Part A. Chapter 2, Questions #1-4
Question #1: Advantages and Disadvantages of Forming an IRB
Advantages:
- Protects the rights and health of human participants. As this is the main purpose behind forming an IRB, I believe that it makes it the number one advantage. Although the process to receive an IRB may seem tedious just to interact with other humans, it is important that the participants health and rights are always prioritized. This process is an advantage as it will ensure that there are no hazards or unethical methods being used in your research that could have been missed with your own review, which could lead to serious consequences for yourself and the participant. Ensuring that the participant is comfortable and being honest throughout a research will create advantages for your research’s results as well.
- Participants may be more willing to participate in the study knowing its purpose and methods have been reviewed by another professional source. Relatable to the first advantage that I listed, professional review from an IRB can persuade more participants to partake in the research. It is common knowledge that an individual would be more willing to participate in a study that is reviewed at such high standards compared to a study conducted with only peer reviews. Individuals could see this IRB approval as a guarantee that they will be safe in this study and that there is a great need behind for this type of research to be done.
- Your research is being looked at from another viewpoint. This is an advantage as this other “set of eyes” can notice any biases that occurred in the design of the research and then prevent them. It is always beneficial to get another look on your research to ensure that there are no cultural biases, biases in design, or potential hazards! It can be seen as getting your draft revised… making sure it is perfect and ready to be published for the public to see. This extra review can also influence more participants to feel comfortable with getting involved in the study, just like the previous advantages listed.
Disadvantages:
- Long process (4-6 weeks). Time restraints is one of the biggest disadvantages/inconveniences of forming an IRB. The process varies based on the population and level of risk of the research study, but for most studies they suggest submitting IRB applications a month prior to the intended research date. This is a disadvantage as the population that you are researching could be affected during this time or your research proposal/idea has been altered within this time. Therefore, you must be certain that this population will be available when the IRB is approved and also be confident with the research you are submitting for approval. In some circumstances, life happens, and it is hard to avoid some of the experiences that occur within the time period which is a big disadvantage of this process.
- Possibility for violations… must be careful or you can be rejected! In order to get your research approved by an IRB, it is necessary to make sure you did not violate an ethical code to keep a smooth process. If you are not careful with your research design and the IRB finds potential violations, you will be denied their approval for the research to be conducted. This denial can lead to research dissertation or thesis work to be rejected, the article may not be published, or even the University not supporting your unapproved research. That is why having any violations with submitting an IRB can be a disadvantage as it can lead to many downfalls for the near future. This is why research needs to be 100% ready and reviewed when submitting to an IRB.
- Expensive!This is one of the biggest disadvantages of forming an IRB. Depending on the type of review, the price can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. If the research is not funded by a University, this can be a big inconvenience for someone’s financial situation! This amount of money for an IRB review also creates more pressure to ensure that your research is ready for approval and is most importantly – worth the money. This could be a disadvantage financially as well as a factor that prevents researchers from attempting to get their studies IRB approved.
-See Hunter College’s FAQ’s on IRBs here!
Question #2:
Visit the following websites that focus on ethics, and discuss some possible unforeseen consequences of research. How might you avoid harm to participants in research? Can you provide examples?
Research is a great way to learn and study subjects in more depth. It has helped people learn about attachment styles, human development and many more topics. It has also further advanced technology which has helped people. Although research has advanced our ideas and society, there are consequences to research.
One of the consequences of research is the unknown of the future. An example of this is within technology. Researchers are learning about robots, how they work, and how they would integrate into human society. Although it is not everyday people see robots, they are becoming more advanced and more researched. In the future, it is unknown how this advancement will affect our society. The harms of robots are unknown and it cannot be fully known until it happens since humans do not truly know everything about artificial intelligence.
Another issue is the people chosen for research and consent. There are groups of people who may be vulnerable to research including children and those in prison. Children are still too young and underdeveloped to understand what is going on or how it can affect them. Any agreements between the researcher and guardian must be fulfilled in order to protect the child. Those in prison may not be able to fully consent due to the crimes they have committed or the issue of them feeling compelled by authority figures. All details of experiments or research must be disclosed at the beginning in order for participants to consent.
