Ethics of Research I

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Ethics of Research I

• Lawrence R. Gordon
• Psychology Research Methods I

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PSYCHOLOGY SCIENCE AND PROFESSION

• Major psychology organizations
• APA -- www.apa.org -- Amer Psychol Assoc
• APS -- www.psychologicalscience.org -- Amer
  Psychol Society
• APA Divisions -- currently 55 (?)
• APA Guidelines Ethics and Publication
• Ethics for Psychologists (1994) -- 1992 code
• http//www.apa.org/ethics/
• Publication Manual of the APA (2001)
• http//www.apastyle.org

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ETHICS FOR PSYCHOLOGISTS

• General Standards
• Evaluation, assessment, or intervention
• Advertising and other public statements
• Therapy
• Privacy and confidentiality
• Teaching, training supervision, research, and
  publishing
• Forensic activities
• Resolving ethical issues

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WHENCE RESEARCH ETHICS?

• From moral philosophy and religion
• Utilitarianism -- cost-benefit considerations
• Deontology -- respect for human dignity
• Major principles underlying modern codes
• Respect for persons - autonomy/consent
• Beneficence - max benefit and min harm
• Justice - benefits and burdens distributed fairly
• Events - medicine and psychology
• Nazi experimentation, Tuskeegee, Willowbrook
• Watson Rayner, Milgram, Cyril Burt

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Consider the following study

• Hypothesized that depression leads to drug use in
  college students
• Manipulate depression by failing some on an exam
• Measure drug use by having them go to a party
  where someone offers them drugs
• Do fails take more than others?
• Sound okay? Why or why not?

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Ethics of Human Research

• We cant just do whatever we want!
• Protocols prepared and submitted to the
  Institutional Review Board (IRB) for approval
• IRB needs to give you permission to do your study

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What Is the IRB?

• Committee responsible for reviewing all proposed
  research involving human participants at all
  schools receiving federal funds for research
• Members include faculty members from different
  departments, at least one community member, at
  least one nonscientist (at least 5 total members)
• And, oh yeah, Institutional Review Board

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What the IRB Does

• Its chief function Considers costs and benefits
  of the research
• Is the research question worth the use of human
  participants?
• Because human participants do not need to
  participate in studies, their rights are the
  highest priority

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Issues

• Voluntary participation
• Informed consent
• need to know what might keep them for consenting
• need to be able to consent
• need to know the right to withdraw
• Coercion
• vulnerable populations
• payment/compensation

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Issues

• Deception
• Is the value of the study worth it?
• Alternatives? Must be last alternative!
• Needs to be explained ASAP Dehoaxing
• Debriefing
• Explain purpose of study
• remove bad feelings Desensitizing
• get information
• thank participants

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Issues

• Experimenter conduct
• PI has assumes all responsibility for fair
  treatment of participants (e.g. by assistants)
• 6 Ps of conduct
• Present
• Prompt
• Prepared
• Polite
• Private
• Professional

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Submitting Protocols

• Exempt from review
• Expedited review
• Full review
• Quick look review and more details next class!

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Submitting Protocols

• Full review
• study of vulnerable populations
• use of physically invasive techniques (e.g.
  drugs, exercise, x-rays)
• psychological or emotional distress
• behavior manipulation (includes ALL deception)
• sensitive data (with ID) (e.g. drugs, sex, crime)
• videotaping (potential for ID)

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Submitting Protocols

• Expedited review
• voice recordings (e.g. study of speech defects)
• studies of behavior w/o manipulation or stress
• study of existing documents that are not publicly
  available
• use of noninvasive clinical assessments (such as
  weight, sensory acuity, EKG, but NOT x-rays)

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Submitting Protocols

• Exempt from review
• Educational practices
• Anonymous survey, interview, or naturalistic
  observation (no identifiers)
• Study of existing data, documents, or archival
  records that are publicly available (no ID)
• Consumer surveys (ex. Quality of dining hall
  food)

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WRAP-UP

• Profession of Psychology
• Clinical Research / Application
• Experimental Research / Application
• In ALL aspects, first concern is the ethical
  treatment of participants, clients, consumers
• IF TIME
• Some web sites (APA, IRB)