ethical issues

• consent

  • the participant must give permission to take part knowing the true aims of the study and what they're expected to do
  • this isn't always convenient and there are ways around it
• right to withdraw

  • participants must have the option to leave the study and withdraw their data at any point
• protection from harm

  • participate must not experience any more harm than they would in every day life
  • e.g. severe embarrassment would be psychological harm as its distress
• confidentiality

  • all information collected must be published in a way that doesn't identify the participant
  • from the researcher's POV this is difficult bit they can promise anonymity
  • this is a legal requirement from the participants POV
• deception

  • when participants have been told a false purpose for the research.
  • this is sometimes needed to prevent demand characteristics
• privacy

  • some research makes it hard not to invade participants privacy.
  • e.g. observing someone on a shop, they may not mind being observed in public but it would be unacceptable to observe in their private home
• social sensitivity

  • studies where there are potential social consequences for the participants or the group people represented by the research
  • .g. bowly monotropy- implications for women who wish to work and not stay home with baby.
• do the benefits of research that is 'socially sensitive' outweigh the ethical implications?

  • Sometimes ethical issues need to be broken to allow us find out about human behaviour which outweighs the ethical issues.
  • You can deal with this by weighing up costs and benefits before conducting any research or taking care when formulating research questions to ensure they do not offend anyone 
• paradigm

  • basic framework of assumption and principals from which community members work.
  • set of norms which tell a scientist how to think and behave
• paradigm shift

  • when psychologists change from one established way of explaining/ studying a behaviour to a new way due to new/contradictory evidence
  • e.g. shifting focus from cause to free will