Chapter 14 - Working with human subjects

Question 1

University researchers occasionally ask students in a class to participate in research studies. However, this practice may involve elements of coercion, as students may be concerned that refusal to participate may negatively impact their grade. Is voluntary informed consent possible in such a situation? What steps might be taken to reconcile the researchers need for subjects with the students’ right to decilne to participate?

Answer 1

*

Question 2

The virtual reprise of Milgram’s experiment (see Section 14.2.1) asked participants to inflict harm upon a computer-generated avatar. This approach eliminates some of the potential ethical concerns associated with the original experiment, but may raise additional questions. As user behavior was similar to what was observed in the original experiments, it is possible that participants in the “virtual” versions would experience similar patterns of nervouness and distress. Do you consider this sort of research to be appropriate? What might be done to protect participants in this sort of experiment?

Answer 2

*

Question 3

As part of a large study of how varios aspects of interaction online worlds, suchs as Second Life, impact the offline lives of participants, you are interested in observing participant both online and offline. As you know, participants in online games such as these may not represent a broad cross-section of society. The race and sex of online characters may not reflect those of real individuals involved and some may choos to hide their “real” identity. Given these challenges, how might you go about finding a group of participants that would be interesting to work with? How might these challenges affect the conclusions that you might be able to draw from your observation and your ability to generalize from thos conclusions?

Answer 3

*

Question 4

Etikk i vårt prosjekt

Answer 4

Fokus på å ikke skremme, barna skal sitte igjen med en følelse om at det ikke er for sent å endre ting, optimisme.

Informert samtykke fra både barn og foreldre, krevde mer planlegging. Valgte å ikke ta opp lyd/video på TM.

Fått tillatelse til å vise bilder eller sensurert. Ingen navn eller identifikasjon av sitater i rapporten.

Vise hensyn i adferd med barn