Ethical implications

• Ethical implications: the impact psychological research may have based on the rights of people,especially pps.This includes at a societal level, influencing public policy/or the way in which certain groups of people are regarded.
• When do ethical implications arise?


  arise when there is conflict between psychology’s need to gain valid and valuable research findings as well as preserving the rights and dignity of pps.
• ethical guidelines?


  ethical guidelines have been set, however the social impact is hard to control
• researchers may have little say on how their research findings are represented in the media,the impact of their work on public policy or how it may influence the perception of particular groups in society(wider ethical implications of research)
• Sieber and Stanley (1988) used the term social sensitivity to describe studies where there are potential social consequences for the participants or the group of people represented by the research. Socially sensitive research can include research surrounding gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion amongst other things.
• Sieber and Stanley identified four aspects in the scientific research process that raise ethical implications in socially sensitive research: research question, methodology used, funding, interpretation and application
• Research question?

  The researcher must consider their research question carefully. Asking questions like ‘Are there gender/racial differences in IQ?’ or ‘Is intelligence based on genetics?’ may be damaging to members of a certain group. Researchers should ensure that the language used within the research question is not harmful or detrimental in any way. They should also be mindful of the importance of leading questions

  and prejudice.
• Methodology?

  The researcher needs to consider the treatment of the participant's, such as protection from harm, and their right to confidentiality and anonymity. For example, if someone admits to committing a crime, or to having unprotected sex if they are HIV positive, should the researcher maintain confidentiality? They need to take more care over consent, debriefing, etc., when the issue is sensitive as

  well as issues such as privacy and confidentiality.
• Funding?

  The researcher should be mindful of how the data is going to be used and consider who is funding the research. If the research is funded by a private institution or organisation, why are they funding the research and how do they intend to use the findings? They should be careful how they communicate with the funding

  body and consider how the findings could influence policymakers
• Interpretation and application of findings?

  The researcher needs to consider how their findings might be interpreted and applied in the real-world. Could their data or results be used to inform social policy? They should be aware of how their findings may be interpreted & used by others. They should make the limitations of their research explicit (e.g. ‘the study was only carried out on white middle class American male students’, ‘the study is based on questionnaire data, which may be inaccurate’, etc
• Social sensitivity impact: For example, Cyril Burt used studies of identical twins to support his view that intelligence is largely genetic. His views greatly influenced social policy and led to the creation of the 11+ exam which was used from 1944-1976. This meant that generations of children were affected by the 11+ exam, even though there has been huge controversy regarding whether Burt had falsified his research data. The idea that children should be separated on the basis of their natural intelligence still remained… and still does to an extent!
• Impact 2: For instance, the awful use of eugenics programmes. Australia’s eugenics past targeted Aboriginal people through child-removal practices, and otherwise controlled the ethnicity of future populations through the immigration policy informally known as the White Australia Policy. In 1972, the United States Senate Committee revealed that at least 2,000 involuntary sterilizations had been performed on poor black women without their consent or knowledge. This could be ‘justified’ by research findings which argued that black Americans had lower IQ scores in comparison to white Americans
• Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis: the idea that a child needs

  a continuous relationship with a mother figure in the first five years of life in order to develop normally. Disruption to this bond through separation from the mother figure can have a negative effect on later development. People would not have recognised the negative effects of hospitalisation on a child’s emotional well-being. Today parents stay in hospital with their child and this aids the child’s recovery. It challenged women’s liberation because it suggests their place is in the home and they can’t have a career.
• P: A serious problem is that this type of research can be used as a form of social control.

  E: 1920/30s in USA, some states enacted a law that meant people with low intelligence, drug/alcohol addicts and mentally ill could be sterilised. This was a result of research conducted by Goddard and was used to support prejudice. Research into forensic psychology and offending behaviour has been interpreted as supporting eugenic philosophies.

  E: This suggests that socially sensitive research can have dangerous implications on wider society.
• P: Psychologists should be free to carry out whatever research is important.

  E: If governments pass laws to stop certain research, then there is a real danger that research will be stopped for political reasons. Ceci et al. found that the rejection rate was about twice as great for SSR which suggests that university ethics departments are mindful of SSR and measures are put in place in institutions to protect individuals from socially sensitive research.

  E: This shows that psychology may be prevented from developing as a subject area if there are limits to what it is acceptable to research.
• P: There are, however, some benefits of SSR.

  E: Scarr argues that studying under represented groups may actually promote greater sensitivity to these and actually help reduce prejudice. Later research into the role of the father showed that males can be a primary caregiver as it is how a person responds to a baby, rather than their gender.
• P: research into EWT has been hugely beneficial. Loftus and Palmer showed EWT is not reliable and therefore has contributed to preventing miscarriages of justice.

  E: This provides further support that SSR plays a valuable role in society and suggests it can help promote and encourage acceptance in society.