Ethics, again

I previously posted ethical discussion about my projects here.  Sorry about the font color, I don't know what that's all about.

I don't really have much to add, for student-purposes.  The MUFON paper is looking more certain, as they moved their meetings to Westerville. It's like the universe is saying "Hey, research this! It's in your backyard!"  I will at some point have to think about how to do all that though.

With the Religion in Society paper, I do have an update.  It occurred to me that either at festivals or in the process of interviewing, I might have opportunity to observe parent/child interactions in terms of religiosity. So I contacted the chair of the IRB and we worked out an addendum to add to the original proposal for approval (which I received).  As my students know, children as subjects require extra special care.  To be honest, while I could have just included them later, ethics is not a situation of "beg forgiveness, not ask permission."   It is always better to have another set of eyes look at the situation and see if they see anything that you don't.  Remember the film Quiet Rage.  Dr. Zimbardo was blind to the ethical quagmire he was in.  Even though the IRB exists to protect the university from liability, it still serves that very important function of making sure we remain the ethical people we like to think we are.

(Although....I just did some nosing around, and he DID get approval from their Human Subjects Committee!)