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• Scientific research in psychology can be ethical only if its risks are outweighed by its benefits.
• Risk

  • The treatment failed to help or harmful?

  • A procedure might result in physical or psychological harm?

  • Is the right to privacy violated?
• Benefits

  • Received a helpful treatment?

  • Learning about psychology

  • Experiencing the satisfaction of contributing to scientific knowledge, and

  • Receiving money or course credit for participating.
• Acting Responsibly and With Integrity

  This means carrying out their research in a thorough and competent manner, meeting their professional obligations, and being truthful.

  • Participants must be able to trust that researchers are being honest with them (e.g., about what the study involves), will keep their promises (e.g., to maintain confidentiality), and will carry out their research in ways that maximize benefits and minimize risk.
• It may not be possible to eliminate ethical conflict completely, it is possible to deal with it in responsible and constructive ways.
• Unexpected results are often as interesting, or more so, than expected ones.
• A simple framework for thinking about ethical issues in psychological research includes describing several ethical issues that arise in psychological research, including ones that affect research participants, the scientific community, and society more generally.
• Scientific research in psychology can be ethical only if its risks are outweighed by its benefits.
• The treatment failed to help or harmful?
• A procedure might result in physical or psychological harm?
• Is the right to privacy violated?
• Received a helpful treatment?
• Learning about psychology
• Experiencing the satisfaction of contributing to scientific knowledge, and
• Receiving money or course credit for participating
• A risk to science is that if a research question is uninteresting or a study is poorly designed, then the time, money, and effort spent on that research could have been spent on more productive research.
• A risk to society is that research results could be misunderstood or misapplied with harmful consequences.
• Benefits of scientific research to science and society are that it advances scientific knowledge and can contribute to the welfare of society.
• The Stanley Milgram’s Experiment
• Researchers must act responsibly and with integrity, carrying out their research in a thorough and competent manner, meeting their professional obligations, and being truthful.
• Participants must be able to trust that researchers are being honest with them, will keep their promises, and will carry out their research in ways that maximize benefits and minimize risk.
• Researchers must conduct their research in a just manner, treating their participants fairly and considering issues of justice and fairness at the societal level.
• Do not be tempted to fabricate data or alter your results in any way.
• It is best to collect personal information that you actually need to answer your research question.
• Certain data collection procedures can lead to unintentional violations of confidentiality.
• Students can gain knowledge about how to conduct scientific research in psychology by participating in research studies.
• You can minimize risks by using a prescreening procedure to identify and eliminate participants who are at high risk.
• When recruiting participants, provide as much information about the study as you can and create an informed consent form that covers all the points in Standard.
• Debriefing is similar to informed consent in that you cannot necessarily expect participants to read and understand written debriefing forms.
• Prescreening can involve collecting data to identify and eliminate participants.
• Get institutional approval for your research based on the specific policies and procedures at your institution or for your course.
• Your scientific goal is to learn about the way the world actually is and that your scientific duty is to report on your results honestly and accurately.
• During debriefing, you should reveal the research question and full design of the study and provide additional benefits to research participants by giving them relevant practical information or referrals to other sources of help.
• Deception is ethically acceptable only if there is no way to answer your research question without it.
• If your research design includes any form of active deception, you should consider whether it is truly necessary.
• Address publication credit — who will be authors on the research and the order of authors — with your collaborators early and avoid plagiarism in your writing.
• Benefits to the research participants, to science, and to society should be considered when weighing the risks against the benefits of a research study.
• Maintain your integrity through the publication process and beyond.
• It would be unethical to subject people to pain, fear, or embarrassment for no better reason than to satisfy one’s personal curiosity.
• It is considered acceptable to wait until debriefing before revealing your research question as long as you describe the procedure, risks, and benefits during the informed consent process.