Download Chapter 5: Descriptive Research

Chapter 14: Ethical Issues in
Behavioral Research
• deontology: ethics must be enforced and upheld
and no study should be conducted if ethics is
compromised
• ethical skepticism: agree that ethics are
important, but ethics should be should conform to
the researcher’s conscience
• utilitarian: ethical decisions depend on the
consequences of the action
• weigh the benefits of a research study against the
potential costs (risks)
• approach of the American Psychological
Association (APA)
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Potential benefits
• basic knowledge: enhance our understanding of
psychology or behavioral process
• improve research techniques: improve research
procedures and measures (reliability, validity).
• practical implications: improve welfare of humans
and animals (clinical research, research to
enhance learning and aide children with
disabilities)
• benefit for researchers: increased knowledge
about research process, educational function.
• benefits for participants: common in clinical
research when testing therapies to help them with
a problem
Potential Costs
• Potential risks include physical injury, social
injury, and mental or emotional stress
• Risks must be evaluated in terms of participants’
everyday activities, their physical and mental
health, and capabilities.
• Examples include social discomfort, stress,
threats to self-esteem, anxiety, physical pain, or
even health risks.
• A subjective evaluation of the risks and benefits of
a research process is used to determine whether
the research should be conducted.
• Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews research
conducted with human participants to ensure it is
ethical.
• Consider the risk/benefit ratio, if risks outweigh the
benefits then they do not approve the research, if
benefits outweigh the risks then they may approve
it.
Ethical Issues
1) Informed Consent
Researchers must inform participants about:
• the purpose of the research, expected duration,
and procedures
• their right to decline to participate and to withdraw
from the research once participation has begin
• reasonable foreseeable factors that may influence
their willingness to participate (risks, adverse
effects, discomfort)
• researchers do not need to inform the participant
of everything about the study or the hypotheses.
Informed consent form: provides information about
the study and includes required statements
• The participant or their legal guardian (in cases
with children) must sign the consent form.
Problems obtaining informed consent
• Compromise the validity of the study: researchers
may not be able to fully inform participants about
all aspects of the study because people may act
differently if they know they are being observed
(reactivity) of if they know what the researchers are
studying
• Participants unable to give consent: children,
individuals with mental retardation and severe
psychological problems are not cognitively able to
make a decision about research participation and
thus cannot give informed consent.
• The person's parent or legal guardian must give
consent
• Cases when informed consent is not required: in
some studies researchers can not obtain consent
like in studies where they are simply observing
people in public.
• The research must involve no minimal risk to the
participants and must be in naturalistic observation
setting.
2) Invasion of Privacy
• Participants should have the right to decide to
what extent their behavior and beliefs will be
revealed, and to whom.
• No clear APA guidelines.
• Decision is left up the the researcher and IRB
3) Coercion
• Occurs when participants willingness to
participate may be influenced by pressures from
the researchers.
• Occurs when professors require their students to
participate in research
• When participants are offered a high incentive to
participate (financial incentive).
• It is OK to pay participants for their time and rereimburse them for travel to the study, parking,
etc., as long as it is not excessive and would not
make them want to participate just to receive the
incentive.
4) Physical and Mental Stress
• Some important topics involve how people and
animals respond to physical or psychological
events.
• Stress, fear, failure, and even pain.
• Minimal risk: when the procedures or activities in
the study are similar to those experienced by
participants in their everyday lives.
• Decision is left up the the researcher and IRB
5) Deception
• Researchers do not conduct a study involving
deception unless the use of deceptive techniques
is justified by the study’s implications for scientific,
educational, or applied knowledge and that
effective nondeceptive alternatives will not work.
• Researchers should not deceive participant’s about
research that is expected to cause physical or
emotional pain.
• Researchers should explain the deception in the
study as soon after the study is completed as
possible.
Deception may involve:
• not telling the participant the true purpose of the
study, so their behavior will not be affected
• using an experimental confederate who poses as a
bystander or participant in the study
• providing false feedback to participants
• giving incorrect information about stimulus
materials
The known use of depiction in psychological
research may pose a problem because some
participants may be suspicious of the true nature of
a study
Debriefing
• Researchers should provide participants with
information about the nature, results, and
conclusions of the research.
• They should take reasonable steps to correct
any misconceptions that the participants may
have about the research.
• If researchers become aware that research
procedures have harmed a participant, they must
take reasonable steps to minimize the harm.
Goals of Debriefing:
• Inform the participant of the nature of the study, in
more detail.
• Remove any stress of negative consequences that
the study may have induced
• Get the participant's reactions to the study
• To have the participant leaving feeling good about
their participation and to thank them.
6) Confidentiality
• Data on participants is only used for research
purposes and shall only be seen by the research
team
• Ensure participant's responses are anonymous
• This can be done by assigning a participant
number to each participant
• If it is a case study, researchers must assure that
the person’s privacy and confidentially are
protected.
Research with Animals
• There are specific guidelines researchers must
follow when doing research with animals
• All researchers involved must be familiar with the
guidelines
• A veterinarian must be available if needed
• Lab animal facilities must be regulated by a
federal organization
• Researchers must make reasonable efforts to
minimize the discomfort, infection, illness, and
pain of animals participants.
Scientific Misconduct
• Scientific dishonestly: includes fabrication and
falsification of data, as well as plagiarism.
• Fabrication data is clearly wrong, but researchers
may remove certain participants if they did not
understand the instructions or are extreme outliers.
• This can become a problem if the researcher tends
to be biased in how they remove participants (to
support their hypothesis).
• Questionable research practices: authorship and
ownership of data
• Unethical behavior: harassment, abuse of power,
discrimination.