Statistics and Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Statistics and Ethics - Essay Example These issues arise from the initial stages, intermediary and final stages. The initial stages comprise of formulating the goals and objectives of the research, design and data collection, this stage major ethical challenge is due to the political influence, personal beliefs and other influential people who intend to limit the ethical nature of the research. Intermediary stage comprises of data organization, the analysis, and presentation. The major issues in this stage are poor handling of data leading to data tampering and poor interpretation of data that lead to false results. Finally, in the final stages, most statistical conclusions and inferences are mistaking correlation with causality and misinterpretation of data to ensure benefits of some benefactors. These ethical issues are based on deception or discrimination of which decision is better than the other is. Cases of Statistical Issues and Responses Based on Ethics Theories Personal values are very important when an individu al is faced with a dilemma situation. The individual’s decision-making is based on the source of his personal values. These values result in the need to lie or not to lie based on the ethical theory he derives his personal values. The following are cases that portray the relationship of personal values and ethical theories in their decision-making. A person’s values derived from rights theory will decide not to deceive if he acknowledges that deception would violate the rights of an individual.