Ethics

• What are different elements of ethics in psychology?

  • Protection
  • Informed consent
  • Deception
  • The right to withdraw
  • Debriefing
  • Anonymity
  • Prior general consent
  • Cost-benefit analysis
  • Presumptive consent
• Protection

  • Physical - protecting wellbeing from hazards + accidents (e.g. a safe environment)
  • Psychological - mental strategies that ensure p's don't leave with mental harm (must go home in the same state they arrive in, e.g. rationalisation, managing anxiety)
• Informed consent

  Process of ensuring that a participant understands risks or benefits from a psychological service of research project and gives their consent to participants
• Deception

  No concealment, lying or withholding information that may encroach on privacy (should only be done if essential)
• The right to withdraw

  • The right to decline to offer any information requested
  • No adverse consequences
  • When experimenter in Milgram's study said 4th prompt, it did not identify with the aims of participants doing the experiment, therefore many requested to withdraw
• Debriefing

  • Done at the end of study - told the true purpose of experiment
  • Returning participants to the state they were in previously (ensure protection)
• Anonymity

  • Respecting the privacy of the individual
  • Ensuring data won't be disclosed
  • Helps to give honest answers
• Prior general consent

  • Asking participants to give their permission to take part in a number of different studies including one that will involve deception about the true purpose of the study
  • P's can agree to be deceived without knowing how or when they will be deceived
  • Can affect behaviour as they are expecting to be deceived
  • Study can occur a lot later on
• Cost-benefit analysis

  • Evaluation of pros vs cons
  • Benefits: ground-breaking discovery, innovative
  • Cons: psychological harm, physical harm etc.
  • A panel would decide if it should go ahead (mixture of experts + public)
• 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, it is assumed the sample would)
  • A method used when it is not possible to ask the actual p's for consent (e.g. under 16s) - study has to be relatively harmless
  • However people may find something different when they experience it, making it an inaccurate way to ask for consent