A01 Ethical Implications of Research

• Ethical implications

  Ethical issues arise when there is a conflict between researcher's need to gain valuable research findings whilst preserving the rights of the ppts. Thus ethical guidlines are established to protect ppts.
• Social impact of psychological research

  Difficult to guard against as the research findings of certain experiments. Researchers have little say on how their findings will be presented.May be represented/misprepresented in the media, the impact of their work on public policy and how this may influence our percpetion of particular groups in society- wider ethical implications of research.
• Socially sensitive research

  Some research is controversial. Studies that tackle socially sensitive 'taboo' topics, such as ethnicity and sexuality, attracts a lot of attention from society. This should not deter psychologists from conducting socially sensitive research, should inspire them to do more due to its significance.
• Ethical issues in socially sensitive research

  Sieber and Stanley identified a number of concerns that researchers should be mindful of when conducting socially sensitive research.
• Implications


  Wider effects of research which should be carefully considered as some studies are given scientific credence to prejudice and discrimination. (eugenics)
• Uses/public policy


  The idea that findings may be adopted by the government for political ends or to shape public policy.
• The validity of the research


  Some findings which appear as objective and value-free have turned out to be highly suspect and sometimes fraudulen. Some modern social constructionists tackle social sensitivity and include the reflexive nature of their work.