Dealing with Ethical Issues Flashcards
strategies to deal with ethical issues
5
ethical guidelines
cost benefit analysis
ethics committees
punishment
debriefing
ethical guidelines
6
ethical guidelines of sets of principles designed to help professionals behave honestly and with integrity
the BPS regularly updates its ethical guidelines/code of conduct, the most current is the Code of Ethics and Conduct 2009
outlines what behaviours are not acceptable and suggests ways of resolving ethical issues
for example, it says that….
• additional safeguards are required to protect the welfare and dignity of participants if the researcher has failed to make full disclosure prior to obtaining informed consent
- special safeguarding procedures are needed for research involving participants under 16 or participants who have impairments that limit their understanding or communication
- deception is inappropriate if participants show signs of discomfort, anger or objection when the deception is revealed to them
punishment
2
if a psychologist behaves unethically, such as conducting unacceptable research, the BPS reviews the research they did and may decide to bar them from practicing as a psychologist
however it is not a legal matter, so the psychologist cannot be sent to prison or charged with a criminal offence
debriefing
3
a post-research interview designed to inform participants of the true nature of the study and to restore them to the state they are in at the start of the study
it may also be used to gain useful feedback about the procedures in the study
debriefing is not an ethical issue, it is a means of dealing with ethical issues
cost benefit analysis
5
comparing the benefits of the study against the costs — it is a systematic approach to estimating the negatives and positives of any research
costs and benefits can be judged from a participant’s point of view, in which distress and loss of time are costs but payment for participation and feelings of fulfilment from having contributed to scientific research are benefits
alternatively, costs and benefits can be judged in terms of society as a whole — the benefits would be improving people’s lives but the costs may involve the possibility that individuals are harmed in the process
may judge from the point of view of the group to which an individual belongs (for example, when researching cultural differences, the research may not harm the individual participant but the findings may lead to biased treatment of the individual’s cultural group)
the benefits should always outweigh the costs in order for a study to proceed and be considered acceptable
evaluation of ethical guidelines
3
GENERAL — this approach to dealing with ethical issues is inevitably general as it is virtually impossible to cover every conceivable situation that a researcher may encounter
LACK OF DISCUSSION — in canada, they present hypothetical dilemmas to psychologists who are then able to discuss them. but the BPS approach tends to close off discussions about what is right and wrong because they provide the answers
ABSOLVE RESPONSIBILITY — guidelines can absolve the individual researcher of any responsibility because they can simply claim that they followed the guidelines available to them and so their research is acceptable
evaluation of cost benefit analysis
2
VERY DIFFICULT — it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict both costs and benefits prior to conducting a study as there are so many difficulty situations that could arise. it’s still difficult to assess costs and benefits after the study as there are different ways of quantifying them (e.g. how much does personal distress cost? is the benefit of providing useful information through research more important than protecting participants from harm?)
DOES NOT SOLVE ANYTHING — Baumrind (1959) argues that this approach solves nothing because one set of dilemmas are simply exchanged for another as the approach itself has ethical dilemmas. for instance, it can be said to legitimatise unethical practices as it suggest that deception and harm are acceptable in many situations as long as the benefits are high enough
dealing with specific ethical issues
6
consent
deception
right to withdraw
protection from harm
confidentiality
privacy
dealing with consent
3
ask participants to formally indicate their agreement to participate by signing a document which contains comprehensive information concerning the nature and purpose of the research and their role in it
gain other forms of consent if fully informed consent is not possible for some reason, such as presumptive consent, prior general consent or retrospective consent
presumptive consent is a method of dealing with a lack of informed consent or deception by asking a group of people who are similar to the participants whether they would agree to take part in the study, if this group of people consents to the procedures in the proposed study it is presumed that the real participants would also have agreed
limitations of dealing with consent
3
if participants are given full information about a study this may lead to demand characteristics or social desirability bias which can ruin the results
even if researchers obtain informed consent, this does not guarantee that the participants truly do understand what they have signed up for
presumptive consent has problems too, people may expect that they will or will not mind participating but this may be different to what they actually experience in the study
dealing with deception
2
any deception should be approved by an ethics committee who weigh the benefits of the study against the cost to the participants
participants should be fully debriefed after the study — this involves informing them of the true nature of the study and any deception involved AND they should be offered the opportunity to discuss any concerns that they may have and to withhold the data from the study
limitations of dealing with deception
2
cost benefit decisions are flawed because they involve subjective judgements AND the costs and benefits are not always apparent until after the study
debriefing cannot reverse time — a participant may still feel embarrassed or have lowered self-esteem and debriefing cannot change the fact that they have been deceived
dealing with the right to withdraw
1
participants should be informed at the beginning of the study that they have the right to withdraw at any time
limitations of dealing with the right to withdraw
2
participants may feel pressured to remain in the study and feel that they should not withdraw because it may spoil the research
in many studies participants are paid or rewarded in some way and may not feel able to withdraw for this reason
dealing with protection from harm
2
researchers must avoid any risk that is greater than what would be experienced in every day life
researchers must stop the study if harm is suspected
