The following page outlines how to respond to ethical considerations essays. This prompt is quite
common and may be combined with any of the topics on papers 1 or 2. It is important to have a
strategy for approaching the question that is in line with the IB's assessment criteria.
What is the question asking?
A typical ethics question looks something like this: Discuss two or more ethical considerations in
research on the reliability of cognitive processes.
You are assessed on the following aspects of the question:
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Have you identified and discussed two or more ethical considerations?
Is the research used relevant to the "reliability of cognitive processes?"
Is there an actual discussion in the essay? - that is, is the command term met?
Below is an explanation of how the essay should be structured. Although this is not the only
possible way to structure the essay, this is a successful approach.
Structuring the essay
Introduction: Be sure to state the two ethical considerations that you will be discussing
Paragraph 2: Explain ethical consideration 1
Paragraph 3: Explain how one study of the reliability of cognitive processes is linked to the ethical
consideration in Paragraph 2
Paragraph 4: Explain ethical consideration 2
Paragraph 5: Explain how one study of the reliability of cognitive processes is linked to the ethical
consideration in Paragraph 4
Paragraph 6: Discuss the importance of ethical considerations and conclusion. Why are ethics
sometimes broken? What are the implications of these considerations on our ability to do research?
What could go in the discussion paragraph
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Informed consent may lead to demand characteristics.
Deception is used to avoid demand characteristics, but the deception may be seen as
unacceptable by participants in the debriefing and lead to the withdrawal of data.
Often consent is gained, but rewards are also given for taking part in the study (class
credit, money, therapy). This may create a situation where participants feel that they
made a commitment and are not able to withdraw from the study - or they may fear
losing the reward. This creates a problem for researchers who need to incentivize people
to part in research, but at the same time, need to preserve the right to withdraw.
The right to withdraw means that participants may drop out of a sample. This means
that particular types of participants may withdraw, potentially skewing the data. It could
also mean that the sample size gets smaller, potentially affecting the significance or
generalizability of the findings.
Exam tips
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Although the question asks for two or more, two is really enough.
In your introduction, only identify the two ethical considerations you are going to discuss
- not all of them!
Some of the ethical considerations have more to write about than others. For example,
you can discuss what is meant by "undue" in undue stress or harm; you can discuss why
deception is used (both deception by omission and by commission)
You should not evaluate the studies other than linking them to the ethical consideration.