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1. For this part of the milestone, we were asked to choose a data set. I particularly wanted to choose a data set that was related to my concentrated area within psychology of studies. Therefore, I chose to focus on Addiction. I’ve been affected personally by this devastating disease and have time and time again seen the aftermath of addiction, many of which have lost their lives to this disease. I aspire to become a drug treatment therapist one day as I’d like to give the opportunity to addicts to become clean and sober and life a healthy lifestyle doing so. Therefore, I’ve chosen Addiction as my data set for the final project.

2. The data set provided, and which has already been set up and inserted into the excel file scenario 4, is of an addiction medication in which participants were observed recovering from alcohol addiction. There are two groups provided, one listed “Treatment Group” and the other column “Placebo Group.” The participants in the Treatment Group were administered Antaquil and observed which the participants in the Placebo Group were administered placebo and then observed using the Obsessive-Compulsive Drinking Scale, or the OCDS. This scale measures the thoughts of the addict throughout the time periods in which no alcohol had previously been consumed. The dataset provided in the excel file is the data collected from these participants scoring on the OCDS and ranged from 0-40. The higher the score, or the closer the score is to 40, this indicated that the participants thoughts were concentrated more so on alcohol, the lower the score the least thoughts the addict had about alcohol during the time of abstinence. The total scores between the two groups came out to be 411 for the Treatment Group and 503 for the Placebo Group. This led me to believe that the treatment drug for alcohol addiction Antaquil is effective in treating alcohol addiction disorder.

3. This study does follow the codes of ethics listed in The American Psychological Association and is a study that does agree with the APA as well. One major reason for me to believe this is that the participants are well-informed about the study, they are aware of what the intentions of the study will determine, and they are signing a consent form to take part in the study which also follows ethical standards. They were completely informed about the study in its entirety and if they had any questions they could ask them while going over the consent form. The portion of the study description that I appreciated the most and immediately thought was a great way of remaining ethical is that the participants were informed they could leave the study at any time.

4. There is the potential for some ethical concerns for this study when analyzing the data that was collected throughout. There is the potential that the addict who is administered the Placebo could potentially become sick from the alcohol withdrawals which is potentially dangerous if not treated or supervised correctly, such as vitals being taken, and proper medication being administered. However, in order to avoid this from becoming unethical, this is covered since in the description it states that the participants were informed they could leave the study at any time.

5. There are several ways to ensure that my reporting of the results all align with the APA ethics code. One way to ensure this is to confirm that participants are entirely aware of the study being conducted. In order to be sure that the participants fully understand what is taking place and that they each and all agree to the study, they are to sign the consent form, given ample opportunity to ask questions or address concerns, and I could require all required forms and documents be submitted at the time of consent. The participants will remain anonymous and therefore confidential throughout, which is another way to be sure the reporting of the results all align within the APA ethics code. No information will be released unless the data is complete, analyzed and reviewed after of course careful documentation and all data collected in a thorough manner.