A way we can avoid harm of participants is to make sure that the participant is able to consent first, and if not, like in the case of children, get a guardian to consent. The parent should also be evaluated to make sure they are not forcing the child nor are abusive and are trying to harm the child. All details of research should be told from the beginning and the participant should be able to take away consent at any moment. When any unforeseen consequences happen within research, the researcher should notify the participant and try to rectify these consequences. Confidentiality should be taken seriously in order to protect the participant as well. There should be no falsification of data in order to make sure all results are honest.
Research is a great way to learn and study subjects in more depth. It has helped people learn about attachment styles, human development and many more topics. It has also further advanced technology which has helped people. Although research has advanced our ideas and society, there are consequences to research.
One of the consequences of research is the unknown of the future. An example of this is within technology. Researchers are learning about robots, how they work, and how they would integrate into human society. Although it is not everyday people see robots, they are becoming more advanced and more researched. In the future, it is unknown how this advancement will affect our society. The harms of robots are unknown and it cannot be fully known until it happens since humans do not truly know everything about artificial intelligence.
Another issue is the people chosen for research and consent. There are groups of people who may be vulnerable to research including children and those in prison. Children are still too young and underdeveloped to understand what is going on or how it can affect them. Any agreements between the researcher and guardian must be fulfilled in order to protect the child. Those in prison may not be able to fully consent due to the crimes they have committed or the issue of them feeling compelled by authority figures. All details of experiments or research must be disclosed at the beginning in order for participants to consent.
A way we can avoid harm of participants is to make sure that the participant is able to consent first, and if not, like in the case of children, get a guardian to consent. The parent should also be evaluated to make sure they are not forcing the child nor are abusive and are trying to harm the child. All details of research should be told from the beginning and the participant should be able to take away consent at any moment. When any unforeseen consequences happen within research, the researcher should notify the participant and try to rectify these consequences. Confidentiality should be taken seriously in order to protect the participant as well. There should be no falsification of data in order to make sure all results are honest.
Question #3: Parts 1-3
Part 1. Read “Ethical Standards in Research” at http://www.srcd.org/about-us/ ethical-standards-research. In your view, what are some fair incentives for participating in research?
Incentives are often a crucial part in getting someone to agree to participation in a research study. According to the article, any form of incentive proposed to a child should not be beyond anything they would regularly experience. Also, the greater effects of a possible incentive should be kept in mind by the researcher. Keeping this information in mind, I would consider some good examples of incentives for children to be small coupons to places such as toy stores or movie theaters, maybe some small snack. Nothing overly extraordinary, but enough to motivate/ satisfy the child.
Part 2. Would I let my own child participate in a research study?
I personally would let my own child participate in a research study as I am educated on the importance and safety of research studies today. With the codes of ethics and reviews done by official organizations such as IRB’s, it can be assumed that your child is in good hands when participating in research. All research must match up with ethical standards and be clear about any potential risks that could occur as a result. With that being said, if I perceive a consent form or reasoning behind any study to be suspicious or threatening to the well-being of my child, I would not put them through the process. After working in a nursery school with 3-5-year old’s that all experience developmental delays, I have been exposed to the importance behind the need for research for these children in order for their development to be improved. Research for children at young and vulnerable ages, regardless of mental capabilities, is vital for understanding development. Therefore, I would personally allow my child to participate in a research study to assist in improving therapies and education for these individuals. If my child did not have any disabilities, they could still contribute greatly to research for developing children in today’s world, as society and ways of parenting (such as increasing use of technology at young ages) are constantly changing, research on how these changes are affecting the children is imperative. However, researchers should keep in mind that ensuring the safety and wellbeing of the child is a top priority. I feel that these conditions should be emphasized when explaining the reasoning and methods behind a study so that more parents or guardians would be willing to contribute to these needed research studies.
Part 3. If your child had a disability, would you let him or her participate in research? Why or why not?
If I had a child who had a disability, I may let them participate in research depending on what it is. If it is research in order to help the disability of my child and there is no harm in it, then I would. I would only allow my child to participate if they could fully understand what is going on in the research and if they were willing to go through with it. I may also consider letting my child do research if there is a limited amount of people willing to do the research and my child fits the description of the participant needed. However, if there are any long term risks in this research or any serious harm could possibly done, I would not allow my child to participate.
