Ethical implications of research

• Ethical issues often arise when there is a conflict between the psychologists need to gain valid data and keeping participants free from harm, well informed and privacy/confidentiality of information. Inside the study - can be dealt with
• Ethical implications are the impact the psychological research may have in terms of the rights of other people, especially participants. This incudes at a societal level, influencing public policy and/or the way certain groups of people are regarded.
• Ethical implications occur beyond the study, one it has finished
• Ethical issues include:

  right to withdraw

  confidentiality

  informed consent

  deception

  debrief

  protection from harm
• Ethical implications include:

  effects on participants

  effects on the wider public

  bias towards certain groups/ cultures

  potential uses of the findings e.g. funding resources, changes in laws

  economic implications
• How can we deal with a lack of informed consent?

  Get retrospective consent by asking participants for their consent during the debriefing having already taken part in the study if they were not aware/ had been subject to deception - they could than withdraw. Get presumptive consent or prior in general consent 'in loco parentis'
• How could we deal with deception?

  Give the participants a full debrief at the end of the study making them aware of the true aims of the study and any aims that were not supplied during the study. Tell them what their data will be used for - give right to withdraw
• How to we deal with issues with protection from harm?

  participants should be offered counselling provided by the researcher if subjected to stress or embarrassment and reassured that they behaved normally if concerned about performance. Detailed debrief after and offer follow ups.
• If these guidelines are broken, participants may be subject to harm and have lasting psychological issues. Researchers have a professional duty to observe the guidelines and may lose their job if they break them.
• Socially sensitive = studies in which there are potential consequences or implications, either directly for the participants in the research or for the class of individuals represented by the participants e.g. Bowlby put a lot of pressure on mothers - may no want to go back to work - economics AND Lombroso - scientific racism
• Joan Sieber and Liz Stanley identified a number of concerns that researchers should be mindful of when conducting socially sensitive research: implications, uses/ public policy and the validity of the research
• Implications: the wider effects of such research should be carefully considered as some studies may be seen as giving 'scientific' credence to prejudice and discrimination, such as studies examining the racial bias of intelligence. However the implications of research may be difficult to predict at the outset
• Uses/ public policy: what is the research likely to be used for. And what would happen if it was used for the wrong purpose. This is related to 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 that were presented as objective and value-free in the past have actually turned out to be highly suspect, and in some cases, fraudulent. However, many modern social constructionist researchers - who may tackle socially sensitive areas of research - are much more up-front about their own biases and preconceptions and include comment on the reflexive nature of their work in their publication