Essential Statistics Data EthicsName: ______

In which of the following below (1-3), would you allow collecting personal information without the subjects’ consent?

  1. A government agency takes a random sample of income tax returns to obtain information on the average income of people in different occupations. Only the incomes and occupations are recorded from the returns, not the names.
  2. A social psychologist attends public meetings of a religious group to study the behavior patterns of members.
  3. The social psychologist pretends to be converted to membership in a religious group and attends private meetings to study the behavior patterns of members.
  4. Texas A&M, like many universities, offers free screening for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The announcement says, “persons who sign up for the HIV screening will be assigned a number so that they do not have to give their name.” They can learn the results of the test by telephone, still without giving their name. Does this practice offer anonymity or just confidentiality?
  5. You have been invited to serve on a college’s institutional review board. You must decide whether several research proposals qualify for lighter review because they involve only minimal risk to subjects. Federal regulations say that “minimal risk”? Means the risks are no greater than “those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests.” That’s vague. Which of these do you think qualifies as “minimal risk”?
  6. Draw a drop of blood by pricking a finger in order to measure blood sugar.
  7. Draw blood from the arm for a full set of blood tests.
  8. Insert a tube that remains in the arm, so that blood can be drawn regularly.
  9. Researchers on aging proposed to investigate the effects of supplemental health services on the quality of life of older people. Eligible patients on the rolls of a large medical clinic were to be randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The treatment group would be offered hearing aids, dentures, transportation, and other services no available without charge to the control group. The review board felt that providing these services to some but not other persons in the same institute raised ethical questions. Do you agree? Why or why not.
  10. At present, there is no vaccine for a serious viral disease. A vaccine is developed and appears effective in animal trials. Only a comparative experiment with human subjects in which a control group receives a placebo can determine the true worth of the vaccine. Is it ethical to give some subjects the placebo , which cannot protect them against the disease?