For their class project, some college students want to conduct a survey on "Attitudes toward Condom Use among Sexually Active College Students." Describe some of the problems and issues that must be resolved if their survey is going to be worthwhile. The two general concerns they face are (1) ethical concerns related to the use of human beings as subjects and (2) methodological concerns regarding sampling techniques and their accuracy.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

First, a review board or human subject committee must approve the study for ethical concerns. Second, the group must determine how to obtain a representative sample from the population of interest. Third, they must be concerned with adequate representation or omission of ethnic groups and/or sexual minorities such as homosexuals. Fourth, they must be aware of the errors likely in self-reports of sexual behavior. Fifth, questionnaire creators must watch that their own biases do not affect question wording. Sixth, they need to be aware of how a researcher's gender may affect outcome. Seventh, they must be aware of the reluctance of some ethnic groups to respond to such questions. Finally, they must be careful about the generalizations they make from their study.