Ethical considerations

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Ethical considerations

• By Mr Daniel Hansson

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Ethical issues

• An ethical consideration is a consideration of
  what is acceptable to do in a study. Researchers
  always have to balance between what they want to
  find out and the rights of participants.

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Ethical guidelines

• Different professional organisations of
  psychologists have drawn up different set of
  guidelines or principles. Examples are American
  Psychological Association (APA) and British
  Psychological Society (BPS)

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Common ethical considerations

• Informed consent
• Use of deception
• Protection from harm
• The right to withdraw
• Confidentiality
• Privacy
• Debriefing

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Task

• Check what ethical considerations that was
  followed in your experiment

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Informed consent

• Participants are formally asked to indicate their
  agreement to participate
• They should be informed on the purpose of the
  experiment and their rights

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Informed consent

• Participants might still not understand what they
  have let themselves into
• May affect participants behaviour in the study
• Presumptive consent can be given, i.e. asking a
  group of people whether they feel that the study
  is acceptable

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Deception

• When the participant is deceived of the true aims
  of a study
• Is sometimes necessary because otherwise
  participants might alter their behaviour to fit
  experimenters expectations
• Deception prevents participants to give informed
  consent. Participants might not want to
  participate in the future

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Deception

• There should be strong scientific or medical
  justification for deception
• Costs should be weighed against benefits
• Participants may feel embarrassed or have lowered
  self esteem

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The right to withdraw

• Participants have the right to withdraw at any
  time during the study
• Participants may feel they should not withdraw
  because it will spoil the study

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Protection from harm

• Avoid any situation that may cause a participant
  to experience psychological or physical damage

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Confidentiality

• Researchers should not record the real names of
  any participants, they should use numbers of
  false names

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Privacy

• Do not observe anyone without their informed
  consent unless in a public space
• Not always acceptable to observe in a public
  space, e.g. lovers on a park bench

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Debriefing

• Participants are informed of the true nature of
  the study after the research has taken place
• The aim of debriefing is to restore the
  participant to the state she was in at the start
  of the experiment

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Ethics assignment

• Assess how ethical your experiment was. Give the
  study a score from 1 (very unethical) to 10 (very
  ethical)