ethics

• informed consent- consent is not valid if participants are not informed of what they are agreeing to. So before the research pps should be made aware of the aims, and consequences of taking part in research (eg risk of harm, potential benefits of research) consent may be gained from a parent or guardian if the participant is unable to give informed consent themselves (eg children are mentally incapable)
• right to withdraw- pps should be told they can withdraw from study at any stage with no adverse consequences (eg not being paid for their time), this includes withdrawing data collected from them
• confidentiality- pps' personal data should be kept securely by researcher and not shared, when the research is published it should not include identity of pps or information that could reveal pps identity
• Debriefing- after data collection is completed the researcher should offer a debriefing, this would reveal any information withheld, such as the existence of other groups (eg they received a placebo while the other group received therapy), the researcher can also check for any psychological or physical harm and offer assistance.
• informed consent- prior general consent, pps agree to a long list of potential features of a research study, not knowing which aspects will be part of the study they are in.
• Retroactive consent- the researcher asks for consent after the participant has taken part in the study, if the part in the study, if the participant does not agree to take part their data is destroyed