discussion
Conducting Ethical Research
Conducting Ethical Research
You will learn
Ethical Considerations in Psychological Research
Rights as a Researcher and as a Subject
Four Ethical Issues
History of Ethical Principles
Ethical Guidelines of the APA
Institutional Review Boards
Special Issues in Deception Research
Animals as Subjects
Poor Ethics in Research
For every rule in the list of standards and guidelines for ethical behavior, there is a person or persons who violated that rule at one time in history.
Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The longest non-therapeutic experiment conducted on human subjects in medical history.
Initiated in 1932 by the US Public Health Service.
The purpose of the study was to determine the natural course of untreated latent syphilis.
Poor Ethics in Research
Tuskegee Syphilis Study
Researchers recruited 400 African American men in Tuskegee, AL, who had syphilis.
They were matched against 200 uninfected men who served as the control group.
The subjects were recruited with misleading promises of special “free treatment” for their disease.
No one explained to them the course of the disease or that there were antibiotics available to treat them.
Painful non-therapeutic procedures such as spinal taps were done on them without anesthesia.
Poor Ethics in Research
Tuskegee Syphilis Study
They were denied antibiotic therapy even when it became clear in the 1940’s that penicillin was a safe and effective treatment for the disease.
Many papers were published over the course of 40 years.
The experiment was not halted until 1972.
At the end of this time, 74 of the 400 men were still alive.
It is estimated that more than 100 had died from the effects of advanced syphilis.
Very little new knowledge was learned from these studies.
Poor Ethics in Research
Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The researchers in this study took advantage of socio-economically deprived participants who perceived the researchers as authority figures and trusted them to provide them with the best care.
This study forced the nation to rethink and redefine practices involving human experimentation.
In the 1970’s, a National Human Investigation Board was established and legislation was passed requiring the establishment of institutional review boards at all research institutions.
A law suit was filed on behalf of the survivors, each of whom received $40,000 in compensation.
The study laid the foundations for a distrust of public health officials by African Americans that still exists in many communities today. For example, there is some evidence that African Americans did not seek treatment for AIDS in the early 1980’s because of their distrust of health care providers.
Conducting Ethical Research
All researchers need to ask one question before starting research.
Does the benefit from the research outweigh the cost which in this case was the risk of withholding treatment from the control group?
Follow the golden rule – “Do unto others as you would have done unto you”.
There is a version of this in almost every religion.
Based on Value of Life
The Researcher’s
The Subject’s
Conducting Ethical Research
Rights of Researchers
Pursue Knowledge
Rights of Subjects
Be safe from harm
Have privacy (Confidentiality)
Know their rights
Conducting Ethical Research
Four Ethical Issues
Consent
Harm
Privacy
Deception
Conducting Ethical Research
Informed consent includes:
Capacity
Ability to understand and authority to make decisions
Children, the cognitively challenged, prisoners, people with Alzheimer’s disease are all considered part of a vulnerable population and special care must take place.
Information
A clear description of the purpose of the study and the role of the subjects
Voluntary
Participants must be able to participate of own free will and can withdraw at any time
Conducting Ethical Research
Harm
Physical and Psychological
To Subjects
To Unwilling Bystanders?
Conducting Ethical Research
Privacy
Physical and Psychological
Can not publicize private thoughts/feelings without consent
Cannot videotape or record audio without consent
Confidentiality – the researcher won’t share details about the participant with others
Anonymity – the identification of the participant is removed from records.
Conducting Ethical Research
Deception
Two Views
Unethical and never do it
Needed and can be done ethically
There are many studies in the field of social psychology that couldn’t be done without some level of deception.
For example, in our example comparing memory for personal experience with memory for other experiences, the researchers set up a fight between a girlfriend and boyfriend. Participants were not told that it was a “fake” fight. They believed it to be real. That was deception.
Conducting Ethical Research
History of Ethical Principles
1938, APA Established Ethics Committee
1948, Nuremburg Code
1951, APA Code of Ethics
1964, Declaration of Helsinki (medical)
1979, The Belmont Report
Respect
Beneficence – do no harm
Justice
2002, APA update of Code of Ethics
Conducting Ethical Research
Ethical Guidelines of the APA
Institutional Approval (IRB)
Informed Consent
Inducements
Deception
Debriefing
Human Care and Use of Animals
Reporting Results
Plagiarism
Credit
Sharing Data
Conducting Ethical Research
Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Researcher Submits Proposal
Committee of Citizens Review Proposal
Assesses Degree of Risk of Harm to Subjects
Is Degree of Risk Worth the Potential Knowledge?
Ensures all Researchers and Assistants have undergone ethical training
The MTSU Consent Form
Conducting Ethical Research
Special Issues in Deception Research
Subjects not informed of True Purpose
Outright Lying to Subjects
Blind and Double-Blind
Obedience-to-Authority
Milgram studies (https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYLCy5PVgM )
http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=16QMQXIjYVU
Debriefing – telling participants what happened after the fact
Situational Ethics
Withholding Treatment
Placebo – giving someone a sugar pill rather than the real pill for depression
Conducting Ethical Research
Placebos are deception but are very important in pharmaceutical studies.
The human mind can play tricks.
Just taking a pill of any kind will at first change behavior.
The top line shows that a sugar pill was having the same effect as an anti-psychotic drug for 4 full days.
But after 4 days it no longer had an effect.
Science of behavior does not exclude animals.
What species are studied?
90% are mice, rats, and birds.
5% are monkeys and other primates.
Advantages of using animals.
They are inexpensive (if rats and pigeons, not primates).
They can be tested in experiments impossible to conduct with humans.
They have short life span so are good for long-term studies.
They can be selectively bred.
Ethics: Non-human subjects
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Ethics: Non-human subjects
Animals as Subjects
Five Reasons to Conduct Animal Research
Comparative Psychology
Easier and Cheaper than Humans
Unethical to “do it” to Humans
To Know more about animals to improve their lives
Define Intelligence
Justification of the research
The purpose of the research should be of sufficient potential significance.
The species chosen should be suited to answer the question posed.
Alternatives should be investigated thoroughly.
No research should be conducted without Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval. This is just like the IRB for humans.
Research and animal welfare should be monitored throughout the course of study.
Ethics: Non-human subjects
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85% of animal rights activists say they would eliminate all research using animals.
“Thanks to animal research, they'll be able to protest 20.8 years longer.”
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Animal use for research:
Only 8% of all psychological research is conducted with animals.
Total number of animals used in research: 17 million
80% - 90% were rats and mice
Of all the animals used in the U.S. for human purposes, only 0.3% are used in teaching and research.
Animals in other situations:
96.5% are used for food. Let’s eat them but not learn from them.
Pet care
~22 million cats and dogs are taken in by animal shelters; 12 million destroyed rather than being used to gain knowledge
9 million wild rats are poisoned each year (but put them in a research lab and now they have rights).
Animal Use in Perspective
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“Using psychology and education to enrich the world through respect for human and nonhuman animals”
Since 1981, Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has worked with social scientists, mental health providers and other animal protection organizations to reduce the suffering and exploitation of both human and nonhuman animals.
http://www.psyeta.org
http://www.psyeta.org/studentrights.html
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Conducting Ethical Research
Conclusion
Ethical Considerations in Psychological Research
Rights as a Researcher and as a Subject
Four Ethical Issues
History of Ethical Principles
Ethical Guidelines of the APA
Institutional Review Boards
Special Issues in Deception Research
Animals as Subjects