Ethical issues in research
Grade: Year 12, AS Level
Prepared by: Jini S.B
What is ethical issues?
Ethical issues are problems in research that raises concern about the welfare
of participants (animals/humans)
Concerns means potential harm/negative impact on lives or society.
Problems may arise through the nature of the study such as potential
psychological discomfort or physical harm.
Ethical guidelines of research helps psychologists to cope with ethical issues
of research.
Ethical guidelines?
Ethical guidelines helps psychologist to work in a way that satisfies the
primary concern of the welfare of individuals involved in the research as well
as the perception of psychology in society.
Ethical guidelines relating to human
participants.
Informed consent
Protection (Physical and psychological)
Right to withdraw
Deception
Confidentiality
Privacy
Debriefing
Informed consent
Informed consent ensures that research participants are aware of all the
potential risks and costs involved in research procedure.
The research participants needs to be aware of any possible harm that might
occur.
Informed consent should be obtained from participants before the study.
Presumptive consent: The actual participants would also have agreed to
participate if asked.
Protection (Physical and psychological)
A study may have the potential to cause participants psychological harm
Eg: embarrassment, fear, stress , anxiety etc.
Participants in such study have the right to be protected and should not be
exposed to any greater risk than they would be in their normal life.
Right to withdraw
Participant should be able to withdraw a study whenever they wish.
This is known as right to withdraw and it must be made it clear to
participants prior to the research.
Participants can be offered incentives to join a research, these cannot be
taken away if they wish to leave.
Deception
Participants should not be deliberately misinformed.
Deception should be avoided
When deception is essential, debriefing should be given at the end of the
research.
Confidentiality
Identity of the participants should be protected
Personal information should not publish without participants consent.
Privacy
Observations, self reports, interviews which ask personal questions and any
study which uses personal information should ensure privacy.
Participants have the right to ignore questions they do not want to answer.
Privacy in observation
People should only be watched in situation where they would expect to be on
public display.
Debriefing
Debriefing is the procedure that is conducted in psychological research with
human subjects after an experiment or study has been concluded.
It involves a structured or semi structured interview between the researcher
and the subjects whereby all elements of the study are discussed in detail.
