Description
TOPIC / QUESTION:
Think about if you were planning a research study to examine how mood affects performance. You plan to manipulate participants’ moods so that you have a group of happy people and a group of sad people. For the first 10 minutes of the study the “happy group” will listen to upbeat, happy music, and the “sad group” will listen to funeral dirges.
Consider the principle of “beneficence” (Belmont Report) and the similar principle of “concern for welfare” (Tri-Council Policy Statement), which specifies that the research should do no harm. Do you consider the manipulation of people’s moods to be in violation of this principle? Why or why not?
During the informed consent process, would you tell your participants about the mood manipulation in your study? Explain why or why not?
Assume that you decided not to tell participants that you are going to manipulate their mood (deception), how would you justify this to the Research Ethics Board? What could you do to minimize any negative effects of manipulating people’s moods (particularly in the “sad group”)?
The goal of this short essay is to demonstrate your understanding of research ethics by identifying potentially unethical practices and ways to mitigate these issues. Your essay should be approximately 500 words (not more than 750), written in APA format (see general guidelines below).
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:
Your essay should be 500-750 words, excluding references, and must follow APA Style guidelines and referencing rules.
General APA guidelines:
• Typed in one of the APA recommended fonts (11-point Calibri; 11-point Arial; 10-point Lucida
Sans Unicode; 12-point Times New Roman; 11-point Georgia; 10-point Computer Modern)
• Double-spaced, 1-inch margins on all sides, with page numbers at the top right of each page and
a running head at the top left of each page
• APA Style cover page: a descriptive title, your name, your institution, course number, professor’s name, and due date. Include a running head (top left), and page number (top right).
• Proper APA Style in-text citation rules must be used each time you paraphrase. Avoid direct quotes.
• You must include an APA Style Reference section on a separate page at the end of the text that includes all of the sources that you cited/paraphrased in your text.
Refer to the files for notes on the class and the rubric for assignment.
