Chapter 4: Ethical Guidelines

Question 1

Important Aspect

Answer 1

how researchers deal with and protect the welfare of research participants, be they humans or animals.

Question 2

Project Mkultra

Answer 2

1950s: The US government tested the effects and potential of LSD on often unconsenting US citizens and military.

Question 3

Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Answer 3

Studying the disease by letting it go untreated for decades in hundreds of African American men

Question 4

1939: “Monster study”

Answer 4

positive vs. negative speech therapy in orphans.

Question 5

Obedience

Answer 5

In Milgram’s study*, 65% of volunteers went all

the way to max voltage. Not really an “experiment”!

Question 6

Partly in response to the questionable ethics of such

studies, the Belmont Report (1976)…

Answer 6

laid out some core

ethical principles.

Question 7

1. Respect for persons

Answer 7

including informed consent and recognition that some

people lack the autonomy to give it.

Question 8

2. Beneficence

Answer 8

How do the potential benefits of the study compare to the potential risks to its participants? Is it worth it? Milgram’s study wasn’t.

Question 9

3. Justice

Answer 9

Ex: Monster study: here, researchers are using a vulnerable, accessible population (orphans) to study something that might benefit all.

Question 10

The APA’s basic ethical principles, more frequently referenced these days, is pretty similar to those of the Belmont report

Answer 10

The two additional principles in APA (1: Fidelity and responsibility, 2: integrity) focus more on the researcher’s behaviour.

Question 11

The CPA has four ethical principles:

Answer 11

1. Respect for the dignity of persons
2. Responsible caring
3. Integrity in relationships
4. Responsibility to society

Question 12

The APA’s full code of conduct is divided into sections covering every aspect of research.

Answer 12

Section 2: Competence
Section 3: Human relation
Section 4: Privacy and confidentiality

Question 13

Section 8 is

Answer 13

the one most clearly focused on ethical

conduct in carrying out (and publishing) research.

Question 14

Informed consent form includes

Answer 14

Title of study, investigators, risks and benefits, contacts, participation, and age requirement

Question 15

Dispensing with Informed Consent for Research (8.05)

Answer 15

(a) When obtaining informed consent as required in Standard 3.10, Informed Consent, psychologists inform participants about (1) the purpose of the research, expected duration, and procedures; (2) their right to decline to participate and to withdraw from the research once participation has begun; (3) the foreseeable consequences of declining or withdrawing; (4) reasonably foreseeable factors that may be expected to influence their willingness to participate such as potential risks, discomfort, or adverse effects; (5) any prospective research benefits; (6) limits of confidentiality; (7) incentives for participation; and (8) whom to contact for questions about the research and research participants’ rights. They provide opportunity for the prospective participants to ask questions and receive answers.

Question 16

2.01 Boundaries of Competence

Answer 16

(a) Psychologists provide services, teach, and conduct research with populations and in areas only within the boundaries of their competence, based on their education, training, supervised experience, consultation, study, or professional experience.
(b) Where scientific or professional knowledge in the discipline of psychology establishes that an understanding of factors associated with age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, or socioeconomic status is essential for effective implementation of their services or research, psychologists have or obtain the training, experience, consultation, or supervision necessary to ensure the competence of their services, or they make appropriate referrals, except as provided in Standard 2.02, Providing Services in Emergencies.
(c) Psychologists planning to provide services, teach, or conduct research involving populations, areas, techniques, or technologies new to them undertake relevant education, training, supervised experience, consultation, or study.
(d) When psychologists are asked to provide services to individuals for whom appropriate mental health services are not available and for which psychologists have not obtained the competence necessary, psychologists with closely related prior training or experience may provide such services in order to ensure that services are not denied if they make a reasonable effort to obtain the competence required by using relevant research, training, consultation, or study.
(e) In those emerging areas in which generally recognized standards for preparatory training do not yet exist, psychologists nevertheless take reasonable steps to ensure the competence of their work and to protect clients/patients, students, supervisees, research participants, organizational clients, and others from harm.
(f) When assuming forensic roles, psychologists are or become reasonably familiar with the judicial or administrative rules governing their roles.

Question 17

3.01 Unfair Discrimination

Answer 17

In their work-related activities, psychologists do not engage in unfair discrimination based on age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status, or any basis proscribed by law.

Question 18

3.02 Sexual Harassment

Answer 18

Psychologists do not engage in sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is sexual solicitation, physical advances, or verbal or nonverbal conduct that is sexual in nature, that occurs in connection with the psychologist’s activities or roles as a psychologist, and that either (1) is unwelcome, is offensive, or creates a hostile workplace or educational environment, and the psychologist knows or is told this or (2) is sufficiently severe or intense to be abusive to a reasonable person in the context. Sexual harassment can consist of a single intense or severe act or of multiple persistent or pervasive acts.

