Belmont Report Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects

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Belmont Report Ethical Principles and Guidelines
for the Protection of Human Subjects

• Beneficience
• maximize benefits and minimize risks
• Respect for Persons
• allow subjects to make decisions as to whether to
  participate
• Justice
• is there a fairness in giving benefits and
  accepting risks

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Beneficience

• Risks in Psychological Research
• Physical Harm
• just asking stressful stuff is stressful
• physical stress is psychological stress
• Loss of Privacy and Confidentiality
• very important to protect the subjects privacy
• lock data away

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Respect for Persons

• Informed Consent
• assures respect of subjects confidentiality
• minors require parents ok/ can not be coercive
• Deception
• Some experimental design require deception
• Debriefing
• Informing the participant about your study

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Informed Consent(APA Guidelines)

• Purpose of Experiment, Expected Duration, and
  Procedure
• Right to decline to participate and withdraw once
  the study has begun
• Foreseeable consequences of declining or
  withdrawing from the study
• Potential risks, discomfort or adverse effects
• Any prospective research benefits
• Limits of confidentiality
• Incentives for participation
• Whom to contact with questions about research

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Informed Consent

• Not necessary when
• Research would not reasonably be assumed to
  create distress or harm and involves
• a. the study of normal educational practices,
  curricula, or classroom management methods
  conducted in educational settings.
• b. only anonymous questionnaires, naturalistic
  observations, or archival research for which
  disclosure of responses would not place
  participants at risk of criminal or civil
  liability or damage their financial standing,
  employability, or reputation, and confidentiality
  is protected.
• c. the study of factors related to job or
  organization effectiveness conducted in
  organizational settings for which there is no
  risk to participants employability, and
  confidentiality is protected or where otherwise
  permitted by law or federal or institutional
  regulations.

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Deception

• Withholding Information and Deception
• can withhold information if it will not effect
  decision to participate
• information will be given later
• Is Deception a Major Ethical Problem in Research?
• deception - active misrepresentation of study
• some think it should never be used
• some think concern is overblown
• How would you feel?

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Milgram Obedience Study

• Obedience involves going along with a direct
  command from an authority figure
• Factors that modulate obedience
• Power of the authority makes a difference
• Distance between the teacher and the learner
  makes a difference
• Assignment of responsibility We are less likely
  to be obedient if we think we will be held
  responsible for our actions
• Viewing other disobedient models reduces obedience

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Milgrams Experiment

• In Milgrams study, subjects were asked to
  deliver different voltages (0-450 volts) as a
  punishment to the learner
• Milgrams question was at what point would
  teachers refuse to deliver shock to another
  person?

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Milgrams Results
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APA Deception Guidelines

• The use of deception must be justified by the
  studys significant, educational, or applied
  value and that effective non-deceptive
  alternative procedures are not feasible
• Deception should not be used if the experiment is
  expected to cause physical pain or severe
  emotional distress.
• The use of deceptive techniques must be explained
  to the participants as early as is feasible and
  permit applicants to withdraw their data.

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Alternatives to Deception

• Role-Playing
• experimenter describes scenario and asks subjects
  how they would respond result may be different
  than real life scenario
• Simulation Studies
• Zimbardo Stanford Prison Study
• simulation of real life in laboratory
• Honest Experiments
• subjects are made completely aware or premise and
  methods
• used in field experiments
• demand characteristics

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Debriefing

• Occurs promptly after the data collection is
  completed
• Allows participants the opportunity to obtain
  information about the study
• Allows the experimenter to explain
• any deceptive techniques that were used
• any risks associated with the study.
• any misperceptions about the study
• the purpose of study

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Justice

• Participants must me treated with equal fairness
  in
• receiving benefits
• bearing burdens of the study
• accepting risks
• Addresses issues of equity in participant
  selection
• why specific subjects were selected or rejected
• Tuskegee Syphilis Study
• poor Alabama black men
• infected with syphilis
• and then not treated
• tracked from '32 to '72 to see long-term effects

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Researcher Commitment

• Professionalism
• Punctuality
• Fulfill promises

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Institutional Review Board

• Federal Regulations - can't do science without
  it
• Exempt Research
• no risk studies
• anonymous questionnaires
• surveys
• educational tests
• naturalistic observations
• Minimal-Risk Research
• risk is no greater than daily life
• Greater-Than-Minimal-Risk Research
• intense IRB review
• subjects rights are well protected

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APA Ethics Code
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Animal Research Ethics Code
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Misrepresentation
Data Fabrication Error Correction Plagiarism