Ethical issues

Ethical issues

1. are conflicts between... what researcher wants to do in order to conduct useful & meaningful research & the rights of participants

2. The British Psychological Society (BPS) identifies four ethical principles for researchers

   • Respect for the dignity of people
   • Competence - high standards of professional work
   • Responsibility - to clients & the public
   • Integrity - honest research & reporting

3. Informed consent

   • telling participants true aim of study & what is going to happen so they can make informed decisions about participating
   • should be aware of potential risks/benefits
   • researchers may not always want to reveal true aims of study as may change way participants behave
   • cannot always predict the risks or benefits of taking part in a study

4. Deception

   • can be necessary to avoid demand characteristics
   • although there is a difference between withholding some details of research & deliberately giving false info
   • can lead people to see psychologists as untrustworthy & contravenes right to informed consent
   • most deception in research, however, is minor & harmless, & participants would have little reason to refuse to take part

5. The right to withdraw

   • important if participants feel distressed during study, especially if not fully informed. participants should not lose any payments or rewards by withdrawing
   • participants do leave in study, the sample will become biased as those who remain may be more compliant or hardy

6. Protection from harm

   • research is considered acceptable if the risk of harm is no greater than a participant would likely experience in ordinary life * leave study in same state they arrived
   • difficult to guarantee as studies addressing some important questions may involve a degree of distress or embarrassment & outcomes may be hard to predict

7. Confidentiality

   • is a legal right for participants, personal data can only be recorded in such a way that the participant cannot be identified
   • n be difficult to protect, as researchers wish to publish findings, they can guarantee anonymity but it may be possible to identify details of participants from their particular characteristics in a small target population

8. Privacy

   • people would not expect to be observed by others in certain situations e.g. in their own homes, whereas being observed in public places would not be so invasive
   • researchers may need to study participants without their awareness, which could be seen as an invasion of privacy