Chapter 2 How and Why People Develop and Learn 41
Checkpoint
1. What is the scientifi c method?
2. Which data collection method uses information that describes people and
situations?
3. Describe how data is collected for manipulative experiments.
4. What is the difference between longitudinal studies and cross-sectional
studies?
5. List four ethical standards researchers must follow.
Safety
Connections
Ethics is integral when conducting
research experiments. When research
involves people as the study, the rights
of experiment participants are relevant
and necessary. Universities, hospitals,
and research laboratories often have
ethics committees to evaluate the
legitimacy of proposed experiments. Ethics
committees review the overall purpose of
the experiment and means of gathering
information to determine if research is ready
to be properly and ethically conducted.
Below are criteria that ethics committees
check for during investigation as well as
rights of the research participants.
• Participants must be informed of the
purpose of the experiment and consent,
or agree, to participate in the study.
They must also be informed of their
right to exit the research participation at
any point during the experiment.
• If information about the experiment
is withheld to prevent influence
to the participant’s responses,
the researcher must inform the
participant, or debrief the participant
of the entirety of the experiment upon
experiment conclusion.
• The researcher must protect the
physical and mental well-being of the
participants. This includes appropriate
behavior from the researcher.
• Information about participants must
remain confidential and anonymous,
unless agreed upon otherwise.
Research Activity
Find a research experiment of your
choice from another period of time. Using
the above criteria, determine whether the
experiment was ethical or unethical. How
did you come to your conclusion?
Research and Ethics