RESEARCH ETHICS

Concern the responsibility of researchers to be honest and respectful to all individuals who may be affected by their research studies or their reports of the studies’ results.

Ethical principles dictate:

·        Which measurement techniques will be used for certain individuals and behaviors.

·        How individuals are selected for participation.

·        Which research strategies/designs may be used.

·        How studies may be carried out.

·        How data are analyzed.

·        How results are reported.

Researchers have two basic categories of ethical responsibility:

1.        To the individuals who participate (human and nonhuman)

2.        To the discipline, to be honest and accurate in the reporting of their research

CONDUCTING AN EXPERIMENT

• Ethical considerations:

How will you obtain informed consent? How will you debrief your participants? Will you inform them of the results?

• Decide on your participants:

Do you need to randomly sample from a defined population, or will you use volunteers from classes or another source? How will you describe your study to them? If using animals, how will they be obtained and housed?

• Manipulating the IVs:

Does your IV require an event manipulation, or some other type of manipulation? Is your manipulation sufficiently strong to produce a difference between groups?

• Measuring the DVs:

Decide on using a self-report, behavioral, and/or physiological measure.  Is the measure sufficiently sensitive to detect an effect of the IV?

• Debugging the study:

Have others commented on your proposed procedures? How will you check on the effectiveness of the manipulation? Will you conduct a pilot study?

• Write a report of your study, possibly for publication or presentation at a professional meeting.

THE TEN POINTS OF THE NURENBERG CODE

1. Participation of subjects must be totally voluntary, and the subjects should have the capacity to give consent to participate.  Further, the subjects should be fully informed of the purposes, nature, and duration of the experiment.

2. The research should yield results that are useful to society and that cannot be obtained in any other way.

3. The research should have a sound footing and be based on the natural history of the problem under study.

4. Steps should be taken in the research to avoid unnecessary physical or psychological harm to subjects.

5. Research should not be conducted if there is reason to believe that death or disability will occur to the subjects.

6. The risk involved in the research should be proportional to the benefits to be obtained from the results.

7. Proper plans should be made and facilities provided to protect the subject against harm.

8. Highly qualified scientists only should conduct research.

9. The subject should have the freedom to withdraw from the experiment at any time if he (or she) has reached the conclusion that continuing in the experiment is not possible.

10. The researcher must be prepared to discontinue the experiment if it becomes evident to the researcher that continuing the research will be harmful to the subjects.

ETHICAL PRINCIPLES OF RESEARCH

Guidelines for the ethical treatment of subjects who participate in psychological research include:

INFORMED CONSENT

• Subjects must be given information about the research before it begins in order to make an informed decision about whether to participate.

• Subjects have the right to refuse to participate or withdraw without penalty.

MINIMAL RISK

• Subjects should not be exposed to risks that are greater than any risks ordinarily encountered in daily life.

DEBRIEFING

• Subjects must be told the purposes of the research after it is concluded, and any deceptive procedures should be explained.

• Any questions the subjects may have about their participation should be answered.

• Subjects should learn or benefit from their experience.

LEVELS OF ETHICAL RISK

NO RISK RESEARCH

• Exempt from review by an Institutional Review Board (IRB).
• Research studying normal educational practices.
• Use of educational tests- cognitive tests such as aptitude and achievement measures.
• Surveys and observation of public behavior, except in cases in which participants might be identified and sensitive behavior is being studied.
• Archival research using existing data.

MINIMAL RISK RESEARCH

• Routine approval by an IRB procedure, usually one member of the IRB who determines minimal risk and reports approval to the IRB.
• Standard physiological measures and voice recordings that do not involve any danger to subjects.
• Studies of cognition and perception that do not involve stress.

FULL REVIEW RESEARCH

• Research that may involve physical stress, psychological stress, invasions of privacy, measures of sensitive information in which subjects might be identified, etc.
• Requires full review by an IRB; special ethical procedures may be imposed.