Ethical Issues

Question 1

What are Ethical Issues?

Answer 1

Issues that arise when there is a conflict between rights of participant and needs of researcher to produce valid data

Question 2

Who judges whether an experiment is ethical or not?

Answer 2

British Psychological Society (BPS)

Question 3

What type of documents are BPS code of ethics?

Answer 3

Quasi-legal documents

Question 4

What does BPS do?

Answer 4

Instructs psychologists about what behaviour is acceptable and what isn’t

Question 5

What are the 4 major principles of BPS?

Answer 5

1. Respect
2. Competence
3. Responsibility
4. Integrity

Question 6

What are the 5 Ethical Issues?

Answer 6

1. Informed Consent
2. Right to Withdraw
3. Confidentiality
4. Deception
5. Protection from psychological and physical harm

Question 7

Explain Informed Consent
[2]

Answer 7

• Participants have right to be told compehensive information on nature and purpose of investigation
• So they can make informed decision to participate or not

Question 8

Why might researchers not give out Informed Consent?

Answer 8

It could bring out demand characteristics and so result bias

Question 9

Explain Deception
[2]

Answer 9

• Deliberately witholding info from participants or misleading them
• Only acceptable if the participant could know true nature of experiment and guess aims

Question 10

Explain Protection of Harm.

Answer 10

• Participants must be protected from physical and psychological harm

Question 11

Explain Confidentiality
[2]

Answer 11

• Participant have right to control how much info is released and used
• They have right to have data protected

Question 12

Explain Right to Withdraw
[2]

Answer 12

• Participant need right to withdraw from participating in study if they’re uncomfortable
• They also have right to refuse permission for data used

Question 13

What are the ways of dealing with problems of Informed Consent?
[3 + explain]

Answer 13

• Prior General consent - participant give permission to take part in many studies but one of them involves deception, so they basically agree to deception
• Presumptive Consent - when a researcher gathers opinions from a group like participant in study but doesn’t ask real ones. Less demand characteristics
• Retrospective - when participants are asked for consent after study is done

Question 14

What is a way to deal with problems of Deception?
[Explain]

Answer 14

Debriefing - participants must be debriefed after study. The true nature must be said, and participants should be told for what data will be used. After study, participants have right to withdraw data

Question 15

What is a way of dealing with problems of Protection of Harm?
[2]

Answer 15

• If participants have any harm (physical or psychological), the researcher should provide counselling
• Cost Benefit Analysis - pros and cons of study are weighed up to determine whether study is ethical

Question 16

What is a way of dealing with problems of Confidentiality?
[2+ explain]

Answer 16

• Anonymity - achieved by researchers not recording personal details, so no data traced back to them
• Participants should be reminded during briefing and debriefing that data will be protected

Question 17

What are the ways of dealing with problems of Right to Withdraw?

Answer 17

Make sure participant knows they have the right to withdraw at any moment in study