Ethical principle | description | Special situations | Effects on research |
Informed consent | Participants must be fully informed about the nature, purpose, and potential risks of the study before agreeing to participate.
Must be voluntary without coercion | - children or indiv.s with cognitive impairments (--> consent by proxy or assent by children) - may be impossible in field studies or covert observations (ethical dilemma, retrospective information) | - Self-selection bias - Increased likelihood of demand characteristics |
anonymity | Participants’ identities are not recorded or connected to their data, ensuring the protection of privacy | - longitudinal studies (but can be separated in results) - can be indirectly identified in small or specialized populations | Pos: Helps increase honesty (reduce social desirability bias), especially in sensitive research
Hard to follow up or verify information |
Right to withdraw | Participants must be informed that they can withdraw from participation at any time without penalty or negative consequences. - When paid: allowed to keep compensation. | - group studies: one withdrawal → poss. Group impacts (ex. focus groups) - in case of compensation, it must not result in pressure to stay | Must be a part of planning - sample size and attrition bias (selective dropout of participants from a certain group → ↓validity) |
Deception | - deliberately misleading (commission) or withholding information from participants (omission) about the true purpose of the study - must be justified to an ethics board - must be revealed in the debriefing | Sometimes necessary (ex. Placebo or studies of behavior) | Pro: can reduce bias + improve ecological validity
Risk: may increase risk of them withdrawing their data |
Protection from undue stress or harm | Ensure that participants are not exposed to physical or psychological harm greater then what they might be encountered in everyday life - all research must be approved by an ethics board | - emotional ot traumatic topics may trigger participants even if not obvious to researchers - when working with vulnerable populations (ex. PTSD sufferers) → extra caution | May limit the kinds of questions + procedures researchers can ethically use |
debriefing | After the study, participants must be fully informed about the true purpose, any deception used, and allowed to ask questions. | - longitudinal/ with follow-ups → delayed debriefings - if it reveals sensitive content, support resources should be provided | - Helps maintain trust - Helps repair potential harm from deception |