Research Ethics

The American Psychological Association Guidelines

Protecting the Welfare of Animal Subjects

Fraud in Science

Plagiarism

Ethical Reports

What are research ethics?

Research Ethics

Research ethics are a framework of values within which we conduct research.

Ethics help researchers identify actions we consider good and bad, and explain the principles by which we make responsible decisions in actual situations.

What is an Institutional Review Board (IRB)?

Research Ethics

Institutional review boards (IRBs), which are composed of laypeople and researchers, evaluate research proposals to make sure that they follow ethical standards.

What is its purpose?

Research Ethics

IRBs protect the safety of research participants.

Their first task is to decide whether a proposed study increases participants’ risk of injury sincepsychological research can cause physical and/or psychological discomfort.

What is its purpose?

Research Ethics

As researchers, we must accurately estimate the degree of risk in our research. We typically do this by reading the literature and consulting with colleagues.

IRBs will also help researchers estimate the degree of risk involved in their studies.

What do "at risk" or at "minimal risk” mean?

Research Ethics

Studies that place subjects at risk increase the chance of harm compared with not participating in the study.

Minimal risk studies do not increase the likelihood of injury.

When should an IRB approve an "at risk" study?

Research Ethics

IRBs should approve an “at risk” study when a risk/benefit analysis determines that risks to participants are outweighed by gains in knowledge.

Which three principles did the Belmont Report (1979) emphasize?

Research Ethics

The Belmont Report proposed three principles:

1. Respect for persons: individuals have the right of self-determination (basis of informed consent).

Which three principles did the Belmont Report (1979) emphasize?

Research Ethics

2. Beneficence: minimize harm and maximize potential benefits (basis of risk/benefit analysis).

3. Justice: fairness in both the burdens and benefits of research.

What is informed consent?

The APA Guidelines

A subject or guardian agrees in writing to the subject’s participation after relevant details of the experiment have been explained.

This description may include risks and benefits, but does not extend to deception or the hypothesis.

What is informed consent?

The APA Guidelines

Perhaps the most important principle built into ethics codes is the right of a participant to refuse to be in the study or discontinue participation.

Ethical researchers, therefore, cannot coerce participants to agree to be in the study or prevent participants from discontinuing the study.

Who is targeted by APA ethical guidelines?

The APA Guidelines

APA ethical guidelines apply to psychologists and students when they assume the role of psychologists during research or practice.

Explain APA guidelines on deception.

The APA Guidelines

Deception may be used when it is the best way to obtain information.

Deception may not be used to minimize the participants’ perception of risk or exaggerate their perception of potential benefits.

Which steps must researchers take if deception is used?

The APA Guidelines

Subjects must be allowed to withdraw from the experiment at any time and should never face coercion to remain.

The experimenter should provide debriefing (full disclosure) after either their personal participation or the completion of the entire study.

What does debriefing involve and when is it required?

The APA Guidelines

Debriefing involves explaining the true nature and purpose of the experiment.

Debriefing is an essential component of good experimental research. We must offer our participants a full explanation of our study any time that we use deception.

What is a confederate? Why is the use of a confederate deceptive?

The APA Guidelines

A confederate is an experimenter’s accomplice.

Use of a confederate is deceptive because subjects are led to believe that the confederate is another subject, experimenter, or bystander, when he or she is actually part of the experimental manipulation.

What is the principle of full disclosure?

The APA Guidelines

Full disclosure means explaining the true nature and purpose of the study to the subject at the end of their participation or at the completion of the entire experiment.

How does debriefing accomplish this?

The APA Guidelines

In debriefing, an experimenter discloses the true nature and purpose of the study to the subject and solicits subjects’ questions at the end of the experiment.

Explain the difference between anonymity and confidentiality.

The APA Guidelines

Anonymity means that subjects are not identified by name.

Confidentiality means that data are securely stored and only used for the purpose explained to the subject.

How do researchers achieve these goals?

The APA Guidelines

Researchers achieve anonymity by collecting data without names and assigning code numbers.

They achieve confidentiality by storing data in a locked safe and only using the data for the purposes explained to the participants.

How do psychologists protect the welfare of animal subjects?

Protecting the Welfare of Animal Subjects

Animal welfare is the humane care and treatment of animals.

Institutions that conduct animal research must establish an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) to evaluate animal research before it is conducted.

How do psychologists protect the welfare of animal subjects?

Protecting the Welfare of Animal Subjects

The IACUC must determine that the researchers have explored all alternatives and have documented that there are no other feasible alternatives.

What does animal rights mean?

Protecting the Welfare of Animal Subjects

Animal rights is the position that sensate species (those that can feel pain and suffer) have equal value and rights to humans.

What is scientific fraud? What motivates fraud?

Fraud in Science

Scientific fraud involves falsifying or fabricating data.

A researcher’s graduation, tenure, promotion, funding, or reputation may motivate researchers to commit fraud.

What are the main lines of defense against fraud?

Fraud in Science

The peer review process filters submitted manuscripts so that only 15-20% of articles are printed.

Replication, where researchers attempt to reproduce the findings of others, is the second line of defense.

What are the main lines of defense against fraud?

Fraud in Science

Competition by colleagues for scarce resources, while a cause of fraud, is the third line of defense.

What is plagiarism? Why is it wrong?

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is misrepresenting someone’s “ideas, words, or written work” as your own.

Plagiarism is a form of fraud, in which an individual claims false credit for another’s ideas, words, or written work.

Which ethical issues may be involved in research reports?

Ethical Reports

Authorship credit should only be given to those who made a major contribution to the research or writing.

Researchers should not take credit for the same research more than once.

Which ethical issues may be involved in research reports?

Ethical Reports

The ethical solution is to cite original publications when republishing data in a journal article or republishing journal articles in an edited volume.