Question 19

3.03 Other Harassment

Answer 19

Psychologists do not knowingly engage in behavior that is harassing or demeaning to persons with whom they interact in their work based on factors such as those persons’ age, gender, gender identity, race, ethnicity, culture, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, or socioeconomic status.

Question 20

3.04 Avoiding Harm

Answer 20

(a) Psychologists take reasonable steps to avoid harming their clients/patients, students, supervisees, research participants, organizational clients, and others with whom they work, and to minimize harm where it is foreseeable and unavoidable.

Question 21

4.01 Maintaining Confidentiality

Answer 21

Psychologists have a primary obligation and take reasonable precautions to protect confidential information obtained through or stored in any medium, recognizing that the extent and limits of confidentiality may be regulated by law or established by institutional rules or professional or scientific relationship. (See also Standard 2.05, Delegation of Work to Others.)

Question 22

4.02 Discussing the Limits of Confidentiality

Answer 22

(a) Psychologists discuss with persons (including, to the extent feasible, persons who are legally incapable of giving informed consent and their legal representatives) and organizations with whom they establish a scientific or professional relationship (1) the relevant limits of confidentiality and (2) the foreseeable uses of the information generated through their psychological activities. (See also Standard 3.10, Informed Consent.)
(b) Unless it is not feasible or is contraindicated, the discussion of confidentiality occurs at the outset of the relationship and thereafter as new circumstances may warrant.
(c) Psychologists who offer services, products, or information via electronic transmission inform clients/patients of the risks to privacy and limits of confidentiality.

Question 23

4.03 Recording

Answer 23

Before recording the voices or images of individuals to whom they provide services, psychologists obtain permission from all such persons or their legal representatives.

Question 24

Studies that are purely observational typically have fewer…

Answer 24

requirements related to ethics.

Question 25

8.07 Deception in Research

Answer 25

(a) Psychologists do not conduct a study involving deception unless they have determined that the use of deceptive techniques is justified by the study’s significant prospective scientific, educational, or applied value and that effective nondeceptive 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. (See also Standard 8.08, Debriefing.)

Question 26

Bystander paper

Answer 26

Inspired by the case of Kitty Genovese, Darley and Latane studied the bystander effect in participants using deceptive methods.
Could it be done without deception?
Milgram also used deception, in a less acceptable way

Question 27

8.03 Informed Consent for Recording Voices and Images in Research

Answer 27

Psychologists obtain informed consent from research participants prior to recording their voices or images for data collection unless (1) the research consists solely of naturalistic observations in public places, and it is not anticipated that the recording will be used in a manner that could cause personal identification or harm, or (2) the research design includes deception, and consent for the use of the recording is obtained during debriefing.

Question 28

social presence of any sort….

Answer 28

decreases contagious yawning.

Question 29

8.08 Debriefing

Answer 29

(a) Psychologists provide a prompt opportunity for participants to obtain appropriate information about the nature, results, and conclusions of the research, and they take reasonable steps to correct any misconceptions that participants may have of which the psychologists are aware.
(b) If scientific or humane values justify delaying or withholding this information, psychologists take reasonable measures to reduce the risk of harm.
(c) When psychologists become aware that research procedures have harmed a participant, they take reasonable steps to minimize the harm.

Question 30

___is vitally important for any study, whether

there is deception or not.

Answer 30

Debriefing

Question 31

For the yawning study, debriefing following the yawning honours study did not initially “take reasonable steps to correct any misconceptions”…

Answer 31

… but debriefing was completed at the end of all data collection.

Question 32

UNB-SJ has a research ethics board (REB) for human

research.

Answer 32

(8.01 Institutional Approval)

Question 33

8.10 Reporting Research Results

Answer 33

(a) Psychologists do not fabricate data. (See also Standard 5.01a, Avoidance of False or Deceptive Statements.)
(b) If psychologists discover significant errors in their published data, they take reasonable steps to correct such errors in a correction, retraction, erratum, or other appropriate publication means.

Question 34

8.11 Plagiarism

Answer 34

Psychologists do not present portions of another’s work or data as their own, even if the other work or data source is cited occasionally.

Question 35

8.10 may include…

Answer 35

fabrication or falsification of data.

Question 36

Stapel, a social psychologist

Answer 36

manipulated and made up data,

ultimately leading to 58 retractions!

