TO: Students IN CJ 160
FROM: R. B. Taylor
DATE: 11/9/05
RE: Research ethics

I have posted two new readings on research ethics, and have moved up a chapter from research ethics in RMCJ.

We will be discussing these pieces on 11/11 and 11/14 so if you have room in your busy lives to do the readings that would be great

Go to sequence of topics page for those or CLICK HERE for first and HERE for second.

You want to read the RMCJ pages on ethics BEFORE you read these two pieces.

The two short articles are about an anthropologist who goes undercover to study undergraduates, and does not tell those with whom she is living and interacting that she is a professor at that university.

Some questions to think about as you read these pieces:

1. What were her motivations for going undercover? Did the METHOD she chose FIT with her study purposes?

2. There are four ethical principles which guide how researchers should act (see RMCJ)? Do you think that she violated any one of those? If you do, be specific about which one(s) she violated and give a specific example.

3. If you were on a human subjects review board and you were reviewing this study, would you approve it or not? Why?

4. Did the anthropologist protect students identities (their privacy) or not in her book? Explain.