Week 3 Discussion

Part 1 will be about ethics in research.  Part 2 will revolve around variables.  Variables are at the heart of research.  The types of variables that one is studying determines how they measure and analyze the data.

1. Give a description of a study where you would need to use deception. What would you do in this study? Why would deception be necessary? Would there be any risks to the research subjects? What would you expect to find from doing a study such as this?

2. Give a statement of a topic that you would like to study. What would you be looking at and expect to find in this study? After doing this, explain what the independent variable is and what the dependent variable is. After doing this, state the levels that these two variables will be measured at (ratio, interval, ordinal, nominal). What makes you believe that these are the correct levels for your independent and dependent variables?

Week 3 Discussion Answer

An example of a study that uses deception is when an actor is asked to play the role of a homeless individual and see if people would be willing to offer him a blanket at night. In this study, deception would be necessary because it is one way to determine how people respond to the situation. If we would conduct a survey and ask people if they would be willing to offer a homeless individual a blanket, chances are they would say yes. I don’t think there will be any risks to the research subjects because no harm will be brought upon them. By conducting a study such as this, we are able to determine the actual actions of people rather than simply their opinion.