【正确答案】●The ethical problem in the study of fast-food workers was that the researcher had to lie about her background to get the job in the fast-food restaurant. ●Also, the researcher was using other people without their knowledge or permission to advance her own career by writing a book about the experience. ●To solve the problem, the researcher told her co-workers that she was writing a book about them. This was acceptable because she was able to get their approval to tell their stories.

【答案解析】[听力原文] One ethical problem with participant observation is that researchers usually come from social backgrounds very different from those of the people they're studying, so they have to be dishonest about their reason for being there. They may have to lie about who they are. For example, in one study, a researcher wanted to study fast food workers, so she got a job in a fast-food restaurant. She changed her name and lied about her work history, and pretended not to have a university education. This is where the ethical problem starts. To complicate matters, the researcher used other people's acceptance of her lies in order to advance her own career. She was pretending to be someone else, a fast-food worker, to write a book about the experience. So she was basically using other people without their knowledge or permission. One solution to the problem is to be honest about who you really are. However, this might influence the results of the study because people might not act naturally if they know they're being observed. Another acceptable solution is to tell everyone as soon as possible after the project is completed. That's what our fast-food researcher did. At the end of the study, she told the other workers that she was writing a book about them in order to get their approval to tell their stories. Explain the ethical problem in the participant observation study discussed in the lecture. State what the researcher did to solve the problem, and explain why this was acceptable.