Question #4:
Read “How Many Scientists Fabricate?” at http://www.plosone.org/article/ info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0005738, or conduct an Internet search for “data fabrication” and related terms.What would you do if you suspected that data fraud was being perpetrated on a project you were involved in? Why?
If I suspected that data fraud was being perpetrated on a project I was involved in, I would immediately halt my involvement. Before going to a higher power with my suspicion, I would try to maybe get a second opinion from another experienced scientist or participant. If my suspicion was agreed upon by the second person, then I would follow through and try to file a report against the project to stop its progression. I would let a group such as the Committee on Publication Ethics or the Office of Research Integrity investigate my suspicion. I see data fraud as a serious wrongdoing; it not only deletes trust others have in scientists, but can lead to serious consequences if the fabricated results are taken into consideration in, for example, the pharmaceutical industry in drug dosage cases.
In your opinion, what should happen to scientists who fabricate data?
I believe that scientists who fabricate data or engage in sorts of scientific misconduct should definitely face some sort of repercussion, whether it be revoking of their professional standing in the scientific field, fines, or etc. The case of Wakefield, who published a study linking vaccines to autism is a prime example of how disastrous the consequences of punishing a false study can be to one’s career. Scientists who fabricate or falsify data can lose their career, have their studies retracted, face criminal charges, and more. These consequences are all justified, as fabricating data is a serious offense, which according to Danelli (2009) can cause endangerment of peoples’ lives, as well as being a waste of financial and human resources.
Part B. Chapter 8, Question 1
Find eight graphs in the news. Present these graphs to your class or your lab. Would you change these graphs—and, if so, in what ways?
- Not following a convention
https://www.businessinsider.in/This-Chart-Shows-What-Happened-To-Gun-Deaths-In-Florida-After-Stand-Your-Ground-Was-Enacted/articleshow/30635752.cms
A graph that is moving up and right is meant to represent growth in numbers. Normal conventions would make you think that gun deaths declined in Florida from 2005 to 2012. In this chart, however, the y-axis is upside down. Zero is at the top and maximum value is at the bottom. This violates the convention that y-values increase as we move up.
2. Numbers Don’t Add Up
When you draw a pie, the numbers should add up to 100. The three pie slices don’t add up to 100 percent, but 193 percent instead. Also, if you don’t read the numbers and just observe the size of pies, you will get an impression that each of the three candidates has a close to third of the support, which is also a wrong conclusion. To not do a mistake like the one above, I would double check my numbers and make sure to use standard tools that will not allow me to make a wrong pie chart.
https://flowingdata.com/2009/11/26/fox-news-makes-the-best-pie-chart-ever/
3. Cropped Axes
Axes values provide context to charts. Fox News has truncated the y-axis of the bar graph here, and now it looks like that seven million is almost three times of six million, which is not the case. I would have avoided this by not messing with the y-axes. When it is necessary to show a detailed view, it is better to start with a broad view first and then show a detailed view in second chart to focus on a certain area.
4. Hard to Compare
When using two charts to compare things, it is important to make sure that it won’t be difficult for others to interpret the charts. Charts are supposed to make the task of interpreting data easier and not harder, but in this case it’s very difficult for a reader to compare. Something like this can be avoided if we think from a reader’s perspective or try to get feedback from our colleague or friend before publishing it. We can simply ask them how easy it is to interpret the charts? Are they able to easily compare the two charts? Also I would use ‘labels’ wherever necessary.
5. Improper Bubble Sizes
Bubble charts are very useful for displaying three dimensional data in two dimensions. Not only is there a x- and y-axes, but you can depict a third quantity by varying the size of the bubble. By far the most common mistake people make in bubble charts is that they vary ‘radius’ of bubble instead of varying ‘area’ to display different values. For example, in the chart above, the two left-most bubbles, are representing $0.92B and $1.84B. It looks like the larger bubble is at least four times the size of smaller one. Others are more likely to misunderstand this if they don’t read the text inside the bubbles. One way I would avoid this mistake is by varying ‘area’ and not ‘radius’ proportional to the data value.
