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Ethical considerations. By Mr Daniel Hansson . Ethical issues. An ethical consideration is a consideration of what is acceptable to do in a study. Researchers always have to balance between what they want to find out and the rights of participants. Ethical guidelines.
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Ethical considerations By Mr Daniel Hansson
Ethical issues • An ethical consideration is a consideration of what is acceptable to do in a study. Researchers always have to balance between what they want to find out and the rights of participants.
Ethical guidelines • Different professional organisations of psychologists have drawn up different set of guidelines or principles. Examples are American Psychological Association (APA) and British Psychological Society (BPS)
Common ethical considerations • Informed consent • Use of deception • Protection from harm • The right to withdraw • Confidentiality • Privacy • Debriefing
Task • Check what ethical considerations that was followed in your experiment
Informed consent • Participants are formally asked to indicate their agreement to participate • They should be informed on the purpose of the experimentand their rights
Informed consent • Participants might still not understand what they have let themselves into • May affect participants behaviour in the study • Presumptive consent can be given, i.e. asking a group of people whether they feel that the study is acceptable
Deception • When the participant is deceived of the true aims of a study • Is sometimes necessary because otherwise participants might alter their behaviour to fit experimenters´ expectations • Deception prevents participants to give informed consent. Participants might not want to participate in the future
Deception • There should be strong scientific or medical justification for deception • Costs should be weighed against benefits • Participants may feel embarrassed or have lowered self esteem
The right to withdraw • Participants have the right to withdraw at any time during the study • Participants may feel they should not withdraw because it will spoil the study
Protection from harm • Avoid any situation that may cause a participant to experience psychological or physical damage
Confidentiality • Researchers should not record the real names of any participants, they should use numbers of false names
Privacy • Do not observe anyone without their informed consent unless in a public space • Not always acceptable to observe in a public space, e.g. lovers on a park bench
Debriefing • Participants are informed of the true nature of the study after the research has taken place • The aim of debriefing is to restore the participant to the state she was in at the start of the experiment
Ethics assignment • Assess how ethical your experiment was. Give the study a score from 1 (very unethical) to 10 (very ethical)