Ethics

• What are the ethical issues?


  Informed consent

  Deception

  Protection from harm

  Privacy and confidentiality
• What is meant by infomed consent?

  Participants must be told the purpose of the investigation (aims) and about potential risks they may be subject to when taking part.
• What does particpants being infomed about the aims of the investigation allow?


  Allows the participants to make an informed decison on whether they want to participate in the study
• Why do some researchers not disclose information about the aims of the study?


  As it can lead to demand characteristics being presented - thus affecting the results as participants may try to guess the aims of the study and alter their behaviour accordingly
• Describe deception as an ethical consideration?


  It is the act of deliberatley witholding information from particpants/ misleading them during the research study.
• When is deception only seen as acceptable?


  When particiapnts knowing the true nature could guess the aims of the investigation or when deception will not cause distress
• What is meant by protection of harm as an ethical consideration?


  Particpants must be protected from physical and psychological harm.
• Whose job is it to make sure the particpants are protected from harm?

  the researcher's
• What are particpants reminded of throughout the investigation?

  That they have the right to withrdaw especially if the study is causing them harm
• Name the methods of dealing with informed consent?

  Prior general consent

  Presumptive consent

  Retrospective
• What is meant by prior general consent?

  When participants give permission to take part in many studies whereby one of the them involves deception so effectively they are consenting to getting deceived
• What is meant by presumptive consent?


  When a researcher gathers opinions from a group like the particpants in the study but does not inform the actual particpants.
• What does presumptive consent allow?

  For demand characteristics to be eliminated
• What is meant by retrospective in informed consent?


  When particpants are asked for consent after they have participated in the study
• What is a solution for deception?


  Debriefing
• What is meant by the term debriefing?

  All participants are debriefed after the study, can be written or verbal. During the debrief, the true nature of the study must be said and the particpants should be told what their data will be used for
• what do participants have the choice to do after the debrief?


  to choose to withhold or withdraw ther data
• What ethical consideration would be suitable for if participants need counselling? 


  Protection from harm - if the participants has experienced any stress or psychological harm
• what should be done before a study is carried out in relation to protection of harm?

  A cost benefit analysis
• What is meant by a cost benefit analysis as a solution to protection from harm?


  It is done by an ethics committee where the pros and cons of the study are weighed up to detemine wheterh the study will be ehtical. However it can be difficult
• Give an example fo where a cost benefit analysis was done in psychological research?


  In Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment (1973)
• What is meant by the right of privacy?

  Refers to the right that particpants have to control information about themsleves, how much is released and how it is used
• Why is it difficult to avoid invading a particpant's privacy?


  For example, if the experiment is a field study, done in nautral environments so the right of privacy can extend to the location of the study whereby the institiution is not named
• What does confidentiality mean in ethical considerations?

  Refers to the right partiicipants have which concerns any personal data of theirs being protected
• How can reseacher's solve the ethical issue of privacy?


  Anonymity can be maintained, achieved by the researchers not recording any personal details of their participants so that none of their results data can be traced back to them
• What can the researchers refer to the particpants as to not breach their privacy?


  They can use numbers or initials when writi g up the investigation e.g in HM case study
• What should the participant be reminded of in privacy and confidentiality reasons?


  They should be reminded during the briefing and debriefing that their data will be protected