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DEVELOPING A GOOD

RESEARCH IDEA ANDCONDUCTING AN ETHICAL

PROJECT

Chapter Two

Copyright 2013 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.1

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The Research Idea


You find a research ideawhen you find a gap in

the current knowledge or an unanswered

question that interests you.


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Characteristics of Good Research

Ideas


The most important characteristic of a good

research idea is that it is testable.

A second characteristic of the good researchidea is that your chances for success are

increased when your view of nature

approximates reality as closely as possible.

When reality is approximated there is a goodlikelihood of success.


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Sources of Research Ideas


Nonsystematic Sources Include those occurrences that give us the illusion that

a research idea has dropped out of the sky.


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Nonsystematic Sources Inspiration

Ideas that pop into ones mind from (seemingly) nowhere. Inspiration

usually comes more easily after one has been working on a particular

problem for some time.

Serendipity Refers to those situations where we look for one phenomenon but

find another.

Everyday Occurrences The people and/or situations one

encounters daily provide some of

the best possibilities for research. Source: Skinner, B.F. (1961). Cumulative Record (ExpandedEdition) p 420. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.


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Systematic Sources

Research ideas from systematic sources are

carefully organized and logically thought out.

6Copyright 2013 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.


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Systematic Sources Past Research

A careful survey of the research done in a specific area will

highlight any knowledge gaps or unanswered questions in that

area. A failure to replicatea previous finding raises additional questions

that only continued research will be able to answer.

Theory The guidance function of a theory provides an endless panorama

of projects for researchers who take the time and trouble tomaster the theory and understand its implications.

Classroom Lectures

Lectures often include a systematic review of the relevant

literature on a particular topic and as such are a good source of

research ideas.


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Developing a Research

Question

Regardless of the source of your research idea, your

first goal should be to turn it into a question.

Once you have a question, you need to survey the

li teratureto find out what is already known about thequestion



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Surveying the Psychological

Literature


Selection of Index Terms

Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms Is a collection of index terms taken from abstracts of all published

psychological research.


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Literature


Computerized Searches of the

Literature Your next step is to familiarize yourself with the computerized

research databases available at your school. Enter yourindex terms into the search box of the database.

Selected databases offered by APA:

- PsycINFO

- PsycARTICLES

- PsycBOOKS

- PsycEXTRA


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Literature


Computerized Searches of the

Literature The Internet can be a useful tool, but be cautious when

selecting which information to use. Web pages presentadditional evaluation challenges. While there are no

universally accepted guidelines, the following criteria are

useful: author i ty, accuracy, object iv i ty, currency,

coverage, andnavigat ion/design.


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Literature


Obtaining Relevant Publications You need to assemble all of your original source

materials in one place.

Interlibrary loan If your library does not have the relevant journals or books, you can

request them through interlibrary loan. There is sometimes a small

fee for this service and the amount of time it takes to get your

materials will vary.

Requests for reprints You can write or e-mail the author of a journal article directly and ask

for a copy of the article (reprint). Many colleges and universities have

searchable faculty e-mail databases. This makes it very easy to e-

mail the author and ask for a reprint.


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Literature


Integrating the Results of the Literature

Search This is the process of making sense of the materials you have

assembled. Taking good notes from the articles read and summarizing

information under APA headings on a single page is a helpful

technique.


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The Need for Ethical Principles


Psychologists must ask and answer

questions such as: Are we putting our participants at risk?

Is our experimental treatment harmful? Is the information we will gather from our experiment worth

the potential risk and harm to participants that is involved?


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Many Nazis who committed medical researchatrocities during World War II were prosecuted atthe Nuremburg War Tribunal. The NuremburgCodestressed consideration of the following

ethical principles: Participants should consent to participate in research.

Participants should be fully informed of the nature ofthe research project.

Risks should be avoided whenever possible.

Participants should be protected against risks to thegreatest extent possible.

Projects should be conducted by scientifically qualifiedpersonnel.

Participants have the right to discontinue at any time.


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Four instances that created major concern regarding

research ethics are cited in your text. These are:

The medical atrocities of World War II

The Willowbrook hepatitis project

The Tuskegee syphilis project

Stanley Milgramsobedience studies in the 1960s


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APA Principles in the Conduct of Research

with Humans


Experiments such as the Tuskegee syphilis project

and Milgramsstudy have led to the development of

ethical guidelines by the APA.

The APA adopted and published the original code ofethics in 1973; it was revised in 1982, and again in

2002.


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with Humans


Some APA principles have proved to be

controversial:

Placing research participants at risk or at minimal risk

Informing participants of such risks

Securing informed consent from participants

Use of deception in research


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with Humans


Is Deception in Research Necessary?

Providing a completeexplanation or description of the project

may influence the participants responses.

It is arguable that deception may be justified in some cases ifour results are to be unbiased or uncontaminated by

knowledge of the experiment and the expectancies that such

knowledge may bring.


