Research Ethics

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Moral Foundations of Ethical Research:

Ethics:

A branch of philosophy concerned with morality

A set of principles & practices that provide moral guidance

Framework for Thinking About Research Ethics:

Moral Principles

Weighing risks

Responsibility & Integrity

Respecting peoples rights & dignity

Groups of people that might be effected

Participants

Scientific community

Society

The frame allows for consideration of ethics of research projects regarding the 4 moral principles & the three groups of people that are/may be effected

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Moral Principles:

Weighing Risk Against Benefits:

Risks must be outweighed by benefits

Risks

Fail to help

Harmful

Physical or psychological harm

Rights to privacy violated

Benefits

Helpful treatment

Learning about psychology

Satisfaction

Contribution

Receiving money or credit for participating

Risk is often primary to the participants with benefits primarily to society

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Acting Responsibly & With Integrity:

Carry out research in a through and competent fashion

Meeting professional obligations

Being truthful

What the study involves

Maintain confidentiality

Maximize benefits

Minimize Risks

Results reported honestly

Seeking Justice:

Conduct research in a just manner

Treat participants fairly

Benefits and Risks distributed across all participants

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Respecting Peoples Rights & Dignity:

Respecting autonomy

Informed consent

Privacy

Confidentiality

Anonymity

Unavoidable Ethical Conflict:

Little if any risk free research

Always a conflict between risks & benefits

Difficult trade offs

Deal with conflict in responsible constructive ways

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Informed Consent:

Obtaining and documenting peoples agreement to participate in a study:

Inform them of everything that might effect their decision

Procedure

Risks & Benefits

Right to withdraw or decline to participate

Legal limits of confidentiality

Consent form

Tell participants

Situations in which informed consent is not necessary

Research is not expected to cause harm

Procedure is straight forward

Conducted in the context of peoples normal activities

Deception:

Takes a variety of forms

Misinforming participants about purpose of study

Confederates

Phone equipment

False feedback

Not informing participants about full design of study

The above often prevents participants from being able to provide truly informed consent-fails to respect human dignity-possibly upsetting them-creating distrust-damages reputation of research industry.

APA Ethics Code takes moderate approach allowing deception id benefit outweighs the risk:

Participants not expected to be harmed

Question cannot be answered with use of deception

Participants informed as soon as possible

Not all forms of deception are equally bad

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Debriefing:

Informing participants as soon as possible

Purpose of study

Reveal deception

Correct misconceptions

Minimize harm

Return participants to normal moods

Scholarly Integrity:

No fabrication of information or data

No plagiarizing

No publishing material more than once

Share data

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Putting Ethics Into Practice:

"Lack of awareness is no defense

Read & Understand the code

Distinguish minimal risk from at risk research

Policies & Procedures of institution

How to prepare and submit to IRB

Seek support and clarification

Identify Minimize Risk:

List all risks

Once listed reduce or eliminate risk (as possible)

Pre-screening

Identify and eliminate high risk participants

Active steps to maintain confidentiality

Identify and Minimize Deception:

Minimize

Misleading participants

Allowing participants to make assumptions

Withholding information about study design

Consider

Is it truly required to answer research question

Elimination possibilities

Ok to reveal research question at debrief

Weigh Risks Against Benefits:

Identify benefits

Participants

Society

Science

Risk is no more than in peoples daily lives

Small benefits considered enough to carry out the research

Risk pose more than minimal risk

Benefits need to be higher

Risk has potential to hurt individuals

Study needs to be well designed

Requires clear scientifically interesting questions

Requires clear practical implications

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Create Informed consent & Debriefing Procedures:

Once research design has been decided:

Create informed consent and debriefing procedures

Is informed consent required ?

Provide as much information as possible to participants

Prepare a script-talking points

Procedure

Benefits

Right to withdraw

Create informed consent that can be signed

Let them know some info is being withheld but will be revealed during debriefing

Get Approval:

Gain institutional approval

Follow Through:

Maintain ethical standards throughout the research project

Seek approval for any changes

Maintain integrity throughout