Ethical Considerations in Research

• Ethics


  Concerned with that which is deemed acceptable in human behaviour, with what is good or bad, right or wrong with human conduct in pursuit of goals or aims
• Organisations that decide what is ethical in psychology


  • American Psychological Association
  • British Psychological Society
• Ethical guidelines and codes of conduct


  Include sections on clinical practice, education, research and publication
• Why ethics are important in psychology


  • Provides a common set of principles and standards upon which psychologists build their professional and scientific work
  • Helps to ensure the welfare and protection of the individuals and groups with whom psychologists work
  • Includes goals for the education of members, students, and the public regarding ethical standards of the discipline
• Ethics in research


  About what you can and can't do with participants
• Consent


  • Participants should be asked to agree to participate in research
  • Wherever possible this should be informed consent- the participant should be told exactly what participation in research will involve before the research occurs
  • In studies involving children or adolescents, informed parental consent should be obtained
  • Payment should not be used to induce consent for potentially harmful studies
  • Special safeguarding procedures are necessary with subjects with limitations in communication or understanding or where unable to give real consent
  • If consent cannot be obtained before the study, retrospective consent should be sought afterwards
• Deception


  • Researchers should avoid lying to or misleading participants wherever possible
  • Sometimes this may be unavoidable, because psychologists often study characteristics that participants can alter at will which could effect the validity of the research
  • Any deception must be revealed after the study
  • There must be strong medical or scientific justification for any major deception
  • Appropriate consultation with impartial colleagues or ethics committees must precede the investigation if it involves significant deception
• Confidentiality


  • Participants have a reasonable expectation that they will be anonymous when the data is published
  • Any information about themselves should not be passed on to anyone else
  • If researchers intend to make the data available to other researchers (e.g. for peer review purposes) then participants must agree to this
  • Confidentiality is not an absolute right: there are safeguarding issues when information about crimes or danger to vulnerable persons (e.g. children) must be passed on to the police
  • As part of giving valid consent, participants should be advised about who else will receive their data
• Debriefing


  • Debriefing should take place as soon as possible after the data has been collected
  • Participants must be informed about anything that was hidden from them during the study, including the aims of the study, the results and the use the data will be put to
  • This is an opportunity for participants to request that their data is withdrawn from the study
  • Debriefing is also an opportunity to reduce the risk of harm to participants
• Withdrawal


  • Subjects should have the right to withdraw at any time and they should be made aware of this before participation in research
  • They should also have the right to retrospectively withdraw by requesting that their data is not included in the analysis
• Protection


  • Participants should be protected from physical, mental, emotional harm including undue stress
  • Where relevant, participants should be asked of any factors which may create risk; i.e. medical conditions
  • Any risk should be no more than could be expected in the course of normal daily lifestyle
  • Participants should must be returned to the condition in which s/he entered into the experiment/research
  • There should be the opportunity to contact the investigator at a later date if distress does occur
• It is not simply a question of right and wrong, but of balance between the interests of the participant and the scientific value of the research
• The fundamental ethical question in psychological research is `Does the end justify the means?` : a balance must be struck between the interests of the participants and the value of research