Ethics Scenarios (pp 31-32)
Hypothetical Study 1:
Imagine that you were a human development researcher who was interested in language development, and you hypothesized that the number of words spoken to a toddler would influence the size of the toddler's vocabulary a year later. So, you designed a study in which families with toddlers were randomly assigned to two groups: In one group parents were trained to speak frequently to their toddlers, whereas in the other group the parents were given no instructions. Is this research design ethical?
Hypothetical Study 2:
Imagine that you were a human development researcher interested in the question. What makes marriages last or not? So, you proposed a study in which you invited couples in their 30's to come into a laboratory situation, where they were provided with a list of possible secrets that partners might keep from each other and asked to pick one of them to discuss, while being filmed by researchers. Is this research design ethical?
Hypothetical Study 3:
Image that you were a human development researcher who was working to develop a drug to prevent memory loss in late adulthood. In experiments with rats the drug had been shown to enhance memory, in that after receiving the drug, the rats had increased success in running mazes they had run before. However, the rats receiving the drug also died earlier than the rats in the control group. Would it be ethical to conduct a on humans in late adulthood in which one group received the drug and another group did not?