A sports psychologist conducts a study with 16 teenage academy footballers to investigate peer-group exclusion and athletic performance. The psychologist randomly splits them into two teams: the "Elite Tier" and the "Reserve Tier". The Elite group is given high-end custom kits, praised publicly, and told they have "superior genetic potential." The Reserve group is given worn-out training bibs, told their fitness test scores were in the bottom 10%, and forced to train on a waterlogged, muddy patch of grass. During a drill, when a Reserve player trips, the psychologist yells to the group: "This is why you'll never make the first team; you simply lack the basic coordination." In response, several Elite players laugh and mimic the player's fall.
During the session, the Reserve players become withdrawn, stop attempting drills, and two of them are seen crying in the changing rooms. After the study, the Elite players exclude the Reserve players from their social media group chats and refuse to walk home with them, with one elite player saying, "We only associate with top-tier players."
Explain two ways the study in the source was not ethically considerate. Justify your answer in relation to the source.
276 exam-style questions on OCR A Level Psychology Debates, covering Nature/nurture, Freewill/determinism, Reductionism/holism, Individual/situational explanations, Usefulness of research, Ethical considerations, Conducting socially sensitive research, and Psychology as a science. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.