Imagine that you are a licensed psychologist in private practice. You decide that you want to conduct research on the effects of food dyes in ADHD-type behaviors. To conduct this experiment you will need 100 children between the ages of 5-12. You will also need your food dyes which you have received from a food research lab. The dyes are in tablet form and each tablet is equivalent to the dye found in a 12 oz. blue raspberry icee. The food dye tablets are non-toxic (of course), completely safe and composed of the same chemicals found in such foods as lollipops, fruit loops, and icees. To save time and money, you decide to conduct the experiment in your office and with the clients that you are already seeing in private practice. Each time a client arrives for his/her appointment you will observe for a baseline measure then instruct him/her to eat the tablet (which you refer to as “candy”). Once the child eats the tablet, you will record any changes in behavior that you observe during the course of the session. At the end of the study you will analyze your data and present a report to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
Describe any ethical violations in this research plan. What are the implications of these violations? What steps would you take to make the study more ethically compliant