Results

Differing Perceptions of Risks and Benefits
Emily E. Anderson
A researcher conducts a non-therapeutic study with young adults with Tourette’s Syndrome and their families. The participants’ perceptions of risks and benefits differ from those of the researcher.

Getting Community Input
Emily E. Anderson
A researcher’s study of the link between behavioral disorders and childhood deprivation of attention by the male parent in African-American males angers community members who feel they should have been consulted for their input prior to IRB approval.

Learning
Joan Sieber
Dr. Jones collects oral histories from members of an ethnically diverse neighborhood as part of a study on aggressive behavior in children and would like to share the compiled document with community members to promote study buy-in. An IRB member claims that to do so would violate participant confidentiality.

Power for the People
William Timberlake
Professor A proposes to test the theory that black male criminals suffer from early childhood deprivation of attention by the male parent by comparing interviews of black male ex-convicts with men that have never been convicted of a crime matched on socioeconomic status, intact versus disrupted family, and presence versus absence of alternative male figures. This case illustrates the conflicts that can arise when a behavioral researcher’s hypotheses and study questions may be perceived to be based upon stereotypes and the importance of involving local communities in the research process.

Confidentiality and Using Community Members as Interviewers
Joan E. Sieber
Unanticipated problems arise when a researcher employs community members as interviewers for a survey of black teenage crack users. Sieber presents this as an example of good research practices.

Heightened Protections in Clinical Trials
James M. DuBois
A researcher recommends additional protections for participants in clinical trials that pose any risk of severe decline or relapse.

Psychosis Inducing Experiments
James M. DuBois
The director of an advocacy groups asks your hospital’s ethics review board to discontinue all washout and psychosis-inducing studies.