Psychology Ms. Sakshi Bhatia Unit 1 Research Methods Ethics

What is the goal of psychological research? Applied Research: Solve practical problems (best method for teaching someone to read) Basic Research: Explores questions that are of interest in psychology, but may not generate immediate, real-world solutions. (studying how people form their attitudes about others in different cultures in terms of intelligence)

What guidelines do psychological experiments use to stay within ethical bounds? What are Ethics?

There are hundreds of historical examples of ethically abhorrent research experiments

Ethics How far can an experiment go for the sake of breaking new ground in psychology?

YouTube: Psychology study leaves Australians in shock

Ethics: What you need to know... 1. Identify how ethical issues inform & constrain research practices. 2. Describe how ethical & legal guidelines protect research participants & promote sound ethical practice. This is perhaps the most illustrative example of why the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The experiment was initially conceptualized as a means of helping psychiatrists better understand the intricate nature of schizophrenia. In short, several patients with schizophrenia volunteered for a study that specifically asked them to give up their medication. However, as it turns out, schizophrenia is more of a neurological disorder rather than a mental problem and the lack of medication for schizophrenics has devastating effects. The most famous patient was Tony LaMadrid, who threw himself off a building after six years after the initiation of the project. In 1991, when Tony Lamadrid, a Schizophrenic Patient and Research Subject at UCLA, Committed Suicide. 90% of patients who were untreated lapsed into a period of prolonged mental illness. This essentially proved nothing, except that the medicine they were taking was indeed working! It Set Off a National Debate: What Is Acceptable in Human Experimentation & Who Decides?

APA Ethical Guidelines Any type of academic research would need to be be proposed to the ethics board Institutional Review Board (IRB). The board ultimately decides & gives researchers permission to do their research. IRB - per institution. Any kind of research done has to have an IRB - an independent review board. They approve. There isn’t a national one, per se.

Animal Research Must have a clear scientific purpose. Research must answer a specific, important scientific question. Animals chosen must be best-suited to answer the question at hand. They must care for the animals in a humane way. They must acquire animal subjects legally. Animals must be purchased from accredited companies. If wild animals must be used, they need to be trapped in a humane manner. They must design experimental procedures that employ the least amount of suffering feasible.

Human Research Ethical research involving human subjects must meet the following requirements. No coercion Informed consent Anonymity or confidentiality Risk Debriefing "Human behavior is under situational control more than we imagine or want to believe and admit." - Philip Zimbardo

1. No Coercion No Coercion: Participants must know that they are involved in research and give their consent. Limited deception: If the participants are deceived in any way about the nature of the study, the deception must not be so extreme as to invalidate the informed consent. Participation is voluntary. Limited deception may be permissible because how else can you test for something if the participant knows before hand? A great example is the bystander effect.

2. Informed Consent The research the participants thought they were consenting to must be similar enough to the actual study to give the informed consent meaning. Also, researchers must be very careful about the trauma deception may cause.

3. Anonymity or Confidentiality Participants’ privacy must be protected. Their identities and actions must not be revealed by the researcher. No data matched with person’s name. If an ‘interview study’ could not guarantee perfect anonymity, it should guarantee confidentiality. Researcher will not identify the source of the data.

4. Risk Participants cannot be placed at significant mental or physical risk. Typically, it is considered permissible for participants to experience temporary discomfort or stress but activities that might cause someone long-term mental or physical harm must be avoided. This clause requires interpretation by the review board. This consideration was highlighted by Stanley Milgram’s obedience studies in the 1970s in which participants thought they were causing significant harm to other participants (Social Psych chapter).

5. Debriefing After the study, participants should be told the purpose of the study and provided with ways to contact the researchers about the results. When research involves deception, it is particularly important to conduct a thorough debriefing.