ETHICAL ISSUES

Question 1

What are the ethical issues involved?

Answer 1

• Confidentiality
• deception
• privacy
• risk of harm
• valid consent

Question 2

Extrapolate on valid consent?

Answer 2

• valid consent means revealing the true aims of the study- or at least telling participants what is actually going to happen.
• participants are given comprehensive information concerning whether the nature and purpose of the research and their role in it, in order for them to make an informed decision about whether to participate.

Question 3

What is Deception?

Answer 3

• It can be necessary to deceive participants about the true aims of a study otherwise participants might alter their behaviour and the study could be meaningless.
• A participant is not told the true aims of the study and thus cannot give valid consent.

Question 4

What is Risk of harm?

Answer 4

• During a research study, participants should not experience negative physical or psychological effects, such as physical injury, lowered self esteem or embarassment- beyond what would be the normal experience
• Some studies may involve a degree of risk of harm to the participant

Question 5

What is privacy?

Answer 5

• A persons right to control the flow of information about themselves
• it may be difficult to avoid invasion of privacy when studying participants without their awareness, for example in a field experiment

Question 6

What is confidentiality?

Answer 6

• concerns the communication of personal information from one person to another, and the trust that the information will be protected.
• It may be difficult to protect confidentiality because the researcher wishes to publish the findings. a researcher may guarantee anonymity but even then it may be obvious who has been involved in the study.

Question 7

What is the issue of valid consent from the perspective of the participant?

Answer 7

• Participants have a right to be told what they will be required to do in the study so that they can make an informed decision about whether they try wish to participate. This is a basic human right.
• Another problem is the requirement for the researcher to point out any likely benefits or risks of the participation.
• Even if researchers have obtained valid consent from participants, that does not guarantee that participants really do understand what they have let themselves in for.

Question 8

What is the issue of Deception from the perspective of the participant?

Answer 8

• The researcher should not deceive anyone without good cause. Perhaps more importantly, deception prevents participants being able to give valid consent. - - They may agree to participate without really knowing what they have let themselves in for and they might be quite distressed by the experience.
• Deception can also lead to people to see psychologists as untrustworthy.

Question 9

From the participants’ point of view what is the problem with the risk of harm?

Answer 9

• Nothing should happen to them during a study that causes harm. There are many ways harm can be caused to participants, some physical e.g. getting them to smoke, or drink coffee excessively, and some psychological, e.g. making them feel inadequate, or embarrassing them.

Question 10

From the perspective of the participant, what is the issue of Confidentiality?

Answer 10

• The Data protection Act makes confidentiality a legal right. It is only acceptable for personal data to be recorded if the data are not made available in a form that identifies the participants.

Question 11

From the perspective of the participant, what is the issue of privacy?

Answer 11

• People do not expect to be observed by others in certain situations, for example when in the privacy of their own homes, while they might expect this when sitting on a park bench in public.

Question 12

What is the difference between privacy and confidentiality?

Answer 12

• These words are used interchangeably but there is a distinction between them.
• Confidentiality concerns the communication of personal information from one person to another and the trust that this information will then be protected.
• Privacy refers to a zone of inaccessibility of mind or body, and the trust that this will not be ‘invaded’.
• We have a right to privacy. If this is invaded, confidentiality should be respected.