Ethical Implications

Question 1

Ethical Implications vs Ethical Issues

Answer 1

Ethical issues: when conflicts exists within the rights and dignity of the participants and the aims of the research
Ethical implications: consequences of psychological research for individuals, groups, and wider society

Question 2

Social sensitivity: Sieber & Stanley (1988)

Answer 2

Potential social consequences for the participants or group of the wider population represented by the research
- e.g. Bowlby’s monotropic theory, Romanian orphan studies, LoA

Question 3

Humphreys (1970): Tearoom trade

Answer 3

• social interactions between gay men who meet up in public toilets for sex
• gay men are put at risk
• tracked pts down using their license plate, going against confidentiality
• HOWEVER, proved that the stereotypes against men were false and their practises were not harmful

Question 4

:) Cost-benefit analysis

Answer 4

Even if research can have negative ethical implications, we can still do this type of research if the benefit outweighs the vost

Question 5

:) Altering the method

Answer 5

• research question
  -> Sieber & Stanley: the way in which research questions are phrased and investigated may influence how the findings are interpreted
  -> Coyle: “heterosexual bias”, homosexual relationships are compared against heterosexual norms
• methods used
  -> informed consent, confidentiality, psychological harm
  -> DV: pts worry that their (ex-)partners will find out about the study
• how the findings are used
  -> may give credence to existing prejudice e.g. studies around the ethnic basis of intelligence
  -> Owen: people in a minimally conscious state

Question 6

:) Positive implications of socially sensitive research

Answer 6

• can help people respond in socially sensitive situations
• removes stereotypes

Question 7

:( Accuracy

Answer 7

• Burt: intelligence is determined biologically
• even after the frauds were exposed, the 11+ was still used
  Can lead to enduring effects on particular groups of people