Ethical Issues In Using Humans And Animals In Psychology

Question 1

What are four components of the BPS code of conduct

Answer 1

Respect: informed consent, confidentiality, privacy and right to withdraw

Competence: awareness of professional ethics and making ethical decisions

Responsibility: protection from harm and debriefing

Integrity: honesty (avoiding deception) addressing misconduct

Question 2

What are ethical issues

Answer 2

A dilemma about right and wrong
This arises because researchers wish to investigate behaviour to benefit our understanding of people and improve our world. But there are costs to participants
Ethical guidelines try to work out how to get the balance right

Question 3

What is anonymity and confidentiality

Answer 3

A participant’s right to have personal information protected through anonymity or by keeping information safe

Question 4

Anonymity and confidentiality - participant’s POV vs. Researcher’s POV

Answer 4

Participant’s POV:
- the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) makes confidentiality a right

Researcher’s POV:
- may not be possible to keep information anonymous/ confidential because some details of a study may lead to an individual’s identification

Question 5

What is deception

Answer 5

Occurs when a participant is not told the true research aims of a study and/or not told what they will be required to do

Question 6

Deception - Participant’s POV vs. Researcher’s POV

Answer 6

Occurs when a participant is not told the true research aims of a study and/ or not told what they will be required to do

Question 7

What is informed consent

Answer 7

Participants are given comprehensive information concerning the nature and purpose of a study and their role in it, so they can make a decision about taking part

Question 8

Informed consent - Participant’s POV vs. Researcher’s POV

Answer 8

Participant’s POV:

• necessary so participants can decide to consent
• certain participants can’t give informed consent (young children, mentally disabled)

Researcher’s POV:
- asking for informed consent may reveal study aims and lead to demand characteristics

Question 9

What is privacy

Answer 9

Refers to a person’s right to control the flow of information about themselves
Invasion of privacy is included as a form of psychological harm

Question 10

Privacy - Participant’s POV vs. Researcher’s POV

Answer 10

Participant’s POV:
- being observed in public may be acceptable, but listening to people’s conversation may question privacy

Researcher’s POV:
- covert observations preferred cause more naturalistic behaviour

Question 11

What is the right to withdraw

Answer 11

Participants should be told that they can stop participant in in a study if for any reason they are feeling uncomfortable

Question 12

Right to withdraw - Participant’s POV vs. Researcher’s POV

Answer 12

Participant’s POV:
- participant’s often don’t fully understand what is involved, therefore they should be able to leave the study if they want to

Researcher’s POV:
- loss of participants may bias the study’s findings since the ones who stay are highly motivated or less emotionally sensitive

Question 13

What is protection from harm

Answer 13

Participants should not experience negative physical effects, such as physical injury, nor should they experience negative psychological effects, such as lowered self-esteem or embarrassment

Question 14

Protection from harm - Participant’s POV vs. Researcher’s POV

Answer 14

Participant’s POV:

• people are robust and can tolerate some anxiety
• but it is reasonable for the participant to be in the same ‘state’ as they were in the beginning

Researcher’s POV:
- may not be possible to estimate harm before conducting a study, however any study should be stopped as soon as harm is apparent

Question 15

Dealing with ethical issues - risk assessment and management

Answer 15

• identifying potential physical or psychological harm to participants
• weighing up the potential risks with the long-term gains of this study
• such arguments are usually presented to an ethics committee

Question 16

Dealing with ethical issues - consent and debriefing

Answer 16

• informed consent only through those who are freely given from participants who understand and were given sufficient information on which to make a decision
• there are studies where true aims were not revealed, but they were debriefed afterwards
• they should also have the right to refuse permission for the researcher to use any of the data they produced

Question 17

Dealing with ethical issues - research ethics committee (REC)

Answer 17

• group of people within a research institution who have to review and approve the study before it begins
• concerns themselves with all the possible ethical issues may arise

Question 18

BPS guidelines for animals

Answer 18

• confinement, restraint, stress and harm minimised to reduce trauma
• different species should be considered
• optimise research design to minimise number of animals

Question 19

Arguments for the use of animals in psychological research

Answer 19

+ conditioning processes are the same in all animals, so animal studies can be generalised

+ preferable to use animals since there are fewer ethical issues (consent, psychological/ physical harm), not possible to keep humans in a lab for long studies

+ more complex behaviours can be studied in mammals and generalised to humans, effects of drugs can be tested on animals

Question 20

Arguments against the use of animals in psychological research

Answer 20

• not justifiable to generalise animals to humans, there’s re complex behaviours animals might not have
• animal experimentation is unethical, pain and suffering is almost unavoidable, however it could be argued that the benefits outweigh the suffering of animals
• regulating animal research through guidelines might not be effective, over half of animal studies failed to report how many animals were used and were poorly designed