Ethics In Psychology Flashcards
What is informed consent?
When participants are given comprehensive information it to the nature and purpose of the research and their role in it, so they can make an informed decision on whether to take part.
Why might a researcher not want to include informed consent?
Because revealing the true aims of the study might cause participants to change the way they behave due to demand characteristics
- for this reason, lots of researchers deliberately do an average job in explaining the purpose of research
What did Epstein and Lasagna (1969) find?
Only a third of volunteering participants for an experiment really understood what they agreed to take part in, meaning informed consent isn’t always extremely thorough
How is informed consent not always very thorough?
It is difficult to communicate any benefits or risks in participation as these effects of the study can’t accurately be predicted until the study has been done
Why is deception sometimes necessary?
To reduce demand characteristics (guessing aim of study)
How can deception be slightly ethical compared to not at all?
Slightly better: withholding some details of research aims
Terrible: deliberately providing misinformation about the study to try and increase participation
What is deception?
When a participant isn’t told the true aims of the study and therefore can’t give truly informed consent
What did Diana Baumrind (1985) argue about deception?
It is morally wrong across 3 general ethical rules:
. Right of informed consent
. Obligation of researcher to protect welfare of participants
. Responsibility of researchers to be trustworthy
Why is having a right to withdraw in research not ideal for the researcher?
With the right to withdraw, as participants who begin to feel uncomfortable leave the research environment, the only participants left only belong to a specificsubsection of the original participants that tend to be more obedient or hardy as they have coped without having to withdraw, sometimes creating a biased sample.
Why is having the right to withdraw so important for participants?
Participants may feel especially uncomfortable in a research setting when they have been deceived of the true aims of a study, but even when there has been fully informed consent the experience for the individual may be different to what is expected. As ethically there is an expectation to protect the participants from physical and psychological harm, being able to withdraw from a study is crucial.
How is the right to withdraw often compromised for in psychological research?
Often researchers set up a rewards or credits for those who participate in the study so that they are less likely to withdraw as they are positively reinforced by the idea of a reward as an incentive continue with the study (probably not ethical in itself)
Why is it difficult for a researcher to guarantee protection from harm?
Some of the most important questions in psychology require some level of distress to elicit some level of behaviour. It is also difficult to predict the outcome of certain procedures if it hasn’t been done much before due to it not happening often due to lack of protection from harm, such as with the Stanford Prison experiment. Furthermore, harm is subjective to different individuals so guaranteeing protection from harm will never fit the needs of every participant
When is harm sometimes acceptable in psychological research?
. If the risk of harm is no greater than a participant would be likely to experience in everyday life
. If participant is returned to the same state as they were before the study started by the end
. If informed consent has specified the harm and has been agreed to
Why is it difficult to protect confidential of participants?
The researcher will most likely want to publish their findings, and although they can guarantee anonymity, the sample and location of the study will always be detailed and this will narrow down the target group to reveal the anonymity, making it hard to maintain confidentiality
What is the legal position on confidentiality in psychological research?
The Data protection act makes confidentiality a legal right.
- it is only acceptable for personal data to be recorded if the data made keeps the participant anonymous or if the participant has signed a consent form to be known AFTER the study
