1. a. University researchers occasionally ask students in a class to participate
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Question
1.
a. University researchers occasionally ask students in a class to participate in research studies. However, this practice may involve elements of coercion, as students may be concerned that refusal to participate may negatively impact their grade. Is voluntary informed consent possible in such a situation? What steps might be taken to reconcile the researcher's need for subjects with the students' right to decline to participate?
b. The virtual reprise of Milgram's experiment (see Section 15.2.1) asked participants to inflict harm upon a computer-generated avatar. This approach eliminates some of the potential ethical concerns associated with the original experiment, but may raise additional questions. As user behavior was similar to what was observed in the original experiments, it is possible that participants in the “virtual” versions would experience similar patterns of nervousness and distress. Do you consider this sort of research to be appropriate? What might be done to protect participants in this sort of experiment?
c. As part of a larger study of how various aspects of interaction in online worlds impact the offline lives of participants, you are interested in observing participants both online and offline. As you know, participants in online games. such as these may not represent a broad cross-section of society. The race and gender of online characters may not reflect those of the real individuals involved and some may choose to hide their “real” identity. Given these challenges, how might you go about finding a group of participants that would be interesting to work with? How might these challenges affect the conclusions that you might be able to draw from your observations and your ability to generalize from those conclusions?
Explanation / Answer
Answer 1
Participation in research studies is an added advantage to students since it imparts so much more information than what can be theoretically read or understood. Situations sometimes arise, where a student is unable to participate in a research study despite the coercion of the researchers, either out of interest in another research or detachment to this research. Compulsion and force may well push the student to participate in the research out of fear of bad grades, but as a consequence of disinterest in the research, the student might not improve the efficiency and in turn the efficacy of the research.
Voluntary Informed Consent is a fairly good approach. Informed consent is a voluntary agreement to participate in the research. It is not just that, it is a process that ensures that the subject understands the risks of the study and enrolls on his own and this shall abide until the end of the study. Also, the institute of the conducting research is liable in case of mishaps. In this way, it ensures a subject’s participation in research. Although encouraging students to be a part of reserch study is not ethically wrong, the elucidation of involved regulations, risks and protection of rights may bring forward students to participate in these researches more willingly.
Answer 2
In Stanley Milgram's 1960s experiment, the participant was told to inflict electric shocks on a real human (although the person was never hurt) until th eintensity was increased to such an extent that it would have been fatal. This helped to understand the influence of obedience towards an authority figure.
Due to its ethical controversy, the same subjects were replaced by a virtual figure. It is important to note that the participant was aware of the subjects virtuality. This was not an experiment to showcase obedience but moreso to indicate that the participants felt the same amount of distress and pressure as with inflicting shocks to real subjects. Everytime the virtual subject responded with discomfort and pain, the participants behaved as if it were existent. Even if the subject is real, the psychological effect on the participant is inhumane and unethical. The mental agony and strain could have long term effects despite having worked on a virtual subject. After the experiments, it should be made mandatory that the participants be provided with psychiatric help to regain their composure and shake off any stress acquired during the experiment. It should also be ensured that any psychiatric help be extended for as long as it is requested.
Answer 3
The evolution of online gaming is attributed to the evolution of computers and computing technologies. Many of these games provide players with a way to play against or with each other cooperatively around the world using networking. It has been proved in several studies, that people who participate in online gaming and video gaming are naturally more intelligent than those who spend time playing outside. Recently, online gaming has even been accredited with making people happy. Participants of online gaming are meticulous, and pay more attention to finer details and are punctilious. The thrill and sense of being able to achieve what was intended decreases their stress levels and makes them happier.
Although there are a few advantages to playing video games, the sense of false achievement is confused with that of reality and might make people underachievers. Despite the commitment in wich these games are played, it is, at the end of the day, just a game. Using all this information, we can judge the concentration levels of a person, their commitment to work and their level of satisfaction in the workplace. In this way, we can decipher that online gamers make for commited workers who achieve a sense of satisfaction with the completion of work. This also helps increase their happiness. In the absence of level of satisfaction, the workers may turn out to be underachievers.
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