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APA Guidelines for Human/Animal Research. Why Ethics? What are they?.
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Why Ethics? What are they? Working with humans requires that we consider their welfare as part of our research planning process. Ethical guidelines such as those developed by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the federal policy outlined in the Federal Register (1991) emphasize sensitive and humane treatment that minimizes risks to research participants.
What should be considered? When we begin our ethical decision-making process, we should consider each of the following issues. • Benefits of the Research • Responsibility • Physical and Psychological Risks • Deception • Reducing Risk and/or Minimizing Harm • Informed Consent • Privacy • Summary of Results
Why Is This Important? We do research because we want to make contributions to our profession and to society. Those who agree to be a part of our studies join with us to meet these larger goals. They become partners in research and, as such, deserve to be treated well. Our ethical guidelines help us to think through how we can do high-quality research at the same time that we treat our research participants with respect.
Benefits of the Research When we conduct research, we make an implicit contract with our participants that our study has the potential to yield some larger benefit beyond our own personal interests. We ask questions that are grounded in theory and previous psychological research. We also make sure that our studies are sufficiently well designed to provide meaningful information. Anything other than our most careful work would be a waste of participants' time and effort.What are some of the ways students can insure that their research has some larger benefit?
Responsibility As researchers, we must take full responsibility for our studies. Even if we are in a class or working on a thesis where others are helping us with our research, we must take full responsibility for how we conduct the study. This responsibility extends to research assistants. If we have students helping us to collect or compile data, we also must make sure that they know about and follow ethical principles.
Physical and Psychological Risks Psychological research can cause physical and/or psychological discomfort. For example, imaging studies are increasingly popular in research on cognitive processing. Participants may feel physical discomfort from the heat generated by the imaging machines or anxious and claustrophobic from the noise and enclosed space. - As researchers, we are obligated to accurately estimate the degree of risk in our research. We typically do this by reading the literature and consulting with colleagues. Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) also will help researchers estimate the degree of risk involved in their studies. - Every institution that receives federal funding is required to submit all proposals for research with human participants to the IRB.
Physical and Psychological Risks Let's try a risk assessment .A group of students wants to study how college undergraduates cope with stress. They plan to survey their peers about circumstances that cause stress and the strategies used to reduce stress. They want to administer a questionnaire that asks undergraduates to identify on a list of 51 events those that occurred in the past year and to rate the stressfulness (1 - not at all stressful; 7 - extremely stressful) of each event experienced. Events ranged from very low stress (e.g., falling asleep in class) to very high stress (e.g., being raped, death of a close friend). Following this scale, they want to ask the research participants to complete a questionnaire about different coping strategies for reducing stress. What is the level of risk in this study (none, minimal/low, moderate, high, very high)? How did you arrive at your decision?
Deception Many experiments require that participants have no knowledge about the study hypothesis; this translates into deceiving research participants about the true purpose of the research. Ethical standards, however, acknowledge that not revealing the true nature of the research at the outset incurs special ethical obligations. The APA ethics code requires that we use deception only when study risks are mild and there are no feasible alternatives to the deception. In addition, we must provide an explanation of the deception immediately following the conclusion of the experiment. Finally, we may not deceive participants about aspects of the research that might influence their willingness to participate, such as physical or emotional discomforts or time commitment involved. Deceptions in psychological research can range from setting up false expectations about the purpose of the study to giving incorrect feedback about study performance.
Deception The use of deception in psychological research is a controversial topic. Some believe it should never be used, others believe that to outlaw deception would rule out our ability to study important questions about human behavior.What is your opinion? What are some of the costs and benefits of using deception in psychological research?
Reducing Risk/Minimizing Harm Any time that our research involves some level of risk, it is our ethical obligation to try to reduce the risk or address any harm experienced by participants in the study. Wherever possible, we try to prevent discomfort for our research participants. When that is not possible because of the nature of what we are studying, we must try to alleviate any distress after it has occurred. For example, in our survey study of stress and coping, we might prevent emotional discomfort by choosing an instrument that addresses daily hassles and mild stressors rather than more extreme events. This would change the question, though, from coping with all types of stressors to coping with everyday problems. You might also tell the participant before the study begins that you will ask questions about a wide range of stressors, including major life events. Participants who might become distressed by the study can then choose not to participate, thereby preventing emotional discomfort. There might be no way to prevent discomfort with the original question as a small segment of the population will experience major stressors.
Informed Consent Perhaps the most important principle built into ethics codes is the right of the participant to refuse to be in the study or discontinue participation at any time. Ethical researchers, therefore, cannot coerce participants to agree to be in the study or prevent participants from discontinuing the study. When participants are children who cannot legally give consent, are incapacitated by a mental or emotional disorder, or have difficulty understanding information or giving consent, there is an even greater obligation on the part of the researcher to make sure that participants' rights are protected. We still need to ask those who may not legally be able to give consent if they wish to participate in the study; we call this obtaining assent. If they say no, their wishes should be respected even if others have given permission for them to participate in the study. Incentives to participate in a study cannot be so great that a reasonable person would feel that he or she could not refuse to participate. This is particularly important when substantial sums of money are offered to participants or in an institutional setting in which even small rewards have great value.
Informed Consent When obtaining informed consent, the researcher must provide participants with enough information to make a sound decision.
What are some of the elements of the study you think are essential to include when obtaining informed consent? (1) Who is doing the study (2) Brief description of study and why the participant is being recruited (3) What is required of the research participants (4) Risks associated with the study (5) Participant's rights (6) Contact information (7) What will be done with the data (8) How to obtain the results
Privacy Psychological research often involves matters that may be personally sensitive. Thus, it is important that the researcher maintain strict confidentiality of information gathered about participants. When possible, information should be gathered anonymously. If this is not possible, researchers should use code numbers rather than participants' names on all research records. Information should be stored in a locked and safe location. Data files should also be maintained in a manner that maintains participant privacy. The right to privacy also extends to the publication or presentation of information. Information should be analyzed and reported in a manner that maintains the privacy of all research participants.
Summary of Results Psychologists are expected to give participants an opportunity to obtain the results of the study. Some researchers will mail a study summary once the data are analyzed and conclusions drawn. Other researchers will post the results on a Web site. The summary does not need to include all analyses and conclusions but it should provide a good overview of the study findings and implications for the field. Providing a research summary not only allows the participants to see the end result of their efforts, it also provides the researcher an opportunity to thank the participants for their contribution to science.
Summary All ethical guidelines for participants in research emphasize humane treatment that minimizes risks to participants. All researchers are responsible for weighing the benefits and risks of their studies and minimizing harm. Deception is permitted in psychological research, but only when the potential benefits of the study outweigh its risks, risks are minimal, and the investigator includes a debriefing that explains the study. Participants must have the right to refuse to be in the study or discontinue their participation at any time for studies that involve any risks. When obtaining informed consent, enough detail must be given to participants to allow them to make a sound decision. Research must protect the privacy and confidentiality of research participants.
