Lecture 2 Flashcards
(12 cards)
The essential purpose of considering ethics is that when doing a study, need to treat respondents ethically.
Essential goal is…
don’t harm people who are helping you
Stress & Psychological Harm:
Physical harm is…
One should warn the participant, and he/she has the right to refuse, or to stop participation.
Example: hand in ice bucket.
Psychological harm is…
The general rule-of-thumb is that…
One can use these manipulations, but one should forewarn participants of excessive stress to allow them to withdraw.
Example: Milgram study. Subjects believed that they had severely shocked another person.
easy to determine.
harder to gauge.
stress above that experienced on a daily basis is considered to be too much (seeing pictures of dead bodies; finding oneself in a possible building fire; seeing explicit sexual images, etc.)
NOTE: physical pain is ethical, if it not excessive!
Deception:
Definition =
Some deception is…
Some deception is…
Even if you tell the subject later that you deceived them, the manipulation may still have an unintended lasting effect. Also, the person may distrust psychologists afterwards, and form a bad opinion of research. Deception is still possible in psychological research, but usually only of the harmless variety.
telling someone something that is not true. harmless (“these photos are of convicted murderers”) not harmless (false feedback that tells a subject that they are deficient, flawed, or abnormal)
Informed Consent:
All participants should be given…
A problem can arise if you are performing a deception—then one cannot describe the study accurately. In those cases, researchers usually deceive by omitting information or being vague.
If data are to be anonymous, then one need not sign a consent form—participation is taken as consent.
Otherwise, it is mandatory to obtained informed consent.
It is important they be told that they can cease participation at any time without penalty.
an accurate description of what they will experience in the study, and have the opportunity to decide whether they wish to participate or not.
Debriefing:
Whether there is deception or not, the participant should be debriefed…
This procedure gives the person the…
If there was deception (e.g., Milgram), then the debriefing must be thorough and complete. Milgram claimed that his debriefing succeeded in removing any bad feelings left over from the experience. Maybe, maybe not.
Gives the participant a chance to talk to the experimenter, give feedback, complain, etc.
told about the precise nature of the study.
satisfaction of knowing exactly what they participated in (and to feel good about helping).
Privacy & Confidentiality
Anonymous =
Confidential =
Why not make everything anonymous? Not always feasible. Interviewing families over time—get to know them intimately. Can store the data separately from the list of names, and then destroy the list after it is no longer needed.
One usually promises to release aggregated data (grouped) in publications and reports, i.e., no identification of specific individuals.
Pseudonyms are used for…
the experimenter doesn’t know who contributed data
the experimenter knows who contributed data, but will not tell anyone else. Experimenter protects identities.
individuals who are quoted or described. Or one can use initials.
Special Populations:
Adults (16 or older) have…
Anyone younger than 16 years (in NZ) should have…
Elderly persons or anyone with a cognitive deficit/mental disorder should have…
Prisoners are a special case too.
Who speaks for these special populations?
Their job is to…
the right to make a decision as to whether to participate or not.
a parent/guardian sign for them.
a guardian sign for them.
IRB (Institutional Review Board in the U.S.) and NZ ethics committees
review applications to determine whether individuals are sufficiently protected. Makes doing research harder, but everyone is better protected, as a result.
Which Principles? Most countries have... e.g., British Psychological Society’s and the American Psychological Association’s ethics codes, which many psychologists follow. NZ? What about other countries?
their own ethical principles
New Zealand Psychological Society’s Ethics Code
All countries, one day, will have codes of ethics, maybe not the same identical code, but a code that protects participants of studies.
Animal Research:
All universities have an…
Must be treated in a…
Some argue that any pain to animals is unnecessary.
Still, animal research has proven very valuable to medical and psychological research, and will probably continue.
“ethical treatment of lab animals” code of ethics and a committee to ensure that it is followed.
“humane” fashion, i.e., no unnecessary suffering.
Costs vs. Benefits:
Milgram’s study: was his treatment of subjects (psychological trauma) justified by the knowledge gained? Nobody believed that people would shock other people at the levels obtained in his study. Showed the importance of obedience in the enactment of cruel treatment.
Committees reflect prevailing attitudes and beliefs (Milgram probably couldn’t be approved today).
costs to participants vs. benefits to society.
Fraud:
Researchers are tempted to change their data to obtain predicted results (get publications, promotion, raises, etc.) How many do it?
Safeguard: replications will expose the truth.
Plagiarism is…
Writers who take text from published works and do not attribute the text to the author is…
Cure?
a small percentage
unethical
“stealing” the text. Use of Turnitin to prevent plagiarism.
either cite someone for a quote, or paraphrase what they said and give them credit.
Ethics Approval:
If you want to collect data…
If it’s previously collected data…
To collect data, need to submit an application to an ethics committee (either within the School of Psychology or at the university level) and obtain approval
It’s protection for the researcher in case something goes wrong
need to obtain ethical approval
ask whether it gained approval
