2: Ethics in Psychological Research

Question 1

What technique did the APA committee take when developing their code

Answer 1

the critical incidents technique: took incidents of unethical conduct and evaluated what it was that created the conduct

Question 2

What are the 5 principles of the ethics code

Answer 2

1. Beneficence and non-malfeasance (do most good and least harm)
2. Fidelity and responsibility (to society)
3. Integrity (be honest and avoid harmful deception)
4. Justice (fair treatment)
5. Respect for people’s rights and dignity

Question 3

Deception Rational

Answer 3

desire to have subjects act naturally

deception is granted by IRB if the study cannot be done in any other fashion

Question 3

who weighs the benefits and the costs

Answer 3

The IRB (Institutional Review Board)

Question 4

What does the IRB do

Answer 4

Determines whether the project meets ethical guidelines, assesses risk, judge methodological adequacy

Question 5

Factors of informed consent

Answer 5

Study’s basic description

Enough information to decide whether to participate

How long it will take

May quit at any time

Confidentiality and anonymity insured

Contact information (researcher, IRB chair)

Opportunity to review final results of the study

Signatures

Question 6

Informed consent in special populations

Answer 6

Infants
-parents/guardians - fully informed

Children
- parent/legal guardians give consent
-child gives assent
-cannot use potential rewards to get consent

cannot coerce

Question 7

What purposes does debriefing serve?

Answer 7

Dehoaxing: revealing the true purpose and hypothesis

Desensitizing: process of reducing stress or other negative feelings

important in deception to avoid participant cross talk

Question 8

Summarize ethical obligations of researchers

Answer 8

Ensuring that the overall benefits of our study outweigh the overall costs

Not doing anything that would harm the participants

Getting informed consent from the participants

Assuring participants that they can quit the study at any time, without penalty

Providing debriefing

Assuring participant confidentiality

Question 9

Ethical guidelines for animal research

Answer 9

Justifying the study
- Cost benefit analysis - benefit to science must outweigh the harm and stress that the animal may experience

Caring for the animals
- In a humane manner
- Be experts of the animal species involved in the research - know how to take care of them - have to prove this to the IRB

Using animals for educational purposes
-Minimize

Question 10

why are animals used in psychological research

Answer 10

-easy to control environmental, genetic and developmental histories

-life-span/genetic studies can take place quickly

-can do studies that are difficult to ethically replicate in humans