Connie Kalble Green & Christopher UNIV 391 16 February 2012 Reflection B: The Ethics of Human Subject Research

Working with human subjects requires researchers to take many ethical precautionary measures; working with what is considered to be a vulnerable population of human subjects, college women, poses an even greater task. Through my research experience, the Leon lab has taken measures to ensure the safety and well being of all participants. Since human and animal research done through the university must be approved according to ethical standards, our research has stood up to the review of the Institutional Review Board (IRB). While we have practiced proper procedure in order to ensure respect for participants and the risks that are endured by participants are no greater than any they would expect to encounter in their daily lives, there are many ways in which our study could have put participants at an increased risk. Since the participants of the study were recruited through the Introduction to Psychology Participant Pool, it would have been possible for both my faculty advisor and graduate mentor to coerce their students into taking the survey for a better grade in their classes in order to boost the number of participants involved in the study. Since very sensitive and personal topics are a hand, the study also could have been very harmful to participants if it were not handled properly. Participants enrolled in the study were shown images that are considered thin-depicting media and read a narrative that was either neutral or a tale of the glamorization of eating disorders. This experience, if participants do

not encounter thin-depicting media in their day-to-day lives, could be a very shocking and harmful one. The images shown to participants were also carefully chosen; while they depict the thin-ideal perpetuated by the media, the images could have been very graphic in nature. This scenario could arouse an unhealthy amount of body dissatisfaction in these women, who are in a very vulnerable state as is. However, we ensured participants they were free to withdraw from the study at any time and did not have to answer any questions they did not feel comfortable answering. Since we were studying what is considered a vulnerable group, students, we had to make clear that this research was being done in order to better understand the eating pathologies of college women, not women in general with this population used as a convenience sample. Another ethical issue related to our research is the issue of data management. Since joining the lab, I have contributed to the development and management of three separate databases. These three databases include the coded survey responses for all participants involved in our research. Upon graduating from the lab, I would like to continue my work, however it has proven difficult for previous lab members to do so after graduation. It would be unethical for any of the lab members to take data that may have been produced by them, because the data has so many facets that have been worked on equally by all members of the lab. While there are three databases for separate projects, no one lab member is thought to own them. Ideally, collaborations could benefit all parties involved, but it would be unethical to steal communal data. Skewing the results of the data or leaving out important findings when publishing can also cause ethical issues, especially when it involves sources of funding. Many community organizations and non-profit organizations provide funding for researchers to

further explore their areas of interest. For example, a few major funding sources for research on women with disordered eating include The National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH), The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA), The Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), and The International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (IAEDP). Groups such as non-profits are the primary group impacted by my research. The research we publish and present will greatly impact the future research these institutions choose to fund. If for instance, we conclude women with higher levels of disordered eating behavior experience higher body dissatisfaction when eating disorders are glamorized by the media, this will help guide the projects of other professionals within the field. Aside from major organizations, the largest population being impacted by our research is other professionals within the field. They, too, devote their energies to researching the best predictor for disordered eating behaviors or body dissatisfaction, for example, and want to fill the gaps that are currently in the literature. In conclusion, researchers must take proper precautions when working with human subjects, especially vulnerable populations. Through my research with college women, many ethical issues have been addressed through IRB applications and approval, however if the proper precautions had not been taken, college women participating in research could have experienced a harmful amount of body dissatisfaction and low self-esteem, which could have detrimentally impacted their eating pathologies. Data ownership can be a complicated situation, especially in a social science setting, where the data is a very communal, shared project. The results have a huge bearing on the future of the field and other professionals within the field, so for this reason is it of utmost importance that the conclusions are not biased by organizations or institutions that may be funding the project.