2.3 - Ethics in Psychological Research Flashcards
Research Ethics Board (REB)
a committee of researchers and officials at an institution charged with the protection of human research participants
Protects individuals in two main ways:
1) The committee weighs potential risks to the volunteers against the possible benefits of the research
2) it requires that volunteers agree to participate in the research
Informed Consent
A potential volunteer must be informed and give consent without pressure
Deception
misleading or only partially informing participants of the true topic or hypothesis under investigation
Research includes the following elements in determining whether full consent is given:
1) Freedom to choose
2) Equal opportunities
3) The right to withdraw
4) The right to withhold responses
Debriefing
meaning that the researchers should explain the true nature of the study, and especially the nature of and reason for the deception
Anonymity
data collected during research study cannot be connected to individual participants
Confidentiality
Includes two parts:
1) researchers cannot share specific data or observations that can be connected w/ an individual
2) all records must be kept secure so that identities cannot be revealed unintentionally
The Research Ethics Board (REB) is the group that determines?
Whether the benefits of a proposed study outweigh its potential risks
Which of the following is not a requirement for informed consent?
A) Participants need to know the nature of the stimuli to which they will be exposed
B) Participants need to understand any potential physical, psychological, or social risks involved in the research
C) Participants need to have a face-to-face meeting with the researcher before volunteering
D) Participants need to know the approximate duration of the study
Participants need to have a face-to-face meeting with the researcher before volunteering
In a memory study, researchers have participants study a list of words, and then tell them it was the wrong list and that they should forget it. This deception is meant to see how effectively participants can forget something they have already studied. If the researchers plan to debrief the participants afterward, would this design meet the standards of an ethical study?
Yes, given that the participants are not at risk and that they will be debriefed, this seems to be an ethical study
Scientific Misconduct
arise when individuals fabricate or manipulate their data to fit their desired results
Researchers should store their data after they present or publish it because :
Other researchers may want to examine the data before conducting a replication study & they may want to reinterpret the data using different techniques
After completing a naturalistic observation study, a researcher does not have quite enough evidence to support her hypothesis. If she decides to go back to her records and slightly alters a few of the observations to fit her hypothesis, she is engaged in ______.
Scientific misconduct
