Research Ethics and Theory

1. Respect for Persons

• Respect people’s autonomy with informed consent

• Written in plain language, understand the risks and rewards before, and withdraw any time

Violation:

• Failing to disclose risks

• Failing to make the study understandable (language barrier)

• Coercive Incentives, meaning a reward is so big that they can't say no

2. Concern for Welfare

• Benefits for the study must outweigh the risks

Violation:

• Not doing everything possible to reduce risks

  • Risks not outweighed by benefits

3. Justice

• Participants compensated

• Risks and benefits of the study must be distributed equally, you can't assign one group of people with all the risks while the other with all the benefits

• Researchers must act with integrity - honest and strong moral principles

Violation:

• Opposite of the above

Welfare vs Autonomy

Welfare

• Person's well-being, safety, and best interests.

• The goal is to help people and prevent harm.

Autonomy

• Person's right to make their own choices and decisions.

• People should have control over what happens to them.

Ethics Review Process

1. Submit and ethics application

2. Evaluate risk level

• Minimal risk research: risk is no greater than what participants encounter in everyday life.

• More than minimal risk = full review

3. They approve it or request changes

Ethical Codes Look At

1. Study rationale - what you’re doing/benefits/risks

2. Informed consent - procedure, can leave whenever

3. Compensation - shouldn’t be so large they can’t turn it down

4. Debriefing - full purpose of study, minimal harm

5. Deception - study is low-risk, how will you "un-deceive" the participants during the debriefing?

6. Data handling - kept safe, privacy/condifentiality

Open Data Sharing

Uploading your data online so that others can verify your results (being transparent)

Benefits:

• Verified by others

• Pedagogical value - meaning teaching benefits, students can more easily look at the study

• Expansion for other purposes

Questions for Researchers

1. What did the consent form say?

What did they tell participants they would do with this data

2. How great is the potential for harm?

Just how sensitive are these data

3. Is Anonymization Possible?

Remove open ended responses, personal identifiers, etc.

Theory

An explanation or interpretation of one or more phenomena, the answer to the "why"

• Abstract constructs (memory, attitudes, schizophrenia) rather than simply observable variables.

Phenomenon

Something we know to be true from repeated observation

NOT Theory

Perspective - a broad explanation of phenomenon, more vague. Which lens are you using to look at something (developmental, biological, cognitive, etc.)

Model - a precise explanation of a specific phenomenon, more specific than a theory.

Example: you're specifically interested in clinginess, why is it some people are so clingy?

Theories Benefits

1. Organizing what we know

2. Making testable predictions - generates new hypothesis

Formality

How clearly specified is the theory?

Scope

How broad/range is captured by the theory? How much does it attempt to explain?

Theoretical Approach

What kinds of theoretical ideas does the theory include? Are you trying to explain how OR why it happens?

• Functional theory explaining the function or purpose (the why), like evolutionary psychology

• Mechanistic theory explaining the how, like biology/neuroscience

Hypotheses with Theory

• If a hypothesis is supported, theory is supported

• If hyp. Is not supported, theory may be revised or scrapped

A single study cannot "prove" or "disprove" a theory

• Future studies could have different results

Direct Replication

Repeat the same study in the same manner, same results = high confidence

Conceptual Replication

Use different methods to test the same research question