GCSE Psychology
Ethics in psychological experiments
Homework check
• Have you completed the exam question –
hand in now
• What did you notice about the Derren Brown
clip and ethical considerations?
• What does DRIPP stand for?
• What would you change about your own
experiement to make it more ethical?
Learning objectives
• To learn about the ethics involved when using
humans in research.
• To focus on what is meant by
‘informed consent’ and
‘the right to withdraw’.
• To investigate how ethical
issues are solved.
Copy the following key terms...
• ethical issues – potential psychological or
physical risks for people in experiments.
• informed consent – an individual’s right to know
what will happen in an experiment, and its aims,
before agreeing to participate.
• right to withdraw – a participant’s right to leave a
study at any time and their ability to do so.
• ethical guidelines – advice to help psychologists
solve ethical issues.
Are these studies ethical?
• For each of the following studies, state
whether or not you think ethical guidelines
have been followed.
• Explain your answer.
Are these studies ethical?
1)
An experimenter in a pick-up truck, with a rifle
visible in the back, and a sticker on the
bumper saying 'VENGEANCE', stops at red
lights. The experimenter does not move when
the lights turn green thus blocking the traffic.
The experimenter wants to find out if a display
of aggressive items such as the gun will put
people off honking their horn.
Are these studies ethical?
2)
Sleeping participants are woken up every time
they start to dream (i.e. several times per
night) for 5 nights in a row. Participants
become increasingly paranoid during the
daytime. The experimenter wants to find out
the effect lack of dream – sleep has on people.
Are these studies ethical?
3)
Participants are either given name badges to
wear, or they are given a Ku Klux Klan style hood
with holes cut for eyes. They are then given the
opportunity to “condition” (train) confederates to
make them ‘nicer’. They are told this to do this
by giving them electric shocks whenever they act
in what they consider to be a bad way (however,
no real electric shocks are given). An
investigation into the effect loss of identity
(through wearing a uniform hood) has on
willingness to hurt others.
Are these studies ethical?
4)
Electric shocks are given to homosexual men
as they view photographs of clothed and
naked men. The experimenter wants to find
out if punishment can cure homosexuality.
Are these studies ethical?
5)
Participants are presented with 2,000 sheets of
random numbers, asked to add up to 224 pairs of
numbers on each sheet, then tear the sheet into
32 pieces before going on to the next. After five
hours of this clearly useless task, some of the
subjects are still going and have to be stopped by
the experimenter. The experimenter wants to
find out whether people will do things for a
psychological researcher that they would not do
for other ‘normal’ people.
What did you think?
1) No fully informed consent, no right to
withdraw
2) Fully informed consent given, right to
withdraw given
3) Fully informed consent given, right to
withdraw given
4) Hmmm
5) Fully informed consent, no right to withdraw