi-faceted ethical process. Match each primary goal of debriefing with the specific action a researcher must take to fulfill that requirement.
In a study on mood and memory, a researcher uses a distressing movie clip to induce sadness in participants. After the memory task, the researcher explains the study's purpose and the use of the clip, then ends the session while the participants are still visibly upset. This researcher has successfully fulfilled all the ethical obligations of debriefing.
A researcher has just finished a study where participants were given fake negative feedback about their intelligence. Arrange the debriefing actions in the order that moves logically from disclosing experimental facts to addressing participant welfare.
In psychological research, the debriefing process must involve revealing any deception that was used during the study and correcting any resulting misconceptions held by the participant.
In the context of psychological research ethics, which of the following actions best illustrates the researcher's responsibility to 'correct misconceptions' during a debriefing session?
When evaluating the ethical adequacy of a debriefing session where a participant remains visibly upset by an experimental task, the researcher has failed to meet the required standard because they did not proactively _____ the negative emotions induced during the study.
A researcher has just completed data collection for several different studies. Match each post-study situation (left column) with the specific debriefing action it requires (right column).
A researcher studying social influence runs a study in which participants are told it examines 'memory for social events.' After data collection, the researcher discloses the true research question, apologizes for the cover story, and explains why the deception was scientifically necessary. The researcher then ends the session. Later, several participants report that they now believe they are unusually susceptible to peer pressure based on how they behaved during the study. By failing to address this false belief before dismissing participants, the researcher neglected the debriefing requirement to _____.
A researcher has conducted a study in which participants were told they were testing a 'concentration-enhancing supplement' but actually received a placebo to examine expectancy effects. After the final task, the researcher must conduct an ethically thorough debriefing. Evaluate each step below and arrange them in the most ethically justified order, from first (1) to last (6).
According to ethical standards in psychological research, define the procedure of debriefing, specify when it should be conducted, and identify the three key responsibilities a researcher must fulfill during this process.
Based on the ethical requirements of debriefing, explain why the researcher's current protocol is insufficient. What specific component of the debriefing process was neglected, and what must the researcher do to resolve this issue?
You are designing an experiment in which you induce a temporary sad mood in participants by having them read tragic news stories. Apply standard psychological ethics to describe a concrete procedure you would incorporate into your debriefing script to return your participants' moods to normal.
Learn After
Example: Baumrind's Criticism of Milgram's Study
Baumrind's Criticism of Milgram's Study
What action must investigators be prepared to take if participants exhibit unexpected distress or negative responses during an ongoing research study?
Arrange the following steps in the correct order for a researcher to ethically manage unanticipated participant reactions during an ongoing psychological study.
A researcher is conducting a study on the relationship between social media use and mood. Match each unanticipated participant reaction observed during the study with the most appropriate ethical action required by the principle of monitoring and safety.
In a psychological study where participants exhibit negative reactions that were not anticipated in the planning phase, the ethical principle of monitoring requires the researcher to prioritize the evaluation of procedural adjustments over the continued adherence to the original research protocol.
Match each term related to participant safety with its correct definition based on ethical standards for psychological research.
Which of the following best explains why researchers must continuously monitor participants for unanticipated negative reactions during an active psychology study, even if the research protocol was already ethically approved?
When evaluating the ethical integrity of an ongoing experiment, a researcher's decision to strictly adhere to the original protocol despite unanticipated participant distress is judged deficient because investigators are required to _____ the study's procedures to protect participant safety.
A cognitive psychologist conducting a memory study notices that several participants become highly frustrated and tearful when they cannot recall words. Because this specific distress was not anticipated in the approved study protocol, the investigator is ethically required to continue the study without making any changes to the procedures until all scheduled participants have completed the session.
When participants exhibit unexpected distress during an ongoing research study, investigators must analyze the situation by seeking participant feedback during the _____, which helps them determine how to adjust procedures for safety and ethical compliance.
Evaluate the ethical management of unanticipated participant reactions in an ongoing study by ordering the following steps from the initial monitoring phase to the final corrective action.