Ethical Issues and Guidelines

• What is Anonymity and Confidentiality?

  A participant's right to have personal information hidden through anonymity
• What regulation protects participants from breach of personal information?

  The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
• Why may this not be possible for the researcher?

  May not be able to hide participants identities as published results may lead to them being revealed
• What is Deception?

  When a participant isn't told the true aims of the study and/or what the study requires of them
• How does Deception effect the participant?

  Prevents them from giving informed consent
• Why do researchers feel the need to decieve?

  Telling participants the true nature of the study may interfere with the participant's behaviors, ruining the meaningfulness of the study
• How do researchers compensate for Deception?

  Researcher's will give an adequate debriefing at the end of the study; outlining all aims of the study, and making sure the participant is in the same mental state from before the study
• What is Informed Consent?

  When participants can give proper consent when given comprehensive information on the study
• Why is this necessary for participants?

  • So they can make an informed decision on if they want to take part
  • Also important because they may not be able to take part to begin with depending on the requirements
• Why may researchers be hesitant to give information for Informed Consent?

  • It would ruin the meaningfulness of the experiment
  • It could create demand characteristics (forced behaviors)
• What is Privacy?

  A person's right to control the flow of information being revealed about themselves
• Why do researchers avoid telling participants they're observing them?

  They don't want the participants to fake any behaviors
• What is the Right to Withdraw?

  The right to leave the study at any point
• Why would participants leave during a study?

  They may have not fully understood the nature/requirements of the study initially
• Why do researchers not want participants to not leave during a study?

  May bias the study's findings as participants may be more motivated to fulfill the aims of the study, or be less emotionally sensitive; resulting in the creation of demand characteristics
• What is the BPS?

  British Psychological Society
• What are BPS made up of?Professional Psychologists and Lay People?

  Psychologists from the UK
• What 4 Core Principles does BPS' "Code of Ethics and Conduct" contain?

  • Respect - Informed Consent, Privacy
  • Competence - Making Ethical Decisions
  • Responsibility - Protecting from Harm, Debriefing
  • Integrity - Honesty, Addressing Misconduct
• What way do psychologists deal with Ethical Issues?

  • Risk Assessment - Identifying potential harm in a study, Weighing up long-term gains to short-term risks, Develop strategies for when a risk becomes apparent during a study (Reviewed by Research Ethics Committee)
  • Consent and Debriefing - Seeking freely given consent from participants, giving an adequate debrief at the end of a study to ensure all participants are in the same state from the before the study
• What is the Research Ethics Committee? (REC)


  A group of psychologists and lay people that approves studies
• What do the REC do?

  • Looks at all ethical issue and how they researchers will deal with these
  • Weighs up all value in research and losses in ethical terms
• What are ethical problems?

  Problems concerning:

  • Dignity
  • Rights
  • Welfare