Chapter 3: Ethics Flashcards
balance between potential benefit of a research project and its potential costs to research participants
(1) the commitment of the psychologist to expanding our knowledge of behavior and the potential benefit the research may have for society and
(2) the cost of the research to the participants
the investigator has the most responsibility but everyone on the committee
impossible to avoid risk of harm entirely
must assess how stressful the situation is likely to be: seizure, heart attack?
consent:
assent:
legally given permission to participate in a study
willingness to participate in a study
difference between APA and medical consent
Medical: patients have the right to know exactly what is being done to them and for what reasons.
APA: participants need be informed only of aspects of the research that might be expected to influence their decisions to participate.
coercion:
compelling or influencing a decision to participate in a study
What is the researcher’s responsibility with respect to the research participant’s right to privacy?
- people have the right not to be disturbed, as well as the right not to reveal certain information about themselves.
- must be balanced against the welfare of society as a whole
- participant is doing a favor by taking part. The freedom to refuse to participate or to withdraw at any time without penalty should be made clear
- data will never be made public in a way that would permit their identification, unless they agree to such publication
- Social scientists are not granted the legal protection that lawyers and physicians
What is deception? Why is deception necessary?
- A. do not conduct a study involving deception unless they have determined that the use of deceptive techniques is justified by the prospective scientific, educational, or applied value and that effective non-deceptive alternative procedures are not feasible
- B. Psychologists do not deceive prospective participants about research that is reasonably expected to cause physical pain or severe emotional distress.
- C. Psychologists explain any deception that is an integral feature of the design and conduct of an experiment to participants as early as is feasible, preferably at the conclusion of their participation, but no later than at the conclusion of the data collection, and permit participants to withdraw their data
debriefing:
the process of informing participants after the session of the experiment’s true purpose to increase their understanding and to remove possible harmful effects of deception
Codes of ethics of the Canadian Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association
The APA code comprises five principles:
- (A) beneficence and non malificence,
- (B) fidelity and responsibility,
- (C) integrity,
- (D) justice, and
- (E) respect of people’s rights and dignity
The CPA code contains four principles:
- (I) respect for the dignity of persons and peoples
- each person should be treated as a person, not as an object
- general respect, general rights, non-discrimination, fair treatment/due process, informed consent, freedom of consent, protection for vulnerable persons, right to privacy, and confidentiality
- (II) responsible caring
- obligation to respect the welfare of any individuals with whom the psychologist has a professional relationship, and, in particular, those in a more vulnerable position
- general caring, an appreciation of one’s competence and limitations, and attempts to maximize benefit, minimize harm, and offset/correct harm for research participants
- (III) integrity in relationships, and
- honesty and forthrightness in all relationships
- (IV) responsibility to society
- lowest weight of the four principles when it is in conflict with one or more of them
“when a person’s welfare appears to conflict with benefits to society, it is often possible to find ways of working for the benefit of society that do not violate respect and responsible caring for the person.” When this can’t be completed, the individual is more important. As Buban (2016) confirms, “the CPA’s principle more clearly makes the case for individual rights” and takes a more egoist approach compared to the APA code
The CPA lists a ten-step ethical decision making process to be followed.
APA actually doesn’t prescribe a specific model to help psychologists make ethical decisions: more duty oriented
Animal rights:
Animal welfare:
the notion that animals have the same sort of rights as people, including legal rights; not generally accepted
the generally accepted term for concerns about the care and use of animals
The research community clearly supports humane treatment of animals but rejects the notion of animal rights
three Rs in conjunction with animal research:
- reduction, reduce the number of animals used
- refinement, and see if the experiment can be refined
- replacement or if the study can be executed without animal involvement
The general position of researchers, like that of most people, is that it is permissible to cause a certain amount of suffering to a few animals to reduce the suffering of many millions of people
speciesism:
term used by analogy with racism and sexism by those who claim that it is unethical to treat animals differently from humans, particularly in research
How might these ethical guidelines affect the validity of research?
- Perhaps I am testing huger mechanisms - how far can I go without it seeming inhumane - if I starve the animal for too long to measure its behavior, is this unethical?
- In addition, external validity is always questionable when relating animal behavior to human behavior
