Topic
Belmont Principle on Anonymity during Research
Instructions
1/ You are a researcher conducting research on men who use public restrooms for homosexual sex. To obtain the demographic information you need, you record the license plate numbers of their cars, which allows you to trace the men to their homes. You then go to their homes, pose as a health services interviewer and collect personal information from them. Are you violating any of the three ethical principles from the Belmont report? If yes, state at least one and justify your answer. If no, justify your answer again using at least one of the Belmont principles.
2/ A researcher wants to investigate the emotional consequences of abortion. Because of the difficulty in getting access to the names and addresses of women who have had abortions, he proposes a research design based on referrals from women who know of other women who have had abortions. What must the research do in order to make sure he is ethical? Use at least one of the three ethical principles from the Belmont Report in your answer.
3/ You want to study the prevalence of HIV on SVSU’s college campus. Give an example of one way you might operationalize your measurement. Describe which of the three ways we discussed operationalization in class this would represent.
Answer Preview
One thing that the researcher should do is to make sure that he does not disclose the identity of the women used in the research. After the product has been made, he should not let it out as to the name of the women who gave out the names nor the women who have been used as the sample size of the aborting women. This is very important in research because it ensures that for any form of research, they have the strength of providing that they offer the best quality. The best principle here is the beneficence principle. The policy here is supposed to minimize the risks that are disposed of for the ladies who are used as a sample. They should not be known because if they do, the society will try to look at them from a different spectrum which might not be easy to clear even in the future already.
Word Count: 700