Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Locus Of Control, Knowledge Of Ethics, And Perceived Ethicality As Influenced By An Authority Figure, F. Matthew Mihelic, William G. Connolly

Faculty Publications

The present study investigated the relationship between a subject's locus of control, knowledge of psychological ethical research principles, and perceived ethicality of a psychological research proposal as influenced by an authority figure. Subjects were asked to judge the ethicality of a research proposal, which half were led to believe had been previously deemed unethical by an authority figure. No mention was made of the authority figure's viewpoint to the other subjects. The major finding was that the variability in ratings in ethicality of the research proposal tended to diminished from the no mention to the rejection manipulation in those of …