Ethical Issues Flashcards
What are the four key ethical principles
- Respect
- Competence
- Responsibility
- Integrity
What does the ethical principle of respect mean and what guidelines does it fit with
Valuing the dignity and worth of all individuals. This links with informed consent, right to withdraw and confidentiality.
What does the ethical principles of competence mean
Valuing continual development as a psychologist and maintain high standards of work. This includes functioning optimally and within the limits of ones own knowledge.
What does the ethical principle responsibility mean and what ethical guideline does it link to.
Valuing the responsibility of being a psychologist to the clients, public, the profession and science of psychology. This involves the avoidance of harm and the prevention of misuse. This links to the protection of participants and the role of debrief.
What does the ethical principal integrity mean and what ethical principle does it link to
Valuing honesty accuracy clarity and fairnesses in interactions and seeking to promote these in scientific and professional work as a psychologist. It links to the principle of deception.
What are the six ethical issues & guidelines in psychology
- Fully informed consent
- Right to withdraw
- Debrief
- Confidentiality
- Deception
- Protection of participants
What does fully informed consent mean
Whenever possible the investigator should fully inform participants about all aspects of the study and the participants should agree to take part. When a participant is under the age of 16 then you should have the consent of teacher or parent.
How do you deal with the issue of fully informed consent
- a consent form must be filled out by all the participants
- the form must include information about what they are about to do in the study and a space for them to sign and date the form
- the participants should only sign is they are fully understand what is expected of them and they are willing to take part
What is mean by the right to withdraw
The investigator should make it clear to the participants from the beginning of the study that if they wish to stop their participation at any point they are free to do so. It also means that if they do not want their results to be used once they have completed the research they can make that happen.
How do you deal with the right to withdraw
Ensure that the participants are reminded of their right to withdraw in the consent form, the standardised instructions and the debrief.
What is meant by confidentiality
Information obtained about a participant will remain confidential unless otherwise agreed in advance. The participants have the right to expect that the information they provided will not be able to be traded back to them.
How do you deal with the issues of confidentiality
Do not name participants in the study use either pseudonyms refer to them as ‘participant 1’ or use initials
What is meant by deception
The withholding of information or misleading of participants about any part of the study is not allowed if the participants are likely to object once debriefed. If participants are deceived then full consent cannot be given until after they have been debriefed.
How do you deal with deception
Tell participants as much information as possible in the standardised instructions and consent form. However this isn’t always possible as it may lead to demand characteristics. Therefore other methods of consent can be used to deal with deception:
- presumptive consent
- prior general consent
- retrospective consent
What is presumptive consent
Asking people who are similar to the participants if they would take part in the research themselves. If so then it is assumed the others would also take part
