3. Ethics in Research

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3. Ethics in Research

• What are some of the concern guiding ethical
  research?

• What are the potential psychological threat to
  participants in
• behavioral science research projects?

• What factors may interfere with participants
  freedom to choose
• when or not to participate in research?

• What is the function of informed consent?

• How might a researcher abuse his or her power in
  the research
• relationships?

• When and why is deception used in research?

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Why we have to consider the ethics?
Example. Medical Experiments Conducted on
prisoners by the Nazis.
Example. Medical Experiments Conducted on
prisoners by the Japanese Military (WW2)
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What is Ethical Research?
1.Protecting participants from physical and
psychological harm.
2. Providing freedom of choice about
participating in the research.
3. Maintaining awareness of the power
differentials between researcher and
participant
4. Providing informed consent, and honestly
describe the nature of the research to
participants
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When you want to run a experiment at UM, using
Psych 111 Subject Pool.
1. Attend the experimenter meeting held by the
Psychology Undergraduate Office, and
register your name on the experimenter
list.
2. Submit your research proposal to the
Institutional Review Board (IRB), with a
consent form sheet and a debriefing sheet
that you are supposed to provide to participants
at the end of the experiment.
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Protecting Research Participants from Physical
and Psychological Harm

• Types of Threats

1. Some research directly create stressful
situation.
2. Some research leads the participants to
discover something unpleasant about
themselves.

• The Potential for Lasting Impact

1. There is no guarantee that participants will
not suffer lasting consequences as a result
of the experimental procedures.
2. The harmful psychological outcome may not be
apparent immediately, but occurs only later.
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Example 1. Milgram (1963, 1974) The Obedience
Experiment Participants were asked to give the
victim electric shocks.
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Example 2. Haney, Banks, Zimbardo (1973) The
Stanford Prison Study Participants played a
role either prisoners or guards.
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• Providing freedom of choice

In some setting, it is very difficult to fully
provide participants freedom of choice. (e.g.
Observational Study, Social Instututions)
In experimental setting at UM, the instructor
must provide A Informed Consent Form before the
experiment.
Informed Consent Form
Ths contains a clear description of the research.
In addition, it gave the name of investigators,
the title of the research project. Finally,
there is a blank line which the participants to
indicate they agree to take part.
See the IRB criteria of consent form and the
sample
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• Maintaining Awareness of Power Differentials

What you need to be aware of is the fact that the
researcher (or experimenter) has power over the
participant.

• In the experimental session, dont abuse your
  power.
• Dont show up late without apology.
• Dont promise participants money that is not
  available.
• Dont attempt to learn intimate detail about the
  participants.

• When you analyze (report) the data, respect
  participants privacy.
• Keep the data confidential (use unique code).
• Keep the data anonymous.
• Use fictitious names of persons in the research
  reports.

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• Honestly Describing the nature and use of the
  research

Deception occurs whenever research participants
are not completely and fully informed about the
nature of the research project before
participating in it.
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Example 1. Asch (1952, 1965)To measure
participants conformity, six confederates made
wrong answers intentionally.
Example 3. Cohen, Nisbett, Bowdle, and Schwarz
(1996) To measure the reaction of insult, a
confederate bumped into the unsuspecting
subject as he worked down a hallway and
called him an asshole.
Deception
Example 2. Heine Kitayama (2000) To observe
participants natural motivation toward a task,
they videotaped the participants behavior using
hidden camera.
Example 4. Masuda Nisbett (unpublished) They
eliminate the title of the research which would
have indicated that it concerns differences
between Japan and the US. As a result the
participants were unaware that their responses
would be compared with those made by individuals
in the other culture
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Why Deception is Necessary?
1. It is needed to get participants to act
naturally.
Example. Altruism, Aggression, Cultural Study,
Stereotype
2. It is needed to get participants to not worry
about the artificial procedure.
Example. cover story
3. Not to hurt their feelings
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Is there any good way to avoid deception?
Simulation Studies
Participants are fully informed about the nature
of the research and asked to behave as if they
were in a social setting of interest.
Example. Haney, Banks, Zinbardo (1973) The
Stanford Prison Study.
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When do the participants fully understand the
research?
Debriefing Sheet
It is designed to explain the purposes and
procedures of research and remove any harmful
aftereffects of participation.
When you use Psych 111 subject pool, the
instructor needs to provide the debriefing sheet
immediately after the research has ended.
Example. The debriefing sheet meets IRB criteria
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Post-Experimental Interview
The participants reactions to the research are
assessed.
1. Participants are asked to express their
thought about the research.
2. When the research uses deception, the
participants will be given a suspicion check
-questions about the extent to which they
believe the experimental manipulation was
real..
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Process Debriefing
An active attempt to undo any changes that might
have occur in the participants.
Example Provide some process to let participants
to regain positive mood.
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Using Animals as Research Participants
Animal-rights activists believe that it is
ethically wrong to conduct research on animals.
But many researcher accept the value of such
research (Plous, 1996)
See Stangor Ch.3 Table 3.3
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Ensuring that Research is Ethical
The Institutional Review Board (IRB)
The IRB consists of at least five members,
including, in addition to scientists, at least
one individual whose primary interest is in
nonscientific domains (e.g. a community member, a
religious reader, or a legal specialist).
All federally funded research, and almost all
university research That is not federally funded
must be approval by the IRB.
See IRB form
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The Researchers Own Ethics
The ultimate responsibility lies with the
investigator! Its you who make decision about
the ethics of research. Its up to you who judge
what is wrong and what is right.
Consider carefully the costs and benefits of
conducting or not conducting current research!
Try to take participants point of view!
Lets conduct research that is interesting and
fun both for the participants and for the
investigator .
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How do you conduct an experiment?
Do you think your experiment is important to
conduct?
Yes
Do you use human participants?
Yes
Try to avoid using deception. Do you still need
to use deception?
Yes
Try to avoid causing unnecessary stress to the
participants. Is the research fun?
Yes
Consider the time your experiment requires. Will
your participants get tired?
Do you have a consent form?
Yes
Do you submit the research proposal to IRB?
Do you have a debriefing sheet?
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Do you check the name of the participant?
Yes
Do you provide a consent form?
Yes
Are you polite to the participant during the
session
Yes
Do you provide a debriefing sheet?
Yes
Do you also interview the participants to find
out their impression towards the experiment?
Yes
Do you think you succeeded in removing the
participants stress and bad mood?