Ch4: Ethical Guidelines for Psychological Research

Belmont Report

core ethical principles include:

• Principle of respect for person - such as informed consent

• Principle of beneficence (to take action) - take action to help someone; ie giving syphilis patients penicillin

• Principle of justice

APA general principles

• Beneficence

  • Beneficence (take action to help someone) and nonmaleficence (not giving participants something that will harm them)

  • Fidelity and responsibility - establish relationships of trust; accept responsibility for particular behavior

  • Integrity - strive to be accurate, truthful, and honest in one’s role as a researcher, teacher, or practitioner

• Justice

• Respect for persons

  • Respect for people’s rights and dignity

IRB (institutional review board)

• human subjects committee

• weighs the risk-benefit ratio

risk-benefit ratio

Is it worth it? Do possible benefits outweigh risks?

at risk vs at minimal risk

• At risk - risk is above everyday risk; would have to be modified; ie run across a highway

• At minimal risk - at or below everyday risk; ie run across a crosswalk

What are the APA’s human guidelines?

informed consent, deception, freedom to withdraw, protection from harm, debriefing, and confidentiality

informed consent

human participants can enter research freely (voluntarily) with full information about what it means for them to take part, and that they give consent before they enter the research

deception - what are the kinds

not being completely truthful to participants

• commission - lying to participants straight up

• omission - not telling the whole story/leaving information out

freedom to withdraw

participants have the right to stop partaking in the study at any point

protection from harm

protecting participants from physical and emotional harm

debriefing

the process of providing participants with a full explanation of the study’s purpose and any deception used after their participation is complete

confidentiality

researchers agree to protect the privacy of participant information and data, ensuring it is not disclosed without their consent

Name and describe the types of research misconduct

• Data falsification - researcher tweaks pre-existing data/numbers to fit what they want

• Data fabrication - makes up study and makes up the data set; typically gets found out about because science is self-correcting

• Plagiarism - taking claim for someone else’s work/not giving researchers credit