Question

What are some of the ethical problems that may be associated with the Tuskegee syphilis study?

Compare and contrast case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation, giving an example of each.

What is an operational definition, and what purpose does it serve?

A telephone survey is conducted, asking 3,000 participants to anonymously report the number of hours that their children watch television for each week. What is one advantage and one disadvantage of this study design? Explain.

Give an example of the placebo effect and explain. Hypothetical studies or real-life examples are both acceptable.

Answer 1

As per the guidelines, I can answer the first question. However, I am providing answers to 3 questions. I hope you will understand.

1) The Tuskegee syphilis study was conducted to find out whether a person with syphilis is better off without any treatment. The participants in the study were mostly illiterate blacks. The study is famous for its lack of unethical consideration by the researchers. Following are the reasons why the study is considered as unethical:

a) Participants' informed consent was not taken.

b) Participants were not informed about the dangers and they had to agree to an autopsy after their death if they wanted their cost of funeral covered.

c) Some patients were denied medical treatments to observe the deadly progression of the disease.

d) Patients were not given the cure even though the medicine to treat syphilis was available.

e) Scientists lied to participants about the experiment. Participants thought they are going to get free treatment. But they didn't receive any treatment.

2) Case studies, surveys, and naturalistic observation are methods that are used in descriptive research. Case studies provide in-depth information about a problem and it is mostly used in clinical settings. Case studies are done on a small number of people and are time-consuming. For example, a case study of a schizophrenic patient. Surveys provide information about a population by analyzing it in less depth. However, the survey method is efficient as it saves time and the result are generalizable. For example, a researcher wants to see how personality and performance are related among the youths. Naturalistic observation allows the researcher to study behavior occurring in a natural environment. It only describes a behavior without explaining it. For example, a researcher wants to understand the behavioral pattern of a toddler in the school. In such a situation using the naturalistic observation method is useful.

3) An operational definition describes how a researcher is going to measure the variables that he/she will be using in the study. It is important because it provides detailed and concise information about the measures. Also, it helps in specifying the measurements that will be used to measure the external behavior.