Ethical Issues and Ways of Dealing With Them

Question 1

How do ethical issues arise in psychology?

Answer 1

• When a conflict exists between the rights of participants in research studies & the goals of research to produce authentic, valid & worthwhile data

Question 2

What are the 4 ethical issues?

Answer 2

• Informed consent
• Deception
• Protection from harm
• Privacy & confidentiality

Question 3

What is informed consent?

Answer 3

• Involves making ppts aware of the aims of the research, the procedures, rights (including right to withdraw) & what their data will be used for
• Ppts should then make an informed judgement whether or not to take part without being coerced or feeling obliged
• From researchers point of view, asking for informed consent may make study meaningless as ppts behaviour will not be natural as they know aims of the study

Question 4

What is deception?

Answer 4

• Deliberetly misleading or witholding info from ppts at any stage of the investigation
• (Linked to consent) ppts who have not recieved adequate information when they agreed to take part or have been lied to cannot said to have given informed consent

Question 5

What is protection from harm?

Answer 5

• As a result of their involvement ppts should not be placed at anymore risk than they would be in their daily lives & should be protected from physical & psychological harm
• Includes being made to feel embarrassed, inadequate or put under stress,pressure
• An important feature of protection from harm is ppts being reminded of the fact they have right to withdraw from investigation at any point

Question 6

What is the difference between privacy & confidentiality?

Answer 6

• Privacy- Ppts have the right to control information about themselves - 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 7

What is the British Psychology Society (BPS) code of conduct?

Answer 7

• Has its own BPS code of ethics including a set of ethical guidelines
• Researchers have a professional duty to observe these guidelines when conducting research- may lose their job if they do not follow them
• Guidelines are implemented by ethics committees in research instituations who often use a cost-benefit approach to determine whether research proposals are ethically acceptable

Question 8

How do you deal with informed consent?

Answer 8

• Ppts should be issued with a consent letter/form detailing all relevant information that might affect their decision to participate
• Assuming ppt agrees, this is then signed
• For investigations involving children under 16, a signature of parental consent is required

Question 9

How do you deal with deception and protection form harm?

Answer 9

• At end of study ppts should be given a full debrief- ppts should be made aware of the true aims of the investigation & any details they were not supplied with during the study
• Ppts should also be told what their data will be used for & must be given right to withdraw during study & right to withhold data
• If ppts have been subjected to stress or embarrassment they may require counselling which the researcher should provide

Question 10

How do you deal with confidentiality?

Answer 10

• If personal details are held these must be protected
• However it is more useful to simply record no personal details (maintain anonymity)
• Researchers usually refer to ppts by numbers or initials
• Standard practice that during breifing or debriefing ppts are reminded that their data will be protected throughout the process & told data will not be shared with other researchers.

Question 11

What are the 3 alternative ways of getting consent?

Answer 11

• Presumtive consent- Rather than getting consent from the ppts themselves, a similar group of people are asked if the study is acceptable- if this group agrees then consent of the original ppts is ‘presumed’
• Prior general consent- Ppts give their permission to take part in a number of different studies- including one that will involve deception. By consenting ppts are effectively consenting to be decieved
• Retrospective consent- Ppts 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 decpetion