British Psychological Society Code Of Ethics

Question 1

Informed consent

Answer 1

• BPS guidelines state the participants should always give informed consent
• they should be told the aims and nature of the study before agreeing to it
• they should also know that they have the right to withdraw at any time

Question 2

What is the legal age that a participant must be to legally give consent ?

Answer 2

16+

Otherwise a parent must give consent

Question 3

What occurs in a naturalistic observation where consent is not obtained ?

Answer 3

Must be done in a public location where people would expect to be observed by others

Question 4

What did Menges (1973) discover ?

Answer 4

• Even when informed consent is supposedly obtained issues may be raised
• he reviewed 1000 American studies and found that 97% had not given people all the information about the research

Question 5

Deception

Answer 5

• if participants have been deceived then they cannot have given informed consent
• sometimes researchers must withhold information about the study because the participants wouldn’t behave naturally if they knew what the aim is

Question 6

When is deception only acceptable ?

Answer 6

• if there is strong scientific justification for the research
• if there is no alternative procedure available to obtain the data

Question 7

Issues with deception

Answer 7

• participants could’ve been given general details and as little is said they may feel deceived but if the participants know to much they may not behave naturally
• severity of deception differs
  Eg. Research on memory may involve unexpected memory tests that participants weren’t informed about —-> this is less objectionable than the deception involved in milgrams study

Question 8

Protection from harm

Answer 8

• BPS guidelines say that the risk of harm to participants should be no greater than they would face in their normal lives
• it is hard to accurately assess this

Question 9

What is allowed in relevance to protection from harm ?

Answer 9

Research procedures can involve physical and psychological discomfort

Eg. GLASS AND SINGER (1972) exposed participants to noise to make them stressed and participants in milgrams research suffered extreme distress

Question 10

Issues in relevance or protection from harm

Answer 10

Researchers don’t always know in advance what might be distressing for participants

Question 11

Debriefing

Answer 11

• supposed to return participants to the state they were in before the research
• especially important if deception has been used

Question 12

Confidentiality

Answer 12

None of the participants in a psychological study should be identifiable from any reports that are produced

• Cannot use peoples names in reports
• participants must be warned if their data is not going to be completely anonymous

Question 13

Right to withdraw

Answer 13

Being able to leave the study when desired

Question 14

Issues with ethical guidelines

Answer 14

• some researchers may not follow the guidelines properly
• if a psychologist conducts research in an unacceptable way they can’t be banned from research but be kicked out of their university and the BPS
• even when guidelines are followed it can be difficult to assess things like psychological harm or to fully justify the use of deception
• deciding whether the benefits from the study justify how it was done and at what cost is complicate