uwo psych 2801 - lecture 4

research ethics

core principles, ethical boards, information age concerns

core principles

respect for persons, concern for welfare, and justice

respect for persons

respect peoples autonomy with informed consent

• arguably most important

violates of respect for persons

• failing to disclose risks

• failing to make the study understandable

• coercive incentives

which core principle is this a violation of?

• People use a social media platform to share information with friends and family

• The platform experimentally manipulates ratios of positive vs. negative posts that people can see

concern for welfare

the benefits of the study must outweigh the risks

violations of welfare principle

• not doing everything to mitigate risks

• conducting a bad study

which core principle is this a violation of?

• does engaging in one political protest increase odds of engaging in subsequent protests?

• protests were dangerous

justice

The study should be conducted justly, meaning:

• Participants must be compensated fairly

• Risks and benefits of the study must be distributed equitably across groups

• Researchers must act with integrity

violations of the justice principle

• Unreasonably low compensation

• One group participates, another group benefits

• Lying, to the participants or to the scientific community

mechanical turk

• “Requesters” post online tasks, or HITs (e.g., surveys)

• “Workers” complete the tasks in exchange for money

• justice principle

Tuskegee Study

• No informed consent

• Failure to mitigate risks

• Benefits of study did not outweigh risks

• The study recruited poor Black men

• all core principles violated

long term effects of Tuskegee study

• wide distrust of medical research within Black communities

• Researchers must uphold ethical standards to maintain participants’ trust in us

research ethics board

Every university has one

• Goal: oversee all research with human subjects and ensure it is ethical

ethics review process

1. submit ethics application

2. they evaluate risk level (minimal risk or full review)

3. they approve it or request changes

components of ethics application

• study rationale

• informed consent

• compensation

• debriefing

• deception

• data handling

informed consent

Will your participants understand:

• The study procedure?

• That they can leave if they want?

• Potential risks or discomfort?

• What will happen to their data?

• Who they can contact about their rights?

compensation

should be sufficiently large that your are not exploiting them, but shouldn't be too large so they feel they can't afford to pass up the opportunity

debriefing

• Reveal the full purpose of the study

• Minimize any harm that might have occurred - share comforting research findings, psychological resources

deception

Allowed under come circumstances

• Study must be low-risk

• Does your study HAVE to use deception?

• How will you “un-deceive” your participants during the debriefing?

• Participants must be able to withdraw their consent afterward

open data sharing

Uploading your data online so that others can verify your results

• Making research more transparent so you can share with scientific community

benefits of open data sharing

• Improves trustworthiness of the findings

• Pedagogical value—demystifying the scientific process - teaching benefits

• Maximizes use of scientific resources

costs of open data sharing

confidentiality breach

• Potentially meaningful consequences for participants

• Erosion of public trust in researchers

questions the researchers asked themselves

• To what extent is anonymization possible?

• What did the consent form say?

• How great is the potential for harm?

what did the consent form say?

• attempt to describe possibility of sharing data online - as it is a central part of research

how great is potential for harm?

somewhat sensitive topics or highly sensitive topics (abuse, thoughts of divorce etc)

is anonymization possible?

removal of open-ended responses (text boxes as they are easily identifiable), personal identifiers, couple ids

• still available: year and location of speed dating events and many raw individual items

the solution they chose

safeguarded access option - researchers must register an account, provide affiliation and agree to end user license

scholarly integrity

• Researchers must not fabricate data or plagiarize

• Should not publish the same data a second time as though it were new

nuremberg code

a set of 10 principles written in 1947 in conjunction with the trials or Nazi physicians accused of shockingly cruel research on concentration camp prisoners during World War II

• focused on importance of carefully weighing risks against benefits

• need for informed consent

declaration of helsinki

created by World Medical Council in 1964

• research on human participants should be based on a written protocol

• description of research that is reviewed

belmont report

in US following tuskegee study in 1978

• principle of seeking justice

• conducting research that distributes risks and benefits fairly across different groups at societal level

• influential for national ethical guidelines for both US and Canada