Question 37

8.12 Publication Credit

Answer 37

(a) Psychologists take responsibility and credit, including authorship credit, only for work they have actually performed or to which they have substantially contributed. (See also Standard 8.12b, Publication Credit.)
(b) Principal authorship and other publication credits accurately reflect the relative scientific or professional contributions of the individuals involved, regardless of their relative status. Mere possession of an institutional position, such as department chair, does not justify authorship credit. Minor contributions to the research or to the writing for publications are acknowledged appropriately, such as in footnotes or in an introductory statement.
(c) Except under exceptional circumstances, a student is listed as principal author on any multiple-authored article that is substantially based on the student’s doctoral dissertation. Faculty advisors discuss publication credit with students as early as feasible and throughout the research and publication process as appropriate. (See also Standard 8.12b, Publication Credit.)

Question 38

8.13 Duplicate Publication of Data

Answer 38

Psychologists do not publish, as original data, data that have been previously published. This does not preclude republishing data when they are accompanied by proper acknowledgment.

Question 39

8.14 Sharing Research Data for Verification

Answer 39

(a) After research results are published, psychologists do not withhold the data on which their conclusions are based from other competent professionals who seek to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis and who intend to use such data only for that purpose, provided that the confidentiality of the participants can be protected and unless legal rights concerning proprietary data preclude their release. This does not preclude psychologists from requiring that such individuals or groups be responsible for costs associated with the provision of such information.
(b) Psychologists who request data from other psychologists to verify the substantive claims through reanalysis may use shared data only for the declared purpose. Requesting psychologists obtain prior written agreement for all other uses of the data.

Question 40

Retraction

Answer 40

Remember: it’s not always due to ethics failings.

Question 41

2009 study looking to see if Milgram’s findings hold up many decades later, with some differences:

Answer 41

• Intensive screening to eliminate stress-prone participants
• Maximum voltage was substantially lower
• Less prodding to continue when they wanted to stop

Question 42

Countless examples of human benefits from animal research, including

Answer 42

understanding malaria and discovering insulin

Question 43

Deciding whether to test on animals

Answer 43

Though the details are different, the overall considerations are similar to human research.

Question 44

Canada’s overseeing body on animals in research regulates the use of
animals, including facilities, welfare, etc.

Answer 44

CCAC

Question 45

Estimated scientific animal use in Canada (2017).

Answer 45

31% mice, 27% birds, 19% fish

Question 46

The majority of animals were in

Answer 46

often used in basic research that seeks to understand basic biological, etc., processes and mechanisms, like how the brain works. Or how diseases progress and cause symptoms, via creation of animal models of diseases like Huntington’s disease. Also important for translational research, like testing whether a
possible new treatment works, is safe, etc. Setting the stage for studies in humans, including clinical trials. Animal use is a mandated and necessary part of drug
development. Note the basic, translational, and applied aspects.

Question 47

CCAC has its own set of fundamental principles

Answer 47

When is it okay?
How must it be done?
Both in the context of invasiveness.

Question 48

Categories of invasiveness.

Answer 48

A. research with bacterial tissue culture and most invertebrates.
B. Experiments which cause little or no discomfort or stress
C. Experiments which cause minor stress or pain of short duration
D. Experiments which cause moderate to severe distress
E. Procedures which cause severe pain near, at, or above the pain tolerance threshold of unanesthetized conscious animals or discomfort

Question 49

The 3Rs, a guiding principle of animal research.

Answer 49

Reduction Any strategy that will result in lower animal being used in research
Refinement: Modification of experiment to minimize pain
Replacement: Methods which avoid or replace the use of animals in the research

Question 50

ED50

Answer 50

dose that helps 50% of population

Question 51

LD50

Answer 51

dose that kills 50% of population. Traditionally LD50 has been calculated by giving animals varying dosages and seeing how many die.

Question 52

One alternative is the up-and-down method

Answer 52

where animals are tested sequentially, with 1-2 days between each, and the dose adjusted up and down based on effects.

Question 53

TD50

Answer 53

The median toxic dose of a drug or toxin is the dose at which toxicity occurs in 50% of cases

Question 54

Some alternatives

Answer 54

try to use the TD50 and then extrapolate LD50 using computer modeling.

Question 55

In vitro approaches to testing toxicity

Answer 55

have advantages beyond no animal use, mainly related to specificity to humans and even particular organ tissues.

Question 56

Is there a 4th R

Answer 56

reproducibility?

Question 57

UNB and other institutions have on-site committees that assess proposals, following the guidelines of and ultimately answering to CCAC

Answer 57

Typical membership: a veterinarian, members of different university groups, and a community representative.