Ethical issues Flashcards
Valid consent
Participants are given comprehensive information concerning the nature and the purpose of the research and their role in it so that they can make an informed decision if they want to participate
- when it comes to children valid consent needs to be obtained from a guardian as individual may not be able to fully understand aims of research
Researchers POV
- revealing the true aims of the study and telling the participants what is actually going on
- However this can lead to the participants to guess the aims of the study e.g a male psychologist may want to investigate whether people obey a male teacher more than a female teacher and if the participants are told the aim of the experiment then it may change the way they behave
Participants POV
- participants should be told what they will be required to do in the study so that they can make an informed decision about whether they wish to participate
- even if researchers have obtained valid consent that does not guarantee that participants really understand what they have let themselves in for
Deception
A participant is not told the true aims of the study and thus cannot give valid consent
Researchers POV
- can be necessary to deceive participants about the true aims of the study otherwise participants might alter their behaviour and the study could be meaningless
Participants POV
- Deception is unethical and the researcher should not deceive anyone without good cause - deception can prevent participants from being able to give valid consent as they may agree without really knowing what they have signed up for
- can lead to them seeing the psychologist as untrustworthy
Risk of harm
Participants should not experience negative physical or psychological effects such as physical injury, lowered self esteem or embarrassment beyond what would be normal for them to experience
Researchers POV
- studying some more important questions in psychology may involve a degree of a risk of harm to participants and it is also difficult to predict the certain outcome of procedures
Participants POV
- Nothing should happen during a study that can cause harm and there are many ways that harm can be caused to participants e.g getting them to smoke or drink
- it is considered acceptable if the risk of harm is no greater than a participant would be likely to experience in ordinary life
Confidentiality
Concerns the communication of personal information from one person to another and the trust that the information will be protected
Researchers POV
- may be difficult to protect confidentiality because the researcher wishes to publish the findings - a researcher may guarantee anonymity but it can still be obvious who was involved in the study
e.g knowing a study of children in a hospital was conducted on the isle of wight could permit some people to be able to identify participants
because the target population has been narrowed down
Participants POV
The data protection act makes confidentiality a legal right and it is only acceptable for personal data to be recorded if the data are not made available in a form that identifies the participants
Privacy
A persons right to control the flow of information about themselves
Researchers POV
- may be difficult to avoid invasion of privacy when studying participants without their awareness e.g in a field experiment as a covert observation
Participants POV
- people do not expect to be observed by others in certain situations e.g when in the privacy of their own homes
Privacy VS Confidentiality
- confidentiality concerns the communication of personal information from one person to another whereas privacy is a zone of inaccessibility of a mind or body and the trust it will not be invaded
