please reply to response 2

My case study goes as follows:

“As an educational psychologist, you are employed in higher education to teach undergraduate students enrolled in a teacher education program. You have an ongoing research program that involves studies on the perceptions and training of undergraduates enrolled in teacher education programs. As a course instructor, you offer extra credit for students to participate in your ongoing research. Typically, this involves completing various surveys and paper-and-pencil instruments of perception and beliefs related to becoming a teacher. A colleague suggests to you that students in your courses are really not free to choose to participate because they may fear that their final course grade will be influenced by their choice to participate. You have assured your students that their participation will not affect their final course grade.

What are the ethical issues involved?” (Capella University, 2015).

I actually had to read this case a couple of times because at first, I couldn’t pinpoint what was going on that was wrong. I thought, “teachers offer extra credit all the time”, but then it hit me: the ongoing research is “mine”. There are multiple issues involved because I am requesting participation in work that is my own and my responsibility. Therefore, I am violating the following points in the APA Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct:

Principle B: Fidelity and Responsibility

 “Psychologists…accept appropriate responsibility for their behavior and seek to manage conflicts of interest that could lead to exploitation or harm”.

“Psychologists strive to contribute a portion of their professional time for little or no compensation or personal advantage” (American Psychological Association, 2015).

In this situation where I am asking my students to become participants in my research, (consciously or not) I am doing it for my own benefit.

Principle C: Integrity

“Psychologists seek to promote accuracy, honesty and truthfulness in the science, teaching and practice of psychology” (American Psychological Association, 2015).

In this situation, results may be compromised because students may feel compelled to answer my survey in a certain way in order to fall “under my good graces” or to receive the extra credit. This in turn will affect the accuracy and truthfulness of the results in my research.

Standard 3: Human Relations

3.05 Multiple Relationships

“(a) A multiple relationship occurs when a psychologist is in a professional role with a person and (1) at the same time is in another role with the same person…” (American Psychological Association, 2015).

3.08 Exploitative Relationships

“Psychologists do not exploit persons over whom they have supervisory, evaluative or other authority such as clients/patients, students, supervisees, research participants and employees” (American Psychological Association, 2015).

In this situation I am taking advantage of using my own students as participants, which is convenient. This is also affecting the integrity of my work because sampling is not actually being randomized.

Standard 8: Research and Publication

8.06 Offering Inducements for Research Participation

“(a) Psychologists make reasonable efforts to avoid offering excessive or inappropriate financial or other inducements for research participation when such inducements are likely to coerce participation” (American Psychological Association, 2015).

In this situation, offering “extra credit” to make participation more appealing.

In order to resolve this issue I would first seek counsel with a colleague and/or a supervisor. I would also have to make sure I have not violated institutional policy and risk losing my job or any other memberships involved with my position. I would apologize to my students and find a different way to offer extra credit. If surveys and other research materials were already collected, I would dispose of them and would have to start anew with data collecting, since it has been compromised and gathered in an unethical manner.

How these issues and ethical principles relate to my future career and currently as a graduate student is in that as a practitioner-scholar, I have to be self-aware and constantly evaluate my performance so that I do not cause unintentional harm to others by becoming biased by my own personal interests. After reading Capella University’s (2015) section 3.4 of Digressions for Deliberation, where a list of excuses for ethical misconduct were listed, it became easier to visualize why a lot of professionals fall into unnoticed unethical practices. In my case study, my “colleague” mentioned that students may not feel free to participate, but did not warn me that using my own students as participants was unethical. If this were a real situation, I would not think I was doing anything wrong. As professionals it is also our duty to call out unethical behavior so that it does not become a chain among co-workers in the workplace.