PSY 326 Week 1 Discussion (dq1+dq2)

PSY 326 Week 1 Discussion 

DQ1

Research Ethics

This discussion has two options.  Please choose either Option A or Option B to respond to.  Be sure you indicate within your post which option you chose.

For both options, review the American Psychological Association Ethical Principals of Psychologists and Code of Conduct before responding:

Option A:
The ethics of animal research continues to be one of the most debated topics in psychological research. Watch theAnimal Testing by Big Tobacco – The Mouse House video and review theCommittee for Animal Research and Ethics (C.A.R.E.) guidelines developed by the APA.  Then answer the following questions:

If these guidelines are adhered to should animal research be allowed? Be sure to use the guidelines to defend your position on the topic. If allowed, should animal research be limited to research that investigates cures for terminal illnesses, or should they continue to be used in any Institutional Review Board (I.R.B.) approved research? How is using animals for research any different than using animals for food?

Option B: 
Human research is common in the field of psychology, which raises many ethical questions. For this discussion, review theStanford Prison Experiment slideshow. Respond to the following:

If a question must be answered that has significant negative psychological impact on the subject, such as in the Stanford prison study, is it more ethical to use human or animal subjects? Are there some research questions that should simply not be evaluated because of the potential for negative psychological impact the research would have on the human subjects?

DQ2

Much of scientific inquiry is focused on developing and evaluating theories. There are four major criteria that are used to evaluate theories that are presented in your text:

Explains the past; predicts the future Testable and falsifiable Parsimonious Promotes research

When evaluating a theory, which of these criteria do you think is the most important, the least important, and why? Do all of these criteria need to be satisfied for the theory to be considered a valid or good theory?