Ethical Issues and Way of Dealing With Them, Chapter 6, 6

Question 1

What is the BPS code of ethics?

Answer 1

A quasi-legal document produced by the British Psychological Society (BPS) that instructs psychologists in the UK about what behaviour is and is not acceptable when dealing with participants. The code is built around four major principles: respect, competence, responsibility and integrity

Question 1

What are ethical issues?

Answer 1

These arise when a conflict exists between the rights of participants in research studies and the goals of research to produce authentic, valid and worthwhile data

Question 2

What are examples of ethical issues?

Answer 2

Informed consent, deception, protection from harm, privacy and confidentiality

Question 3

What is informed consent?

Answer 3

This involves making participants aware of the aims of the research, the procedures, their rights (including the right to withdraw partway through the investigation), and also what their data will be used for.

Participants should then make an informed judgement whether or not to take part without being coerced or feeling obliged

Question 4

What do researcher’s think about informed consent?

Answer 4

From the researcher’s point of view, asking for informed consent may make the study meaningless because participants’ behaviour will not be natural as they know the aims of the study

Question 5

What does deception mean?

Answer 5

Deliberately misleading or withholding information from participants at any stage of the investigation

There are times when this can be seen as acceptable e.g.

Question 6

What is protection from harm?

Answer 6

Participants should not be placed at any more risk than they would be in their daily lives and should be protected from physical and psychological harm

Question 7

What is included in protection from harm?

Answer 7

This includes being made to feel embarrassed, inadequate or being placed under undue stress or pressure

Participants need to be reminded of the fact that they have the right to withdraw from the investigation at any point

Question 8

What is privacy and confidentiality?

Answer 8

Participants have the right to control information about themselves. This is the right of privacy. This extends to the area where the study took place such that institutions or geographical locations are not named. If this is invaded then confidentiality should be protected

Confidentiality refers to our right, enshrined in law under the Data Protection Act, to have any personal data protected

Question 9

How do you deal with informed consent?

Answer 9

Participants should be issued with a consent letter or form that needs to be signed if they wish to participate or a parental consent form needs t be signed if they are under 16, detailing all relevant information that might affect their decision to participate

Question 10

What are the different ways to obtain consent?

Answer 10

Presumptive consent, prior general consent and retrospective consent

Question 11

What is presumptive consent?

Answer 11

Rather than getting consent from the participants themselves, a similar group of people are asked if the study is acceptable. If the group agrees, then consent of the original participants is presumed

Question 12

What is prior general consent?

Answer 12

Participants give their permission to take part in a number of different studies- including one that will involve deception. By consenting, participants are effectively consenting to being deceived

Question 13

How do you deal with deception and protection from harm?

Answer 13

At the end of the study, participants should be given a full debrief. Within this, participants should be made aware of the true aims of the investigation and any details they were not supplied with during the study, such as the existence of other groups or experimental conditions

Participants should also be told what their data will be used for and must be given the right to withdraw during the study and the right to withhold data if they wish, especially in retrospective consent.

Participants may have natural concerns related to their performance within the investigation so should be reassured that their behaviour was typical or normal. In extreme cases of stress or embarrassment, researchers must provide required councelling

Question 13

What is retrospective consent?

Answer 13

Participants are asked for their consent (during debriefing) having already taken part in the study. They may not have been aware of their participation or they may have been subject to deception

Question 14

How do you deal with confidentiality?

Answer 14

If personal details are held they must be protected (more usual to record no details, i.e. remain anonymity)

Researchers usually refer to participants using numbers or initials when writing up the investigation

During the briefing and debriefing, participants are reminded that their data will be protected throughout the process and told that the data will not be shared with other researchers

Psychologists usually use initials in a case study