Ethical Guidelines, Peer Review

• Ethical Issues


  Considerations that researchers need to consider before, during and after the research is conducted. These take into consideration the welfare of the participants, the integrity of the research and the use of the data
• What are the six main ethical guidelines 


  Deception, Right to withdraw, informed consent, privacy and confidentiality and protection from harm
• Why is deception unethical


  It prevents participants from giving fully informed consent which means that they might be taking part in research that goes against their views and beliefs
• How to deal with deception


  At the end of the study, participants should be fully debriefed and told the true aim of the study. They then need to be given the right to withdraw from the publication of their results
• Why is the right to withdraw unethical 


  Participants who are not given the right to withdraw may fee unnecessary or undue stress and therefore not protected from harm
• How to deal with the right to withdraw 


  At the end of the study the participants should be fully debriefed and told the true aim of the study. They then should be given the chance to withdraw their results from publication
• Why is informed consent unethical 


  Lack of informed consent may mean that the participant is taking part in research that goes against their wishes or beliefs. It is possible that the participant may have felt obliged to take part especially if they have not been fully informed
• How to deal with informed consent 


  They could use prior general consent which involves participants agreeing to take part beforehand in numerous psychological investigations which may or may not lead to deception
• How can privacy be unethical


  A skilled researcher may obtain more information than they wish to give which could be an invasion of privacy and the participant may later feel ashamed or embarrassed
• How to deal with privacy 


  The participant should be provided with fully informed consent and the right to withdraw at any stage. The researcher should also explain how an where the information of the participants results will be used
• how is confidentiality unethical 


  A persons details or data may be used by other parties against the participants wishes
• How to deal with confidentiality 


  Participants are provided with a fake name, number or initials to protect their identity and assure anonymity
• How is protection from harm unethical 


  Participants should leave the research in the same state that they entered it. If they are harmed, they may suffer long term effects that could impact their lives in the future
• How to deal with protection from harm 


  The researcher should remind participants of their right to withdraw throughout the research and the researcher should terminate the experiment if the level of psychological or physical harm is higher than expected. Participants should be debriefed at the end of the experiment and in some instances they may be referred to counselling
• Peer review

  It is an independent assessment process that takes place before a research study is published and is undertaken by other experts in the same field of psychology