This research methods in psychology video covers ethics, researchers in psychology have
a responsibility to look after their participants, so what are the participants rights?
Who decided them?
And what exactly do you do as a researcher if your research needs to break an ethical
guideline?
INTRO It's fair to say that some psychological studies
have a reputation for mistreating participants, in fact they are some of the most well known
studies.
They also tend to be older studies these days psychologists are more likely to follow a
set of guidelines.
In America the Amercan Psychological association writes the ethical guidelines, and in the
UK it's the British psychological association known as the BPS.
In this video I will focus on the BPS's guidelines.
If you want to read the latest version of the bps's guidelines you can find them here
https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-code-ethics-and-conduct It's actually only a few pages and is easy
to read.
It's important to keep in mind these ethical guidelines are just advice, psychologists
can and do bend and even break these rules.
But serious mistreatment of participants would likely result in being expelled as a member
of the BPS.
These are some of the main guidelines Informed consent - participants should be
made aware of the aims, purpose and consequences of taking part in research and provide their
informed consent before the study begins.
If participants are not able to give consent, such as children or mentally incapable, consent
can be given by a parent or guardian.
Right to withdraw - before taking part in research, participants should be told that
they have the ability to end their participation in the study at any stage.
This includes destroying any personal data collected on them like interview recordings
after the data collection.
Protection from harm - the researcher needs to consider the study from the perspective
of the participant, and consider any risk to the participants psychological well-being,
physical health, personal values and dignity.
Confidentiality - personal records should be kept securely, and when it comes to publishing
results, not give away personally identifiable information.
But in some situations confidentiality needs to be broken if the researcher feels the participant
or somebody else is in danger.
Debriefing - After the participant has completed their role in the study, the researcher should
give them a debriefing, this is a conversation that tells the participants the reasons for
the research, any outcomes and the existence of other groups.
This is also the point to check for any harm caused by taking part, and offer assistance.
Researchers also need to consider their own wellbeing while conducting research, and accept
part of the role of being a psychologist is making their own ethical decisions, because
even with the guidelines experienced psychologists will find themselves in unexpected situations.
Ethical issues Psychologists can be torn between wanting
to gain valid data, free from demand characteristics, or maybe investigating interesting but controversial
even harmful topics and the participants' ethical rights.
Consider Milgram, yeh researcher who used an authority figure to pressure participants
into giving what they thought were real electric shocks to learners.
From the perspective of the guidelines above he breached pretty much every one, informed
consent, no, the participants were deceived, right to withdraw, no, the participants were
pressured to continue for as long as possible.
Protection from harm, no, there is good reason to think many participants suffered during
and after the experiment.
Confidentiality, no, the participants were recorded and the recordings were released.
Some people have even criticised Milgram for his debriefing, participants leaving not fully
understanding the purpose of the study, and having concerns about their ability to harm
others.
Dealing with Ethical issues So there are ethical considerations, but also
researchers need to produce valid data.
By now you are aware of demand characteristics, the participant altering their behaviour because
they are aware of the research aim, usually shaping their behaviour in the belief that
it will help the researcher.
There are three alternatives to informed consent that avoid giving away the aim and they are.
Prior general consent, this is having a long list of things that could happen in an experiment,
and getting a participant to agree to all of it and not to be told which parts will
actually be included in the study.
Retroactive consent, this is when you would get consent for the participant's data to
be used after they have taken part in the research.
Presumptive consent, you ask a group similar to the participants if they would agree to
take part in a study and if they agree you assume the experimental group would consent.
None of these ways of getting consent are perfect, but they are ways of avoiding participants
changing their behaviour due to demand characteristics.
There may be times that a research design requires deception, or maybe even risks harming
participants.
In this case a cost benefit analysis can be conducted, this is considering and comparing
all the potential costs to the participants, with the potential benefits to society of
the research.
Considering Milgram again, a number of participants did suffer emotional harm from taking part
in the experiment.
But Milgram has been one of the most famous and influential studies ever conducted, taught
to millions of students and helps all of us think more deeply about what our limits would
be if we were asked to do something wrong by an authority figure.
From a cost benefit analysis perspective you may judge Milgram was worth the cost.
An ethics committee is a group of people who consider if research should be carried out
based on ethical principles.
And they may use a cost benefit analysis in their decision making process.
If you go to university to do a psychology degree, the decision on if you can collect
your data for your final year project will be decided by the university's ethics committee.
The debriefing can also be a time to deal with any ethical issues, such as revealing
to the participant if they have been deceived, revealing the existence of any other groups,
reminding them they still have the right to withdraw their data, checking for harm and
offering support if they have been harmed.
This happens at the end of the study and sometimes in the exam you can be asked to design a debriefing
form or an informed consent form.
So that was ethics, I have 6 tutorial videos covering the 2017,18
and 19 AS and A-level research methods sections, these videos have worked examples to every
question and are full of exam tips.
Patrons at the neuron level and above can access these, and many, many more hours of
exam tutorial videos, as well as over a hundred printable resources from across the A-level
over on psych boost .com I do want to thank all the students and teachers
who have supported psych boost over on patreon during the development of the research methods
unit.
It's their support that allows me to teach part time so I can make psych boost on youtube
for everyone.
So thanks to them, and I will see you all in the next research methods video,
Peer review.