Objective 9/23/15
Today we will be completing our research methods unit &
begin reviewing for the upcoming unit assessment 9/25.
Agenda:
-Turn in all homework (ethics & dv)
-Ethics brief overview
-Review
Ethics in Research
1. Introduction to ethics in research
• you must accept the responsibility to behave ethically toward those
who will be affected by your research
• ethics is the study of proper action
• research ethics concerns 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
1. Introduction to ethics in research
• ethical issues must be considered at each step in the
research process
• what measurement techniques may be used for certain
individuals
• how researchers select individuals to participate in studies
• which research strategies and designs may be used with
certain populations and behaviors
• how studies may be carried out with individuals
• how results are reported
• The basic categories of ethical responsibility
• responsibility to the human and nonhuman individuals who
participate in the research study
• responsibility to the discipline of science
2. Ethical issues and human participants in
research
• Historical highlights of treatment of human
participants
• World War II – brutal experiments performed on prisoners
in Nazi concentration camps
• 1947 Nuremberg trial with experimenters who conducted
those experiments
• as a result of that trial – Nuremberg Code has been
established
• 10 guidelines for the ethical treatment of human participants in
research
• Nuremberg Code laid the groundwork for the ethical standards
that are in place today for both psychological and medical research
2. Ethical issues and human participants in
research
• Historical highlights of treatment of human participants (cont.)
• additional examples of maltreatment of human participants
• in 1963 unsuspecting patients have been injected with live cancer cells
• in 1972 400 men had been left to suffer with syphilis long after a cure was available
2. Ethical issues and human participants in
research
• American psychological association (APA)
Guidelines
• www.apa.org/ethics/code.html
• APA Ethics Code contains ten ethical standards, and
you should be completely familiar with all of them
before beginning any research with human
participants
2. Ethical issues and human participants in
research
• American psychological association (APA) Guidelines
(major ethical issues)
• No harm
• the researcher is obligated to protect participants from physical
or psychological harm
• Psychological harm – participants may feel increased anxiety, anger,
lower self-esteem especially in situations where they feel that they
have been cheated or insulted
• any risk of harm must be justified
• participants must be informed of any potential risks
2. Ethical issues and human participants in
research
• American psychological association (APA) Guidelines
(major ethical issues)
• Informed consent
• human participants should be given complete information about
the research and their role in it
• they should understand the information and then voluntarily
decide whether or not to participate
• information – if not possible to provide the subject with information
about the purpose of the study we can explain to him at least exactly
what will be done
• understanding – some participants may not be competent to
understand the research (e.g. children), therefore, it is necessary to
provide the information to a parent or a guardian
• voluntary participation – participants decide to participate of their
own free will (no obligation because of a teacher or a professor
asked them to do so)
2. Ethical issues and human participants in
research
• American psychological association (APA) Guidelines (major ethical
issues)
• deception – informed consent can not be obtain before the study
• to obtain unbiased results researchers must sometimes use deception because
participants may adjust their own levels of performance in an attempt to satisfy the
experimenter
• Passive deception (or omission) is the withholding or omitting of information (researcher
intentionally does not tell participants some information about the study)
• Active deception (or commission) is the presenting of misinformation about the study to
participants (misleading participants about the specific purpose of the study)
2. Ethical issues and human participants in
research
• American psychological association (APA) Guidelines (major ethical
issues)
• guidelines for a study involving deception:
• the deception must be justified in terms of some benefit that outweighs the risk to the
participants
• the researcher can not conceal from the participants any significant aspects of the study
that is expected to cause physical pain or severe emotional stress
• the researcher must provide the participant with debriefing that explains the true nature
of the experiment, including the use and purpose of deception after the study is
completed
2. Ethical issues and human participants in
research
• American psychological association (APA) Guidelines (major ethical
issues)
• Confidentiality
• is the practice of keeping strictly secret and private the information or measurements
obtained from an individual during a research study
• Anonymity
• is the practice of ensuring that an individual’s name is not directly associated with the
information or measurements obtained from that individuals (e.g. using codes)
The Institutional Review board (IRB)
• most human-participant research must be reviewed and
approved by a group of individuals (scientists and nonscientists) not directly affiliated with the specific research
study
• the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
requires review of all human-participant research conducted
by government agencies and institutions receiving
government funds
• IRB typically requires that researchers submit a written
research proposal that addresses each of the seven criteria of
IRB (minimization of risk to participants, reasonable risk in
relation to benefits, equitable selection, informed consent,
documentation of informed consent, data monitoring, privacy
and confidentiality)
• Category I (exempt review) – anonymous survey on innocuous topic
• Category II (expedited review) – minimal risk to participants
• Category III (full review) – special populations, deception,
intervention, invasive measurement
3. Ethical issues and nonhuman subjects in
research
• the first ethical question is whether nonhuman
subjects should be used at all in behavioral research
• APA guidelines for the use and treatment of nonhuman
subjects in research
• www.apa.org/science/anguide.html
• animals must be treated humanely, qualified individuals must
conduct research, the research must be justified and the
researcher has a responsibility to minimize discomfort or
harm
• institutions that conduct research with animals have
an animal research review board called the
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)
• Committee consists of a veterinarian, at least one scientist
experience in animal research and a one member of public
with no affiliation with the institution