Identifying the Ethical (Unethical) Undercurrent of Identified Surveys

摘要

Although it is important to bring up the discussion of identified surveys, it seems that Saari and Scherbaum (2011) have not addressed two pertinent underlying ques-tions: "Are identified surveys intrinsically moral or ethical?" and "Should industrial–organizational (1-0) psychologists be involved in their use?" I argue that we cannot avoid the core issues of morality involved in the broader sense. Furthermore, I argue that contemplation of the underlying moral issues concerning identified surveys should be more salient to our decisions of whether or not to use identified surveys than the psychometric reasoning against them (e.g., possible decrease in validity due to lowered response rate and/or to response bias) or their potential benefits. Although Saari and Scherbaum briefly mentioned three ethical concerns, I go a bit further and get at the core of the issue.