Ethics in Psych In order to ensure that psychology and psychologist do not abuse their positions psychologist have adopted certain standards of behavior and responsibility

These standards of ethics have been adopted by the APA, American Psychological Association Much of the work of psychology is to help people or lesson human suffering so most of the standards deal with the protection of people

One of the greatest responsibilities of psychological research with people is ensuring that no long term damage is done to subject either physically or mentally However some research may require some short term discomfort or short term negative effects

In cases where the participant may feel some short term negative effects they must told a general overview of the research its risks and be given the chance to agree or disagree in participating in the research this is known as Informed Consent Informed Consent does not allow the researcher to do what ever they want but it does give the participate the ability to chose

The APA understands that some research can not be done if the participates are aware of the situation and the deception must be used While deception is an excepted method of conducting research it can only be used under very specific circumstances

1st when the benefits outweigh any potential harm 2nd when they believe the participant would have been will to take part in the research any way if they had understood the potential benefits Finally when participants are debriefed afterwards

Another area in which psychologist are concerned is confidentiality Patients and participants in experiments have to be certain that what they tell psychologist will stay with psychologist and not become public knowledge Otherwise people will be much less likely to be truthful

Psychologist must also be concerned with how data is gathered, analyzed, stored, and presented Psychologist must make every effort to ensure that they are completely objective about how data is gathered and presented to keep it from being biased towards any particular view point

The final area which researchers must contend is Animal Research For Against Animals can only be used when there is no alternative and when the the benefits out weight the harm

Psychologist who violate the APA code of ethics risk suspension or loss of their license to practice, in addition to lawsuits and even criminal prosecution