RESEARCH ETHICS

Overview  Ethics vs. Moral  Historical examples of ethical issues  Efforts to address ethical issues  APA  IRB  Real-world discussion of ethical dilemmas

Introduction  Ethics vs. Morality  Ethics = principles and rules from an external sources Professional organization, Institutional Review Board (IRB), university, government  Morals = personal standards for right and wrong UnethicalEthical Immoral Moral

Historical Context  Historical Examples  Tuskegee study (see text), Project MKUltra, Willowbrook study  More Recent Controversies  Rind et al. (1998) study  Diederik Stapel (see text)  Replicability “crisis” (see NYT coverage)NYT coverage Critical positivity ratio (2.9013) ESP study P-hacking

Funding and Conflict of Interest  Different implications of conducting research that is (a) unfunded, (b) funded by public or non-profit sources, or (c) funded by industry  Short-term concern: Impact of funding source on reported results  Long-term concern: Impact of reported results on funding  Examples involving drinks, followed by the pharmaceutical industry

Serve society with high standards Avoid viewing people as merely a “means to an end”

APA’s 10 Ethical Standards  Human relations  Avoid harm, exploitation, discrimination, harassment, conflicts of interest  Avoidance or careful management of “multiple relationships”  Research and publication  Consent, exploitation of subordinates, participant compensation, deception, debriefing, reporting results, plagiarism, publishing  Assessment  Psychologists designing, administering, and scoring psychological tests should have the qualifications to do so  Education and training  Accuracy in education/training programs, no sex with subordinates  Privacy and confidentiality  Others: Resolving ethical issues, competence, advertising, record keeping and fees, therapy

APA and Torture  Student summary of the controversy  An update from the 2015 APA convention2015 APA convention  What does this say about the fallibility of “ethics codes”?  How was this controversy influenced by war-time politics?  Should you be a member of an organization you believe has acted unethically?  How will this policy change be enforced?

Institutional Review Board (IRB)  Who has personal experience with the IRB?  Committee composition  Levels of review  Non-research  Exempt  Expedited  Full-board

Institutional Review Board (IRB)  Application  Abstract  Protocol  Consent Form + Process Child assent  Characteristics of Participants, especially for at-risk groups  Risks and Benefits to Participants + Society Special attention to coercion, privacy and confidentiality, deception and debriefing, crisis management  Instrumentation  CITI documentation for entire study team

Critique of IRBs  Potential for immorality  Reliance on “broken windows theory”  High standards with selective non-enforcement  Bureaucratic: Many non-experts, slow, variable, decentralized, overly concerned about methodology, unrealistic concerns about low-risk studies,  Some of these problems may change with revision of the “Common Rule”

Ethical Dilemmas  P-hacking  IRB  Consent  Tobacco  Conclusion: What is the single greatest key to avoiding ethical pitfalls? PREVENTION