Ethical issues, research issues, experimental design

Question 1

What is an ethical issue?

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 the BPS guidelines?

Answer 2

A document by the British Psychological Society that presents the acceptable behaviour when conducting research.

Question 3

What are the ethical issues?

Answer 3

informed consent, deception, protection from harm, withdrawal, confidentiality.

Question 4

Informed consent:

Answer 4

an ethical principle that research participants be told enough to enable them to choose whether they wish to participate.
-Viewed by researchers as ‘unnatural’ because they may not show natural reactions if they know the experiment aims.

Question 5

Deception:

Answer 5

misleading participants about the true purpose of a study or the events that will actually transpire.
-Means they cannot give informed consent.
-Can be acceptable when revealing true aims may change behaviour.

Question 6

Confidentiality:

Answer 6

the act of holding information in confidence (Data Protection Act). The right to privacy.

Question 7

Debriefing:

Answer 7

the post-experimental explanation of a study, including its purpose and any deceptions, to its participants. They then have the option to have their data removed.

Question 8

Withdrawal:

Answer 8

-The right to withdraw at any point.
-Important when fully informed consent was not possible.
-Can also refuse for data to be used.

Question 9

Protection:

Answer 9

Should be protected physically and psychologically.
-Includes feeling inadequate and embarrassed.
-The right to withdraw.

Question 10

Dealing with BPS code of conduct:

Answer 10

-Can ban a psychologist from practising again.
-Ethics committee must approve the study.
-Cost benefit analysis.
-Impossible to account for every situation and the researcher can put responsibility on the BPS.

Question 11

Dealing with informed consent:

Answer 11

consent form needs to be signed, for under 16s a guardian needs to sign.

Question 12

Dealing with deception and protection from harm:

Answer 12

Debriefing = made aware of true aims after study and any details not supplied during like other conditions, must be given right to withhold data (important for retrospective consent), should be reassure behaviour is normal and offer counselling

Question 13

Dealing with confidentiality:

Answer 13

If personal details are held these must be protected. However it is more usual to simply record no personal details i.e. maintain anonymity. Instead, researchers usually refer to participants as numbers or initials.
-Participants must be reminded of that.

Question 14

What is experimental design?

Answer 14

The different ways in which the testing of participants can be organised in relation to the experimental conditions

Question 15

What are independent groups?

Answer 15

Different groups of participants for each condition of the IV. Each person has equal chance of being in each group.

Question 16

Advantages of independent groups?

Answer 16

No order effect and reduces the possibility of demand characteristics as participants only take part in 1 condition.

Question 17

Disadvantages of independent group?

Answer 17

Individual differences are not controlled or kept constant across the 2 conditions. Therefore confounding variables may effect the results.
More ppts are needed so more time consuming and costly.

Question 18

What is repeated measures?

Answer 18

one group of participants, who take part in both conditions of the study

Question 19

Advantages of repeated measures?

Answer 19

No ppt variables, as the same group of people is used for each conditions. Results are easy and quicker to organise, as there is more data from fewer ppts

Question 20

Disadvantages of repeated measures?

Answer 20

Order of effect (need to counterbalance) and demand characteristics.

Question 21

What is matched pairs?

Answer 21

Where people are put together on similar aspects (such as age, gender, IQ) that are pre-tested and put in to separate groups. Each group experiences one level of the IV.

Question 22

Advantages of matched pairs?

Answer 22

No order effects and less participant variables.

Question 23

Disadvantages of matched pairs?

Answer 23

-Very time consuming to match ppts on characteristics
-Impossible to match identically - unless identical twins!

Question 24

What are order effects?

Answer 24

change in performance from beginning to end of task (e.g., increased practice or fatigue).

Question 25

What are extraneous variables?

Answer 25

Variables that could affect the DV and do not vary systematically with the IV.
-Can be participant or situational.

Question 26

What are confounding variables?

Answer 26

Vary systematically with the IV and aren’t recognised until the study takes place.
-It adds another IV.

Question 27

What are demand characteristics?

Answer 27

cues in an experiment that tell the participant what behaviour is expected.
-Hard to control, is unnatural behaviour.

Question 28

What is the please-u effect?

Answer 28

Participants act in a way they think is expected/overperform to please the investigator.

Question 29

What is the screw-u effect?

Answer 29

Participants deliberately underperform to sabotage the results of the study.

Question 30

What are investigator effects?

Answer 30

Any unwanted influence of the investigator on the research outcome. Some researchers alter behaviour to try and get a certain outcome. Can also be in the selection of participants, the instructions, etc.

Question 31

What is randomisation?

Answer 31

The use of chance in order to control for the effects of bias when designing materials and deciding the order of conditions.
For example: randomise the order for a memory test or the order that participants take part.

Question 32

What is counterbalancing?

Answer 32

An attempt to control for the effects of order in a repeated measures design: half the participants experience the conditions in one order, and the other half in the opposite order.

Question 33

What is standardisation?

Answer 33

Using exactly the same formalised procedures and instructions for all participants in a research study.