Ethics

Question 1

What are ethics?

Answer 1

Ethics are moral principals of behaviour. They are guidelines that help us determine whether behaviours are acceptable or not.

Question 3

Why are ethics important?

Answer 3

They are there to protect participants and the researchers and to ensure the integrity of psychology

Question 4

What does BPS stand for?

Answer 4

British Psychological Society

Question 5

What is the British Psychological Society?

Answer 5

The representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK

Question 6

What are the 4 key principles in the BPS code of ethics?

Answer 6

Respect, competence, responsibility and integrity

Question 7

What is the acrostic poem for ethical issues?

Answer 7

Can
Do
Can’t
Do
With
Participants

Question 8

What are the 6 ethical issues?

Answer 8

Confidentiality (& privacy)
Deception
Consent
Debrief
Right to withdraw
Protection of participants

Question 9

What does the ethical issue of confidentiality state?

Answer 9

Participant’s details should be stored in a secure location and no details about them should be recorded or published

Question 10

What makes confidentiality a legal right?

Answer 10

The Data Protection Act

Question 11

When is it difficult to protect confidentiality?

Answer 11

When the findings are published

Question 12

What could a researcher do to protect confidentiality?

Answer 12

A researcher may guarantee anonymity but even then it may be obvious in a study

Question 13

What does the ethical issue of privacy state?

Answer 13

This is the right to be free from interference or intrusion.
People do not expect to be observed by others in certain situations for example in the privacy of their own homes

Question 14

When is it difficult to avoid invasion of privacy?

Answer 14

When studying participants without their awareness, for example, in a field experiment

Question 15

What does the ethical issue of deception state?

Answer 15

Participants should not be lied to about what will happen in the experiment

Question 16

What does deception prevent?

Answer 16

Prevents participants bring able to give informed consent. They may agree to participate without knowing what they have really let themselves in for

Question 17

What does deception do to a researcher?

Answer 17

Deception may also make the researcher look untrustworthy

Question 18

Why can it be hard to avoid deception?

Answer 18

It can be necessary to deceive (lie) about the true aims of a study otherwise participants may alter their behaviour

Question 19

What ranges how acceptable deception is?

Answer 19

The level of deception

Question 20

What does the ethical issue of consent state?

Answer 20

Participants should be told the aim of the research at the start and what they will have to do in the experiment

Question 21

Why can consent be hard to avoid?

Answer 21

Researchers often do not reveal all aspects of a study to the participant to decrease demand characteristics

Question 22

What does the ethical issue of right to withdraw state?

Answer 22

Participants have the right to leave the experiment at any time and should be told this at the start, throughout and reminded in the debrief

Question 23

Why is the main reason a participant would want to withdraw from a study?

Answer 23

If a participant is made to feel uncomfortable or distressed
This is especially important if the participants has been deceived

Question 24

Why might participants feel like they are unable to withdraw?

Answer 24

If they have received money or university credits for partaking in the study

Question 25

What is a limitation for the researcher of right to withdraw?

Answer 25

If participants leave during the study it could cause bias results

Question 26

What does the ethical issue of protection from harm state?

Answer 26

Participants should leave the experiment in the same physical and psychological state they entered it in

Question 27

What is considered acceptable in protection from harm?

Answer 27

It is considered acceptable if the harm is no greater than a participant would be like to experience in ordinary life

Question 28

Why is it difficult to guarantee protection from harm?

Answer 28

Some important questions in psychology may involve a degree of distress in participants and it is difficult to predict the outcomes of some experiments

Question 29

How should a researcher deal with informed consent?

Answer 29

Participants should receive a consent letter detailing all relevant information. If the participant agrees this is then signed. For investigations involving children under 16, parental consent is required

Question 30

What is presumptive consent?

Answer 30

Rather than getting consent from the participants themselves, a similar group of people are asked if the study is acceptable. If this group agree, then consent of the original participants is presumed

Question 31

What is prior general consent?

Answer 31

Participants give their permission to take part in a number of different studies - including one that will involve deception. By consenting, participants are effectively consenting to be deceived

Question 32

What is retrospective consent?

Answer 32

Participants are asked for their consent (during debriefing) having already taken part in the study. They may not have been aware of their participation or they may have been subject to deception

Question 33

How should a researcher deal with deception and protection from harm?

Answer 33

At the end of a study, participants should be given a full debrief

Question 34

What should happen in a debrief?

Answer 34

→ Participants should be made aware of the true aims and any details they were not supplied with during the study → Participants should also be told what their data will be used for and must be given a right to withdraw if they wish → Participants may have natural concerns related to their performance, and so should be reassured that their behaviour was typical or normal

Question 35

What should a researcher provide if a participant have suffered extreme stress or embarrassment caused by their study?

Answer 35

Counselling

Question 36

How should a researcher deal with confidentiality?

Answer 36

→ Record no personal details → In case studies, researchers often use initials instead of names