Lecture 8 - Research Ethics Flashcards
What ethics governs psychological research?
- The ethical implications of research
- The development of ethical principles in research
What current ethical principles, guidelines, and procedures are there?
- APA and BPS
- Overarching principles
Tuskegee syphilis study 1932- 72 - Ethical guidelines emerging from unethical research
- 400 African-American men found to be infected, but weren’t told…… or offered treatment
- Aim: To investigate the progression of syphilis
- 28 died of syphilis
- 100 died of related complications
- 40 infected their wives
- 19 children born with congenital syphilis
What did Milgram’s obedience study tell us about ethical principles in psychology?
- Participants asked to administer ‘shocks’ to another ‘participant’ (actually an actor)
- Ethics issues focused on deception and the effects on participants:
- Stimulated much debate about ethical standards in psychological research
- Could not be run in full today, due to changes in ethical guidelines
- Partially replicated in 2006 (using a computer-generated avatar in place of the ‘victim’)
What did Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Study tell us about ethics in psychology?
- Random division of students into ‘Guards’ and ‘Prisoners’
- Zimbardo played role of chief warden
- Also partially replicated in 2002 for the BBC
- Study terminated early due to mistreatment and suffering inflicted on participants
- Cleared by APA investigation in 1973 …
What are the principles in APA?
A-E
What is Principle A in APA?
Principle A: Beneficence and Non-maleficence
Psychologists strive to benefit those with whom they work and take care to do no harm. In their professional actions, psychologists seek to safeguard the welfare and rights of those with whom they interact professionally and other affected persons and the welfare of animal subjects of research.
What is Principle B in APA?
Principle B: Fidelity and Responsibility
Psychologists establish relationships of trust with those with whom they work. They are aware of their professional and scientific responsibilities to society and to the specific communities in which they work.
What is principle C in APA?
Principle C: Integrity
Psychologists seek to promote accuracy, honesty and truthfulness in the science, teaching and practice of psychology.
What is Principle D in APA?
Principle D: Justice
Psychologists recognise that fairness and justice entitle all persons to access to and benefit from the contributions of psychology and to equal quality in the processes, procedures and services being conducted by psychologists.
What is Principle E in APA?
Principle E: Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity
Psychologists respect the dignity and worth of all people, and the rights of individuals to privacy, confidentiality, and self-determination.
What are the BPS Principles of ethics?
- Respect
- Competence
- Responsibility
- Integrity
What is respect?
Psychologists value the dignity and worth of all persons… with particular regard to people’s rights including those of privacy and self-determination
What is competence?
Psychologists value the continuing development and maintenance of high standards of competence in their professional work
What is responsibility?
Psychologists value their responsibilities to clients, to the general public, and to the profession and science of Psychology, including the avoidance of harm and the prevention of misuse or abuse of their contributions to society
What is integrity?
Psychologists value honesty, accuracy, clarity, and fairness in their interactions with all persons
What practices need to be in place for researcher-participant relations?
- General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)
- Informed consent
- Deception
- Debriefing
- Ethical approval
What is informed consent?
Consent must be explicit when participants are recruited specifically from ‘special groups’ designated by the EU General Data Protection Regulation and based on:
- Racial / ethnic origin
- Political opinions
- Religious / philosophical beliefs
- Trade Union
- Biometric data
- Health
- Sex life / sexual orientation / identity
In other words, the researcher cannot assume that by choosing to continue with the study (i.e., implicit consent) a participant is giving fully-informed consent
What is deception?
- Defined as:
“Withholding information or misleading participants”
- Some psychological processes may be impossible to study without withholding information about the true objectives of the study or deliberately misleading participants
- You should be able to justify the use of deception as essential and proportional to the needs of the study
- Determine that alternative procedures avoiding concealment or deception are not available
- Ensure participants are provided with sufficient information at the earliest stage
- Consult appropriately upon the likely effect of deception on participants
- Participants should be provided with any necessary information to complete their understanding of the nature of the research
- Debriefing should be sufficient to eliminate all possibility of harmful after-effects
- Researchers’ contact info must be made available
- Debriefing does not in itself justify unethical procedures
What is debriefing?
Usually involves a written statement of the purpose of the research (essential if deception was used)
- Include contact information of the primary investigator(i.e., your research supervisor’s email address)
- At the very least, ask participants if they have any questions about the research and whether they would like the investigator’s email for future contact
What is ethics approval?
- All research must be granted ethics approval by Psychology Research Ethics Committee before data collection begins
- Two forms of application:
Track A: Non-interventionist methods (e.g. observational) and no ethical concerns (e.g. topic/methods are not ethically sensitive)
- Applications are reviewed by the Chair of the PREC or one committee member
Track B: Ethically-sensitive methods and/or subject
- Applications are reviewed by the Chair of the PREC and one committee member
- Track B applications require substantially more documentation
What ethics apply to writing research papers?
Authorship (including author order) should reflect contribution to the paper
What ethical principles apply to researcher-researcher relations?
- Collaborations and research supervision usually involve interactions between people with different power and status
- Important that relations are appropriate, respectful, professional etc.
What ethical principles apply to practitioner-client relations?
- Maintain appropriate, professional relations
- Maintain clearly-defined roles (e.g. advocate or expert witness in court?)
- Only practice within own area of expertise
What ethical principles apply to researcher-society relations?
Milgram’s ‘obedience’ studies
- Should the ‘ethics’ of the study be evaluated in a broader social context?
- One participant wrote to him some years later, having refused to enlist to serve in Vietnam War:
