Ethics

Who provides the ethical guidelines in Britain?

the British Psychological Society (BPS)

What are the 5 types of ethical guidelines?

• Informed consent + right to withdraw

• Deception

• Protection from harm

• debriefing

• Confidentiality

Informed consent/right to withdraw:

• Ps should be told the aims and nature of the study before agreeing to it

• They should also know that they have the right to withdraw at any time

How does informed consent work for under 16s

if the participant is under 16 years of age they can't legally give consent, although a parent can on their behalf

How does informed consent work for naturalistic observations?

• in naturalistic observation studies, consent is not obtained

• In this case the research is acceptable provided that it is done in a public location where people would expect to be observed by others anyways

Even when informed consent is supposedly obtained, issues may be raised:

Menges (1973) reviewed about 1000 American studies and found that 97% had not given people all the information about the research completed

deception:

• If participants have been deceived then they cannot have given informed consent

• Participants could just be given general details - although if too little is said they may feel deceived (but if participants know too much then they may not behave naturally)

When does the BPS say that deception is ok?

• if there is strong scientific justification for the research and there's no alternative procedure available to obtain the data

Give some examples of the severity of deception:

• research on memory may involve unexpected memory tests (that participants weren't informed about)

• This is less objectionable than the deception involved in Milgram's study

Protection from harm:

• The BPS guidelines say that the risk of harm to participants should be no greater than they would face in their normal lives

• It's hard to accurately assess this

• Researchers don't always know in advance what might be distressing for participants

Give examples of physical/psychological discomfort in experiments (protection from harm)

• Glass and Singer (1972) exposed participants to noise to make them stressed

• participants in Milgram's research suffered extreme distress

Debriefing:

• Debriefing is supposed to return participants to the state they were in before the research

• Researchers must fully explain what the research involved and what the results might show

• Participants are given the right to withdraw their data

When is debriefing most important?

if deception has been used

Confidentiality:

• None of the participants in a psychological study should be identifiable from any reports that are produced

• researchers can't use people's names in reports

• However, some groups or people might be easily identifiable from their characteristics - more so if the report says where and when the study was carried out, etc

When should Ps be warned? (confidentiality)

if their data is not going to be completely anonymous

how do researchers deal w/ deception in their studies?

• Psychologists don't usually tell participants every last detail, but they do try to minimise deception

• That way participants aren't likely to be upset when they find out the true nature of the study

Give an example of a study that may not be seen as ethical today?

• Milgram's experiment

• He deceived participants about the true purpose of the study

• many of them showed signs of stress when taking part

Why is deception necessary sometimes?

because the participants may not behave naturally if they knew what the aim was

how do researchers deal with consent issues in their studies?

debriefing and giving the the Ps the option to withdraw their data from the study

What are also ethical issues?

Animal rights

What’s an argument in support of using animals in psychological studies?

• animal research has provided valuable information for psychological and medical research

• Some experimental designs couldn't have been conducted on humans (eg: Harlow's study on attachment, where young monkeys were separated from their mothers and reared alone)

What are arguments against using animals in psychological studies?

• They may argue that its ethically wrong to inflict harm and suffering on animals, and obviously animals can't give consent to take part

• Some argue that it's cruel to experiment on animals that have a similar intelligence to humans, because they might suffer the same problems we would

• It'd be OK to experiment on animals that are far less developed than us, but there is no point because they'll be too different from us to give results that apply to humans

How do ethical guidelines not solve all ethical problems?

• Some researchers may not follow them properly

• if a psychologist conducts research in an unacceptable way they cannot be banned from research (but they would probably be kicked out of their uni/the BPS)

• even when guidelines are followed it can be difficult to assess things like psychological harm, or to fully justify the use of deception

• whether the ends justify the means is not straight forward either