This material is part of the Giving Voice to Values curriculum
collection (www.GivingVoiceToValues.org).The Aspen Institute was
founding partner, along with the Yale School of Management, and
incubator for Giving Voice to Values (GVV).
Now Funded by Babson College.Do not alter or distribute without
permission. Mary C. Gentile, 2010
1
The Price (A)1
When I was a young graduate student at Michigan State
University, I chose a charismatic professor tobe chairman of my
research thesis for my masters degree. Unfortunately for me, the
results [of myresearch experiment] at best failed to confirmand
possibly negatedmy mentors clinical approach.Fortunately, the
statistics expert on my thesis committee was Jack Hunter, a gifted
mathematician
My professor [the thesis committee chairman] pressured me to
write my thesis as if the results wereequivocal; Jack showed me how
the data suggested otherwise. After I spent a year writing my
thesisfrom both viewpoints, my mentor decreed this second analysis
would be reduced to a footnote (literally).Shocked and frightened,
I appealed to the other faculty members on my thesis committee.
They told meto work it out with my mentor. One said privately, Look
Dave, we have to live with him a lot longerthan we have to live
with you. Give him what he wants.
That person was not Jack Hunter. Jack said to me, Dave, once you
sign your name to that thesis, its onthere forever. You can always
do another masters thesis. Do what you think you should do.
Id be throwing away years of work!Then do what you think you
should do.
Discussion Questions Whats at stake for Dave? For Jack? For the
thesis chairman? For the other committee
members? For others who read and use psychology research? What
price does Dave price pay if he complies with his chairman? If he
does not? What benefits does he gain if he complies? If he does
not? Assuming he wants to refuse to comply, how can he explain and
justify this decision to himself
Last Revised: 02/28/2010
1 The text of The Price (A) and (B) are excerpted from the
Introduction to Passionate Marriage: Keeping Love &
IntimacyAlive in Committed Relationships by David Schnarch, Ph.D.,
Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1997, pp. 13, 14.
