1. Ethics in Psychology

2. Ethics
Ethics refers to the correct rules of conduct necessary when carrying out research.  We have a moral responsibility to protect research participants from harm.
The British Psychological Society (BPS) have a code of ethics that they publish each year.

3. Ethics
Following the immoral experiments of the Nazis in WWII, each country set up its own set of guidelines for performing scientific research. 
In Britain the British Psychological Society (BPS) and in the USA the American Psychological Association (APA), produce codes of conduct for both experimentation and for clinical practice. 
Additionally, a code exists for the protection of animals during psychological experiments.

4. BPS code of ethics Informed Consent Avoidance of deception Debriefing
Protection of harm
Right to withdraw
Confidentiality

5. BPS Code of Ethics
In groups, write a short summary of one of the points
Discuss what you think it entails
Why it is a part of the code of ethics
What problems could occur if it wasn’t adhered to

6. Ethics
Ethical issues occur when there is a dilemma between what the researcher wants to do in order to conduct the study and the rights or the Participants rights and dignity.
Ethical guidelines have changed quite a lot over the years!

7. Famous experiments
Milgram obedience study
Zimbardo prison experiment

8. Consent
Consent
Simply refers to participants willingly and voluntarily taking part in your experiment.  Milgram and Asch for example did obtain consent.  In the case of Milgram he placed his infamous advert in the local paper and people turned up.
Informed consent
This refers to participants giving their consent in full knowledge of the aims of the study, the expectations of them and their right to withdraw and to confidentiality.  This clearly was not the case with Asch or Milgram, but arguably was with the Zimbardo procedure.  This raises the issue of whether fully informed consent is ever possible.  If researchers know the likely outcomes of a study then what is the point in carrying it out in the first place?
Informed consent and deception are closely related in that there cannot be informed consent in any situation where deception is used.

9. The key issues Informed consent What should P’s be told?
Ideally participants are asked permission to take part in research
P’s should be informed of the main objectives of the study
Informed consent may not be requested if P’s are taking part in an every day activity (standing in a bus queue)
Purpose of the research. • Procedures involved in the research. • All foreseeable risks and discomforts to the subject. These include not only physical injury but also possible psychological. • Benefits of the research to society and possibly to the individual human subject. • Length of time the subject is expected to participate. • Person to contact for answers to questions or in the event of injury or emergency.

10. Consent
Problems
Observations
What problems do you think getting informed consent might cause?
If you are doing some observational research in a public place. How is it possible to ask each member of the public for consent?

11. Consent problems...
If you tell the P too much about the research this may affect their response
If you do not get consent the P may be put in a position where there are doing something they would not normally choose to do
People may feel under pressure to consent even if they do not want to (university students, people in prison etc)

12. Consent
Children
Children under the age of 16 are deemed not to be old enough to give consent.  In this case permission has to be sought from parents or guardians.
Detained
People in prisons or psychiatric hospitals need particular consideration.  Prisoners may feel pressured into taking part as failing to do so may prejudice their situation.  Similar concerns apply to patients.  Additionally with psychiatric patients permission may need to be sought from either relatives or psychologists.

13. Consent
Students
It has been common practice by many universities to expect students to participate in experiments as a requirement of the course.  Here a certain degree of coercion is used and may not be entirely ethical.
Observations and field experiments
Piliavin conducted research on the NY underground in which stooges pretending to be blind or drunk (not both!), fell over.  The research team observed the reactions of bystanders.  In situations like this ‘participants’ are not aware that they are taking part in a study so cannot give consent.  In addition it is usually impossible to carry out debriefs afterwards

14. Avoidance of deception
This is where participants are misled or wrongly informed about the aims of the research.  For example, in Milgram’s study of obedience the participants thought they there giving electric shocks to a learner when they answered a question wrong.  In reality no shocks were given and the learners were confederates of Milgram.

15. Is deception always wrong?
Well.... We should NEVER deceive to the point of causing distress, however some deception may be necessary to avoid demand characteristics
If the participant knows what we are looking for they are more likely to behave in a certain way
We must be careful.. To much deception will lead to mistrust of Psychologists
Menges (1973) estimated that as few as 3% of studies involve no deception at all.

16. Debriefing Happens at the end of the research.
Participant is given a full explanation of the research and it’s intentions
Participants asked about their experience to iron out any negative effects
According to Aronson (1998)
‘The experimenter must take steps to ensure that subjects leave the experimental situation in a frame of mind that is at least as sound as when they entered’

17. Protection from harm
This means that participants, whether animal or human must be subject to minimal harm during the course of the research
P’s must not be put in any more harm than they would be subjected to in their normal lives
Harm can be physical or psychological and can include self esteem and embarrassment.

18. Psychological harm
This is more difficult to gauge but may involve embarrassment, loss of self esteem, stress and anxiety.  
Asch, Zimbardo and Milgram procedures would all have involved loss of self esteem, embarrassment and some stress.  In the case of Milgram and Zimbardo extreme anxiety.
Confidentiality is one way of protecting participants from psychological harm.  If you do something that you are ashamed of in the name of research but nobody gets to know its you its not going to be so embarrassing! 

19. The right to Withdraw
Participants have the right to withdraw themselves or their data from a psychological study at any time and without being questioned or coerced.
The right to withdraw should be explained right at the beginning of the research

20. Lack of confidentiality or privacy
Anonymity: Data is not linked to a persons name
Confidentiality: Relates to the way that data is stored and how it is used. (Need to know basis only)
Privacy: Not listening to a participant or reading what they right. In cases of observational studies participants should not be observed in places where it would not occur naturally.

21. A few more issues... Double obligation dilemma Cost benefit analysis
Socially sensitive research

22. An example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W147ybOdgpE
Watch the following clip and make some notes on the sheet provided.