Can People Lie With Statistics? Although numerical presentations have the potential to be useful tools towards assessing complex situations, they can also be misleading. With this in mind, why are people so susceptible to believe statistical information as truth? One plausible theory is that the data contained in such a report agrees with the thoughts and beliefs of the person studying them, meaning a person may tentatively believe what they want to believe. Another possibility is lack of knowledge to dispute the findings in question. While it can be argued that some people attack or have issue with what they do not understand, for the purposes of this topic, the connotation of dispute shall be with findings or credible evidence of their own to dispel another person’s work. Acceptability of Spinning the Truth Regardless of the reason or type of approach employed, it is never tolerable for a person to adjust or slant results from research to arrive at any particular conclusion; for such actions can have disastrous consequences to others. Also, the issue of ethics becomes a f...
“If the focus of Psychology is to promote human welfare, harming another would not only prevent achieving this goal, it would thwart it.” (Kitchener & Kitchener, 2009, p.13). When researchers do not follow the ethical principles of research then their studies become unethical, and hold a poor standard. Ethical principles are based on basic social principles, but have really only been defined in the last 15 years of research. Many researchers such as Darley and Latané did not have these guidelines to follow, which is evident in the way in which their studies do not follow these ethical guidelines. This essay will examine Darley and Latané’s 1968 studies and discuss how they are not considered to be ethical.
Joel Best’s Damned Lies and Statistics is a book all about recognizing statistics that are legitimate and others that are really quite horrible. The goal of this book is not that the average every day person be able to read a statistical table from a scholarly journal, but rather that anyone could personally value a statistic he or she may come across in a newspaper article or on a news program. Best was essentially effective in achieving his goal; however, he was effective to the point of overdoing his job of showing that there are bad statistics which give readers cause to evaluate them outside of hearing them on the news.
Although the scientific use of anthropometrics in not abused in modern day society, scientists still incorrectly draw conclusions from data and statistics. Many statically fallacies occur where scientists will try and bend the statistics to prove their own personal opinion. For example, a scientist may deem his new invention or product to be 100% successful, but it could have only been tested 5 times. Even though the abuse of anthropometrics has been abandoned, scientific data abuse is still apparent in modern day
"Ethics in Research." Ethics in Research. The University of Texas Medical Branch, n.d. Web. 11. Feb. 2014 .
Researchers often feel pressure to produce results in scientific studies. Pressure is delivered by any entity, but this perception of pushing to produce, is solely controlled within the mind of the researcher. In order to have valid and reliable research, scientists are taught to be diligent, thorough, and self-aware enough to control for various biases. However, more often than not, there is no escaping one’s own mind or the resulting beliefs that reside within. Doctors, scholars, and students are posed to look toward the future by making their mark on the scientific community. Cessation of this drive can be accomplished by publication in a journal, magazine, or a book using intentional or unintentional methods of subjective data collection and reporting controlled by biases. As referenced from Cook (1991) by Thomas and Hersen (2011), objective data is to be delivered by all researchers and must always be without biases of any kind. Recently, many scientific studies have come under great scrutiny and succumbed to the righteousness of falsification by lack of replication and subsequent discovery of experimenter bias.
Ethics refers to the values and customs of a community at a particular point in time. At present, the term ethics is guided by the moral principles that guide our everyday actions. These moral principles guide the researcher into deciding what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The foundation of medical ethics is governed by two philosophical frameworks that are deontology, and utilitarianism. However ultimately the ethics committees need to balance the risks, and benefits for the participants and the community associated with the particular research proposal. This balance is quite important as the well being of participants is at risk.7
Research is searching for, and gathering information, usually to find the answer to a problem. Research requires planning and time to evaluate what questions need to be answered and the information that needs to be gathered. Research doesn’t always give the ‘right answer’. When researching, it is important to carry out ethics to protect the research participants from harm. Ethics are principles of right and wrong conduct, its modern usage is more explicit tied to questions of value, and judgements about which habits and customs are good and bad. Kay, E. Tisdall, ...
It is not surprising, then, that in the wake of these revolutionary developments, bioethics is flourishing. Despite the obvious enthusiasm of philosophers to take a stand on many complex moral issues in the biomedical sciences, however, a curious skepticism pervades the enterprise (Walters 23). Take the comments by a dean of an Australian Medical School on the teaching of medical ethics:
The APA ethical guidelines help to ensure that all psychological research maintains the integrity that it does not do harm or conflicts with the majority of the human populations moral ethical codes. However, in some situations the APA ethical guidelines must be viewed as just that: guidelines. If a study has the potential to benefit humanity as a whole and does not result in the permanent or irreparable harm to a human being then some guidelines must be permitted to be stretched or even broken in the interest of human advancement and scientific progression. After all the goal and responsibility of a psychologist is to enhance our understanding of human behavior as well as to find ways to use this information to better society and humanity as a whole. In a circumstance that has the potential to achieve this goal, violation of the APA ethical guidelines is acceptable on the condition that the research maintains the integrity of not inflicting irreparable damage or harm to the subjects being used. This includes psychological harm, physical harm, or social humiliation to any human being regardless of age, size, race, gender, disability or other determining characteristic.
... of research (Lolas, pg.4). Bioethics are good in theory, but can end up doing more harm than good in some situations.
When the society’s level of confidence on the work of the healthcare providers goes up, there is a high chance of the number of donors to the research projects going up. The projects, when carried out, are likely to lead to the advancement of the medical science. In addition, the ethical principles are required in the area of the medical research to help identify the kind of research that should be carried out and the one that should not (Cassidy et al. 115). While doing this research, health professionals must give credibility to others whose work is being used in the project.
“Let whoever is in charge keep this simple question in her head not, how can I always do this right thing myself, but how can I provide for this right thing to be always done?” (Nightinggale, 1969). Exercising ethical manner and superior judgment are challenged when the perception of right and wrong is based on personal biases. Individuals that facilitate research studies are constantly faced with ethical dilemmas, and forced to choose from right and wrong. Making ethical decisions in research are important for the greater good of the participants and organizations. Taking on the role as a clinical research coordinator and research assistant exemplified that when making a decision one must not only depend on intuition, but to follow research etiquette. The roles were extremely rewarding, however along the way challenged ethical principles of autonomy and veracity.
Knapp, S.J. (Ed.); Gottlieb, M.C. (Ed.); Handelsman, M.M. (Ed.); VandeCreek, L.D. (Ed.). (2012). APA handbook of ethics in psychology, Vol 1: Moral foundations and common themes. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
Streamlining medical ethics to a universal system lowers the risk of abuse. To prevent abuse of power, all the goals of research must be “secondary to the well-being of the participants” (Angell 847). The investigator’s responsibility is to provide the best quality possible for the subjects even at the expense of scientific progress. Angell highlights the difference between the best possible care and the best available care. She claims that treatment of subjects by following the local standard of care when a better treatment exists is unethical.
...rue and lie. It depends on how it is used, collected and analyzed. Therefore, readers should understand what reliable statistics are. Yet, statistics are very important for researchers, scientists, students, employers and individuals to make decisions as well as to evidence any claims or scientific theories.