ETHICAL ISSUES

• ethical issues


  when the research being conducted may impose some form of physical or psychological harm on the ptps or general population
• informed consent


  ptps must give their permission to take part in research & this consent must be informed (info must be made available on which to base a decision to participate or not)
• deception


  purposely misleading experiment ptps to maintain the integrity of the experiment, but not to the point where the deception could be considered harmful
• protection from harm


  the British Psychology Society (BPS)’s ethical guidelines state that

  ‘investigators have a primary responsibility to protect ptps from physical & mental harm during the investigation’

  the research should NOT:

  • put ptps under unreasonable stress
  • traumatise them
  • humiliate them
• confidentiality


  keeping info private
• privacy


  a person’s desire to control the access of others to themselves
• right to withdraw


  the ptp can leave the experiment at any time & must be given the correct details so they can withdraw. if they do so, their data must be deleted
• debriefing


  the process of informing the pts after experiment about:

  • the purpose of the experiment
  • any deception that may have been used
• presumptive consent


  asking a group of people from the same target population as the sample whether they would agree to take part in such a study. if yes, then presume the sample would also consent

  e.g zimbardo (asked his students if they would participate, then got diff ptps)
• prior general consent


  informing the ptp that they may be deceived in some way. the ptp then had a choice to consent or not to these terms. the ptp doesn’t know WHEN the experiment will take place
• retrospective consent


  ptps asked to give consent after study has taken place
• cost - benefit analysis

  a comparison of the benefits of the research & its costs to see whether the benefits outweigh the costs
• BPS code of ethics

  a set of guidelines which have been outlined by the British Psychological Society (BPS) for anyone carrying out psychological research in the UK:

  4 ethical principles within thecode:

  • respect
  • competence
  • responsibility
  • integrity