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Example of an Informed Consent

Document

Source: Wann, D. L. & Dolan, T. J. (1994). Spectators evaluations of rival and fellow fans. The

Psychological Record, 44,351358.

APA Principles in the Conduct of


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APA Principles in the Conduct ofResearch

with Humans


Participants at Risk and Participants at Minimal Risk

Participants at risk: are participants who, by virtue of their

participation in the research project, are placed under some

emotional or physical risk.

Securing informed consent from participants at risk is amandatory condition.

What about those participants at risk who are participating in a study

involving deception?

How do we satisfy the ethical guidelines in such as case?



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with Humans


Participants at Risk and Participants at Minimal Risk

Participants at minimal risk: are participants who will

experience no harmful effects through taking part in the

research project.



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with Humans


With vulnerable populations, researchers need to

consider factors such as:

Health of participants

Age of participants

Ability of participants to understand what participation in a project

may entail (e.g. children, patients with physical or mental

disorders; persons with lower intelligence, low literacy, or English

as a second language)



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with Humans


The Debriefing Session:

Is usually the final step in conducting the research project

Involves explaining to the participants the nature and

purpose(s) of the project.



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with Humans


Aronson and Carlsmith (1968) proposed thefollowing guidelines for effective debriefing: The researchers integrity as a scientist must be conveyed to

the participants.

If deception was used, the researcher should reassure the

participants that it was not wrong or a reflection on theirintegrity or intelligence to feel that they have been tricked orfooled.

The debriefing session should progress slowly. Do not rush.

Researchers should make every effort to return participants tothe same state they were in at the beginning of the project.

The researcher should repeat all guarantees of confidentialityand anonymity that were made at the beginning of theproject.

For maximum effectiveness, the researcher should conductthe debriefing session immediately following the experimentalsession.


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The Ethical Use of Animals in

Psychological Research


Here is a brief summary of the APA (1985) guidelines

for the use of animals:

I. Jus t i f icat ion o f Research.

II. Personnel.

III. Care and Hous ing o f An imals.

IV. Acqu is i t ion of Animals .

V. Exper imental Proc edures.

VI. Field Research .

VII. Educat ional Use of An imals. The educational use of animalsalso must be approved by the appropriate review board. Instruction

in the ethics of animal research is encouraged.


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The Institutional Review Board


The Institutional Review Board (IRB) is a campus

review panel for the use of human participants in

research projects.

At some institutions the IRB also reviews research projectsthat utilize animals.

Many institutions have an Animal Care and Use Committee

that reviews research projects that utilize animals.

A veterinarian must be a member of any panel that reviews

animal research proposals.


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The Institutional Review Board


The typical IRB is composed of a cross-section of

individuals.

IRBs might contain faculty members from history, biology,

education, psychology, and economics, as well as one or two

members from the community who are not associated with theinstitution.

The IRB serves to ensure that the experimenter treats

research participants, whether they are humans or

animals, according to the established ethical guidelines.


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The Participants

Responsibility


Korn (1988) indicated the research participant hasthe following responsibilities: Be on time for the research appointment.

Participants have the responsibility to listen carefully to theexperimenter and ask questions in order to understand the

research. Participants should take the research seriously and cooperate

with the experimenter.

When the study has been completed, participants share theresponsibility for understanding what happened.

Participants have the responsibility for honoring the

researchers request that they not discuss the study withanyone else who might be a participant.

O


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Researchers Ethical Obligations

Once The Research is Completed


Do not plagiarize(use someone elses work without

giving credit to the original author)


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The Department of Psychology at BishopsUniversity (1994) has suggested the following:

You must reference every statement of fact and every idea oropinion not your own unless the item is part of commonknowledge.

Do not hand in for credit a paper that is the same or similar toone you have handed in elsewhere.

It is permissible to ask someone to criticize (but not rewrite) acompleted paper before you submit it.

Keep rough notes and drafts of your work and photocopies ofmaterial not available in your college or university library.


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Researchers Ethical Obligations Once

The Research is Completed

Copyright 2013 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved.

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Avoid Fabrication of Data

Refers to situations where the experimenter either

deliberately changes or alters data or

Makes up data to suit his or her needs.

O O


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Researchers Ethical Obligations Once

The Research is Completed

Avoid Lying with Statistics

Results should be presented in an unbiased manner.



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Copyright 2013 Pearson Education Inc Upper Saddle River NJ 07458 All rights reserved

Cite Your References Correctly

It is the researchers responsibility to cite and list onlythose

articles that have been read.

The least you should do is cite the secondary source you are

using. It is allowable to cite an article that is described and

referenced in another article. If Smith and Davis (1999) described and referenced a

research project conducted by Brown (1984), you can cite

it as follows: Brown (as cited in Smith & Davis, 1999) found that

In your reference section you would list only the Smith andDavis reference (the one you actually read).

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