1
Q
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
A
- Protect rights and welfare of human participants
* Committee members
2
Q
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)
A
- Protects rights and welfare of animal subjects
- Committee members
- Care and housing of animals
3
Q
Risks
A
- Different types
- Physical injury
- Psychological injury (mental or emotional stress)
- Social injury (e.g., embarrassment)
- Ethical obligation
- Protect participants from all risk
4
Q
Minimal Risk
A
- Definition:
- Harm or discomfort is not greater than that experienced in daily life or during routine physical or psychological tests.
- Minimal risk differs across individuals.
5
Q
“At Risk”
A
*When risk is greater than minimal
= “at risk”
*Increases researchers’ ethical obligation to protect participants’ welfare
*Consider alternative methods with lower risk
6
Q
Confidentiality
A
- Social risk
- “confidential” ≠ “anonymous”
- To increase confidentiality
- Remove identifying information
- Report results in terms of statistical averages
- Internet research
- Confidentiality is a special problem
7
Q
Informed Consent
A
- A person’s explicitly expressed willingness to participate in a research project based on a clear understanding of the nature of the research, of the consequences for not participanting, and of all factors that might be expected to influence that person’s willingness to participate
- A social contract
- Make clear to participants:
- Nature of the research (what they will do)
- Possible risks
- Written informed consent
- Required when risk is greater than minimal
- Not required when researchers observe public behavior
- Informed consent requires
- Inform participants of all aspects of research that may influence their decision to participate
- Allow to withdraw at any time without penalty
- No pressure
- Some are unable to provide legal consent
- Young children, mentally impaired
- -provide assent to participate
- Obtain legal guardians’ consent
8
Q
Privacy
A
- Definition
- The right of individuals to decide how information about them is communicated to others
- Research participants want to know
- How their information is protected
- How their confidentiality will be protected
- Public or private behavior?
- Three dimensions
- Sensitivity of the information
- Setting
- Method of dissemination of the information
9
Q
Deception
A
- Occurs when
- Information is withheld from participants
- Participants are intentionally misinformed about aspects of the research
- Deception for the purpose of getting people to participate is always unethical.
- Can occur either through omission, the withholding of information, or commission, intentionally misinforming participants about an aspect of the research
10
Q
Pros: Why deceive?
A
- Allows study of people’s natural behavior
* Opportunity to investigate behavior and mental processes not easily studied without deception
11
Q
Cons: Why should we not deceive?
A
- Contradicts principle of informed consent
- Relationship between researcher and participant is not open and honest
- Frequent deception makes people suspicious about research and psychology
12
Q
Deception is justified only when
A
- The study is very important
- No other methods are available
- Deception would not influence decision to participate
13
Q
When deception is used, the researcher must debrief
A
- Inform participants of the reason for deception
- Discuss any misconceptions
- Remove any harmful effects
14
Q
Goal of Brief in Deception
A
- Participants should feel good about the research experience.
- Educating participants about the research
15
Q
Should animals be used in research?
A
- APA Ethical Standards and IACUCs
- Researchers are ethically obligated to protect welfare of animal subjects
- Justify any pain, discomfort, death by potential scientific, educational, or applied goals
16
Q
Reporting Psychological Research: Publication Credit
A
- Acknowledge fairly those who contributed to a research project
- Authorship based on scholarly importance of contributions
17
Q
Plagiarism
A
- Don’t present substantial portions or elements of another’s work as your own.
- “Substantial portion or element” can be 1-2 words if it represents a key idea
- Ignorance or sloppiness are not legitimate excuses
- Cite sources appropriately
- Cut-and-paste from Internet is plagiarism.
18
Q
Thinking Critically About Ethical Issues
A
- How do we decide whether a proposed study is ethical?
- What if people disagree? (they will)
- Is there a right answer? (often, no)
- The best we can do is follow steps for making ethical decisions.
19
Q
Steps for Ethical Decision Making
A
- Find out the facts.
- Procedure, participants, etc.
- Identify the relevant ethical issues.
- Risk, informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, deception, debriefing
- Decide what is at stake for all parties.
- Participants, researchers, institutions, society
- Identify alternative methods, procedures
- Consider ethical implications for each alternative, including not doing the proposed research
- Decide on the action to be taken
- Approve research
- Conditional approval with modifications
- Do not approve research
20
Q
Ethical Compliance Checklist
A
- Goal: ensure ethical compliance throughout the research process
- Required for research submitted to APA journals
- www.apa.org/journals
