2.4.1 Ethics

Question 1

Why do we need to consider ethics in psychology research?

Answer 1

We study living beings with feelings and emotions you could cause them harm

Question 2

Living beings are sentient beings, what does this mean?

Answer 2

They have feelings and emotions you could cause them harm

Question 3

Where did modern psychologists concern for protection of participants come from?

Answer 3

Human experiments uncovered from Nuremberg trials following world war 2

Question 4

In Britain who produce ethical guidelines for conducting research?

Answer 4

British psychological society

Question 5

Why is it important bps guidelines are updated regularly?

Answer 5

Societies ethics and moral views change

Question 6

What does confidentiality involve?

Answer 6

Any data participants provide should be kept private unless they give full consent to make it public

Question 7

What does deception involve?

Answer 7

Lying, misleading or withholding information from participants

Question 8

Should participants ever be deceived?

Answer 8

Not without strong scientific justification

Question 9

Why are some participants deceived in research?

Answer 9

Studies would not achieve valid results due to demand characteristics of participants knew everything

Question 10

participants should not experience what?

Answer 10

harm - physical, psychological

Question 11

in what way might participants experience psychological harm?

Answer 11

stress, anxiety and humiliation

Question 12

participants should leave psychological studies in…

Answer 12

…the same condition they arrived

Question 13

the risk of harm should be….

Answer 13

…no more than what can reasonably expected in everyday life

Question 14

there should not be a risk to the participant’s…

Answer 14

privacy, values, beliefs, relationships or status

Question 15

what can observations be an invasion of?

Answer 15

privacy

Question 16

what are researchers obliged to obtain?

Answer 16

participants full informed consent

Question 17

what does full informed consent involve the participants knowing?

Answer 17

the aim of the research and their right to withdraw

Question 18

when is consent an especially big issue?

Answer 18

when working with vulnerable individuals

Question 19

who are vulnerable individuals?

Answer 19

those unable to give knowledgeable consent themselves, e.g.
children
those with disabilities
brain damage

Question 20

give an example of a study with ethical issues:

Answer 20

being sane in insane places
blue eyes/brown eyes
bobo doll experiment
Stanford experiment

Question 21

what was the aim of the being sane in insane places study?

Answer 21

to test the hypothesis that psychiatrists can not reliably tell the difference between sane and insane people

Question 22

what sort of experiment was being sane in insane places?

Answer 22

field

Question 23

what was the variables in the being insane places study?

Answer 23

IV - made up symptoms

DV - psychiatrists admission and diagnosis of patients

Question 24

what did the procedure of the being sane in insane places involve?

Answer 24

sane people trying to gain admission to psychiatric wards claiming they were hearing voices
after admitted they stopped symptoms and attempted to get out by convincing staff they were sane

Question 25

what did patients have to carry out whilst being in the psychiatric ward in the being sane in insane places study?

Answer 25

observation of behaviour of staff toward patients

Question 26

what were some ethical issues of the being sane in insane places study?

Answer 26

deception - false names
right to withdraw - had to get out on their own
confidentiality - occupations published

Question 27

what did the blue eyes brown eyes study show?

Answer 27

impact racism has on education

Question 28

what did the blue eyes brown eyes study involve?

Answer 28

blue eyed children given best place in classroom - extra break time, food, front seats
brown eyed children forced to sit at the back, punished
Elliot told the kids blue eyes were associated with intelligence

Question 29

what happened at the end of the first day of the blue eyes brown eyes study?

Answer 29

blue eyed kids viciously put down brown eyed kids, the usually successful brown eyed children struggled

Question 30

what did Elliot do on the second day of the blue eyes brown eyes study? what did the children do at the end?

Answer 30

reversed the exercise

children hugged and cried they learnt what racism felt like

Question 31

what were ethical issues of the blue eyes brown eyes study?

Answer 31

no consent - not informed of purpose
children unable to give consent
no right to withdraw
psychological harm - insecurity about eye colour

Question 32

who were the participants in the bobo doll experiment?

Answer 32

36 boys, 36 girls, aged 3-6

Question 33

how were the children in the bobo doll experiment matched?

Answer 33

observations and rating children’s levels of aggression

matched to group with similar aggression levels

Question 34

what did the procedure of the bobo doll experiment involve?

Answer 34

aggressive role model shown to 24 kids (attacked the bobo doll) , non aggressive (played quietly ignoring doll) shown to 24, and no model to 24

Question 35

after children where shown the model what happened next in the bobo doll experiment?

Answer 35

children put in room with toys for mild aggression arousal as they began to play - told the toys were for other kids
child put in room with aggressive and non aggressive toys

Question 36

what happened to the children who observed the aggressive model (bobo doll)?

Answer 36

they played more aggressively with the toys

Question 37

what was an ethical issue of the bobo doll experiment?

Answer 37

protection from harm - long term implications e.g. future aggressive behaviour

Question 38

what was the aim of the Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 38

to see how readily people would conform to roles of guard and prisoner

Question 39

what did Zimbardo want to find out about in the Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 39

if brutality among guards was due to personalities or the prison environment

Question 40

what was the methodology of the Stanford prison experiment? (location, participants, sampling)

Answer 40

converted basement into prison
advertised for students to play prisons and guards
24 male participants paid $15 per day
random allocation to role of guard and prisoner

Question 41

what did the procedure of the Stanford prison experiment involve?

Answer 41

guards worked in sets of 3 dressed realistically, prisoners treated like real criminals, guards had to do whatever was needed to maintain order

Question 42

what were the guards doing within hours of the Stanford prison experiment beginning?

Answer 42

harassing prisoners, behaving brutally, prisoners dehumanised

Question 43

what were ethical issues of the Stanford prison experiment?

Answer 43

right to withdraw - payment may make them feel obliged to remain in the study
harm - prisoners harassed and dehumanised