• You’re conducting a survey with college students.
You ask
participants to enter demographic information including
their age, gender identity, nationality, and ethnicity. With
all this information, it may be possible for other people to
identify individual participants, so you pseudonymize the
data.
• Each participant is given a random three-digit number. You
separate their personally identifying information from their
survey data and include the participant numbers in both
files. The survey data can only be linked to personally
identifying data via the participant numbers.
• In a focus group study, you invite five people
to give their opinions on a new student
service in a group setting.
• Before beginning the study, you ask everyone
to agree to keep what’s discussed confidential
and to respect each other’s privacy. You also
note that you cannot completely guarantee
confidentiality or anonymity so that
participants are aware of the risks involved.
• In a study on stress, you survey college students
on their alcohol consumption habits.
• Some of these questions may bring up negative
emotions, so you inform participants about the
sensitive nature of the survey and assure them
that their responses will be confidential.
• You also provide participants with information
about student counseling services and information
about managing alcohol use after the survey is
complete.
• Tuskegee syphilis studyThe Tuskegee syphilis study was an American public
health study that violated research ethics throughout its 40-year run from 1932
to 1972. In this study, 600 young black men were deceived into participating
with a promise of free healthcare that was never fulfilled.
• In reality, the actual goal was to study the effects of the disease when left
untreated, and the researchers never informed participants about their
diagnoses or the research aims.
• Although participants experienced severe health problems, including blindness
and other complications, the researchers only pretended to provide medical care.
• When treatment became possible in 1943, 11 years after the study began, none
of the participants were offered it, despite their health conditions and high risk of
death.
• By the end of the study, 128 participants had died of syphilis or related
complications. The study ended only once its existence was made public and it
was judged to be “medically unjustified.”
• Nazi experimentsNazi doctors and researchers
performed painful and horrific experiments on
thousands of imprisoned people in concentration
camps from 1942 to 1945.
• These experiments were inhumane and resulted in
trauma, permanent disabilities, or death in many
cases.
• The participation of prisoners was always forced,
as consent was never sought. Participants often
belonged to marginalized communities, including
Jewish people, disabled people, and Roma people.
A discussion of ethical issues in psychology wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Milgram. A famous study of obedience was conducted in 1963 by Sta
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Milgram deliberately misled participants about the aims and methods of the research he was conducting (although deception also covers failure to disclose
