Ethical Issues and Ways of Dealing with Them Flashcards
Conflict
BPS Code of Conduct
Ethics Committees
When a conflict exists between the rights of participants and the aims of the research.
Legal document that protects participants based on four principles:
Respect, Competence, Responsibility and Integrity.
Weigh up costs (eg potential harm) and benefits (eg value of research) before deciding whether a study should go ahead
Informed Consent
Get permission.
Participants should be able to make an informed judgement about whether to take part.
Too much information may affect participants behaviour
Describe three alternative forms of consent
Presumptive- ask a similar group
Prior General- agree to be deceived
Retrospective- get consent after the study
Deception
Misleading.
Deliberately misleading or withholding information so consent is not informed
Describe the debrief
At the end of study, participants advised of:
- the true aims of the investigation
- details that were not given during the study
- what their data will be used for
- their right to withhold data
Protection from Harm
Risk.
Participants should be at no more risk than they would in everyday life
Describe three things participants should be given to be protected from harm
- Should be given the right to withdraw at each stage of the research process
- Should be reassured that their behaviour was typical/normal during the debriefing
- Researcher should provide counselling if participants have been eg distressed
Privacy/Confidentiality
Right to control.
We have the right to control information about ourselves. If this is invaded, confidentiality should be respected
Describe three things researchers should do to protect participants privacy/confidentiality
- If personal details are held these must be protected (a legal requirement). Usually though, no personal details are recorded
- Researchers refer to participants using numbers, initials or false names
- Participants’ personal data cannot be shared with other researchers
