Ethics - AP Psychology

An institutional review board (IRB) is a committee that reviews, approves, and monitors biomedical and behavioral research conducted on humans. Its purpose is to assure that participants' rights are protected during the course of research.

Deception may be necessary to study subjects' true behavior, as people may behave differently if they know they are under observation or know the exact purpose of the study being performed. However, deceiving subjects simply because they might be upset if they knew the truth is not a valid ethical reason to do so.

Informed consent in psychological research means the subject is given enough information on the study to make an informed decision on his/her participation. This includes informing the subject that s/he can withdraw consent and leave the study at anytime.

Informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, and debriefing are all aspects of an ethical study. Informed consent means that all subjects were given the necessary information for them to decide whether they wanted to participate in the study, or not. Confidentiality means that the experimenters will not release any information about subjects without their consent. Anonymity means that the experimenter does not know the identity of the subjects. Debriefing is when an experimenter tells the subject more information about the study's purpose and procedures after the study is completed.

Coercion means persuasion via threat or force, so coercion is NOT a feature of an ethical study.

The American Psychological Association (APA) has certain ethical guidelines when it comes to using animals for research. Experiments must be designed for the most minimal amount of suffering possible and the animals must be treated in a humane way. They have to have been acquired from a legal source, and it must be made clear why it is that animals must be used for this particular scientific end.

A requirement by the American Psychological Association (APA) is that the participant in a human study must give informed consent. That is, they must know they are involved in a study and give written consent. There can't be any extreme deception about the study; the participant must have an understanding of the expectations and premise of the study.

Once the research is completed, the identity of the people involved in the study, under absolutely no condition, may be revealed. The identity of the participant will never be made an integral part of the study, and there are no forms that allow for this.

According to American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines, a participant in a study cannot be placed under significant mental or physical risk. There are no forms that the participant can sign that would allow for these conditions in a study.

The debriefing procedures according to American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines are such that after the experiment, participants are told the end goal of the study and ways to attain the results. Doing so before the experiment could affect the results in an undesirable way, and so this information is provided to the participant after the experiment is completed.

The American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines for participation in a psychological study are such that there may be no involuntary partcipants or coercion involved in the study. The participants must provide clear and written informed consent before participating in the study.

Informed consent is part of the ethical standards adopted by the American Psychological Association. This provision says that all participants must be told the purpose of the study and informed of any potential harm. Informed consent is considered an ethical keystone in medical and psychological research on human subjects.

Animals should be used in experiments that cannot ethically be performed in humans. In this case, an initial study of a psychotropic drug should be conducted first on animals, in order to assess the potential damage of the drug's side effects. In order for a drug to be approved for human use, the drug must first be tested on human subjects, but this is true of later stages of drug testing. Studies of diet and exercise on mood would not be potentially harmful in the same way as a study of a new psychotropic drug, so they would be appropriate instances in which to use human subjects (as long as the courses of diet and exercise were not inherently harmful to the participants).

The American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines for ethical principles in psychology state that psychologists should refrain from initiating an activity when they know or should know that there is a substantial likelihood that their personal problems will prevent them from performing their work-related activities in a competent manner. In other words, the branch associated with competence warrants against the proposed behavior.

Informed consent is the principle that states that—to the best of a psychologists' ability—plain language that is understandable to the subject is to be used to gain the consent of persons upon whom research, treatment, or services are to be performed. In instances where a person is legally incapable of providing consent, psychologists are still required to provide an appropriately phrased explanation, obtain the assent of the person involved, consider that person's preferences, and seek authorization from any guardian or responsible third party. An unconscious person may give consent prior to becoming unconscious (e.g. in sleep research and certain forms of therapy), or have a responsible guardian give assent for them. Although many ethical principles for animal care apply, a chimpanzee is a non-person and the research associated with these organisms does not require informed consent. A four-year-old child can still have most procedures explained to them in simplified language and they can voice their preference for procedures—with proper parental/guardian consent likely also required. Even an unwilling prisoner may have certain court-ordered procedures performed on them (e.g. in the mandatory psychological evaluation provided for potential suicide/self-harm cases). In these cases, every effort must be made to ensure the person understands what is going to happen before it takes place and has the opportunity to voice their concerns or questions.

The principle of confidentiality covers situations in which the law requires certain forms of disclosure. This includes limited circumstances that force the researcher to provide personally identifiable information in order to prevent harm to persons or to obtain consultations for therapy/medical treatments.

The principle of informed consent requires that deception only occur when there is no reasonable non-deceptive alternative. Cost may be a factor in making this determination; however, it is rare for deception to be approved due to cost factors alone. This may also be considered when the research has a significantly established or reasonably expected value: academic or medical.

When a study is published, a researcher may rephrase or simplify the language, results, conclusions, or methods of the research in order to appeal to a wider audience. Sometimes, particular journals require the author to simplify research before a submission can be accepted. This is only acceptable when no relevant facts are changed and the rephrasing of conclusions are not suggestive.

In this infamous study, employees at the Hawthorne Works in Cicero, Illinois were told ahead of time that they were part of an experiment designed to measure, among other things, worker productivity. Initial results looked very promising; however, subsequent research and investigation revealed that the novelty of being part of an experiment likely caused worker productivity to rise. As a result, this confounded results and inflated (albeit unintentionally) the data. Today, the use of deception or post-experimental debriefing is encouraged if a Hawthorne effect is expected in a research design.

The principle of protection from harm possesses four requirements. First, subjects should be safeguarded from physical and mental harm at all times. Second, debriefing after an experiment should include a therapeutic safeguard if necessary. Third, if danger is present in an experiment, then an ethics board must approve it. Last, any danger present in an experiment must be kept at the minimum required for the experiment to function.