6. Incomplete Data
If someone was looking at this map and trying to figure out which company has more market share, it would be very difficult for them to tell. However, most are bound to think that ‘ABC’ has a higher market share. However, the information given is incomplete and therefore, we are unable to tell. This is because ABC leads in more number of states than XYZ does, but we do not know anything about the volume of sales of both products in each state. So to know who has a larger market share, we need more data.
7. Complicated Charts
Sometimes we gather so much information, and get excited to share it all with our audience. However, although we wish to share all the data that we gathered often times, we can not. This is because we will end up creating a clustered, meaningless chart which makes it impossible for the audience to figure out where and what to focus on. To help avoid a problem like that, we can start out with a plan. We can consider in advance what information we want to extract from your data or what is most important and useful for our audience, and only share that.
8. Extra information
This chart should just be a chart about who trusts Fox news, and it should leave the rest out. The non-Fox category is a huge lump of news source and is not needed. This confuses the audience about what the graph really means. If it had been a chart with just “people choosing Fox as their most-trusted news source”, leaving only the red bars, it still would have made a strong point. And we wouldn’t be figure out what, exactly, was going on. Sometimes simplicity makes graphs graph easier to understand and more convincing, and it makes you look more trustworthy.
Part C. Chapter 8, Question 2
Find three research papers. Examine all the figures and graphs used. Are the graphs labeled properly? Would you change these—and, if so, in what ways?
The article, Social Networks’ Use on Adolescents and Young People by Simona Eftimie, describes how the excessive use of social networks affect adolescents and young people. A table labeled as Tabel 1presented a comparison between investigated adolescents use of social networks was included in this research paper. The table consisted of social networks preferred such as Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. It also consisted of identified advantages of social networks, posted information, permission to access information from personal devices, and the need for personal data protection. Advantages of social networks stated in this research were relationships with friends, colleagues, parents and rapid and cheap contact with families, friends in real time/finding old friends/creating new relationships. Posted information stated in this research were photos, films (with/about friends/colleagues), homework solutions, school information, news/announcements. I believe the table is labeled improperly; the author misspelled table. I would also add a bar graph comparing the rates or percentages of the social networks preferred as well as the identified advantages of social networks. It would be more helpful and reliable to see comparable statistics. http://web.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.wexler.hunter.cuny.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=17&sid=f2cdddb7-5696-4365-b36f-50227e52d8bf%40sdc-v-sessmgr04
A second article, The Impact of Heavy and Disordered Use of Games and Social Media on Adolescents’ Psychological, Social, and School Functioning by Regina Van Den Eijnden, Ina Koning, Suzan Doornwaard, Femke Van Gurp, and Tom Ter Bogt investigates whether or not the excessive use of games and social media should be considered behavioral addictions and whether they qualify the criteria given in the DSM-5 for internet gaming disorder. A table labeled as Table 1 included descriptive statistics at each time point for the total group and separately for girls and boys. It included the variables’ age, level of education, gaming hours, internet gaming disorder, frequency of social media use, social media disorder, social competence, life satisfaction and school grade. Their results indicated a significant difference between girls and boys. I wouldn’t change this table at all. I believe it is very helpful to see the statistics behind their research. It makes the research ethical and reliable.
A third article, Social Media and Adolescent Hea by Maggie R. Guinta and Rita M. John, addresses that social media has both advantages and disadvantages to the health of an adolescent. Disadvantages included were cyberbullying, educational and mental health consequences, sexting, and privacy concerns. Advantages included were increased opportunities for collaboration, communication, self-esteem enhancement, health promotion, and access to vital health information. This article provided three tables labeled as: Table 1 – Social Media Use Amount in U.S Teenagers 13 to 17 Years old, Table 2 – Healthy Social Media Habits Education for Adolescents and Families, and Table 3 – Role of Nurses in Assisting Adolescents Develop Healthy Social Media Habits. The first table consists of social media platforms and the percentage of teenage use. The second table includes 12 different healthy advantages of social media in regards to families and adolescents. The third table includes questions nurses ask assisting adolescents to develop healthy social media habits. All three tables are very descriptive and support their research well. I believe they’re labeled properly and don’t need any change.
Written by: Joanna Jedruszczuk, Maya Nasser, Stephanie Hinck, Diyala Mawad, Yoleiry Quezada
Research Methods in Developmental Psychology 