Research methods - Ethical Issues in Psychological Research

Question 1

Informed consent

Answer 1

• BPS guidelines state that participants should always give informed consent
• they should be told the aims and nature of the study before agreeing to it
• they should also know that they have the right to withdraw at any time

Question 2

Deception

Answer 2

• if participants have been deceived then they cannot have given informed consent
• however, sometimes researchers must withhold information about the study because the participants wouldn’t behave naturally if they knew what the aim was

Question 3

Protection from harm

Answer 3

• the BPS guidelines say that the risk of harm to participants should be no greater than they would face in their normal lives. It’s hard to accurately assess this

Question 4

Debriefing

Answer 4

• debriefing is supposed to return participants to the state they were in before the research
• it’s especially important if deception has been used

Question 5

Confidentiality

Answer 5

• none of the participants in a psychological study should be identifiable from any reports that are produced

Question 6

Ethical guidelines don’t solve all the problems

Answer 6

• may be researchers who don’t follow the guidelines properly
• if research is conducted in an unacceptable way, they can’t be banned from research
• can be difficult to assess things like psychological harm, or to fully justify the use of deception