Ethics Flashcards
What are the five ethical issues?
-Confidentiality
-Right to withdraw
-Informed consent
-Protection from harm
-Deception
Explain confidentiality
Confidentiality is a legal right
Personal information must be protected.
Participants must not be individually identifiable in any piece of research.
How do researchers deal with confidentiality?
Use numbers or letters to represent participants rather than their name.
Explain right to withdraw
At the beginning of research, participants must be told that they can withdraw from the investigation at any point.
If participants choose to withdraw, researchers must destroy all of the participants’ data.
How do researchers deal with right to withdraw?
Allowing the participant to withdraw from the investigation and destroy all of their data if they do.
A parent/ guardian of anyone u16 or the mentally disabled has the right to withdraw them.
Explain informed consent
Participants should be fully informed of the aims ad other aspects of the research that may influence the individuals’ willingness to take part.
Anyone under the age of 16 and the mentally impaired cannot consent to take part themselves, it must be done by parents/ legal guardians.
How do researchers deal with informed consent?
Prior general consent: telling the participant what they will be signing for and asked if they will still participate.
Presumptive consent: telling a similar group of people information on the investigation and asking if they would consent to the research, then presuming the real participants will have the same answer.
Retrospective consent: after alreading taken part, debriefing will be done, where the participants should be given the option to consent after knowing their participation.
Explain protection from harm.
Participants must be protected from physical and psychological harm.
Participants should be in the same/ better physical and psychological state as they were when they began the investigation.
How do researchers deal with protection from harm?
Debriefing and offering counselling.
OR
If physical or psychological harm occurs the investigation should be ended.
Explain deception.
Participants must not be intentionally lied to
Deception is only acceptable when the benefits outweigh the costs or there is no other alternative.
How do researchers deal with deception?
Debriefing involves informing the participant about all of the details of the study after they have and asking if they are still happy to participate.
