Your letter was very well written and provided at least two ethically viable
responses to the dilemma. I, also, wrote a letter in regards to the young adult
with special needs. I feel to assess this issue appropriately, we need more
information. Although the young adult has severe learning disabilities does not
necessarily mean she is incompetent in being able to respond to the study in
question. It also depends on what the study is in regards to. With little
information provided in this case, I wrote a letter in favor of letting the young
adult participants.
c c c c c c c c c I believe the young adult in question should be allowed to participate
in the research project. Even though the young adult may have severe learning
difficulties, she is legally is an adult at 18 years old and she should be shown
respect by allowing her to participate in the research as outlined in the APA
Principle E: Respect for People's Rights and Dignity (Jackson, 2016). To further
support the APA principle E, Section 8.02 Informed Consent to Research, from
the APA Code of Conduct provides an outline to obtaining consent from an
adult.
c c c c c c c c c I also mentioned section 3.01 Unfair Discrimination, from the APA
Code of Conduct. The APA principle that supports this section is principle D:
Justice. Fairness and justice entitle all people to access and benefit from the
contributions of psychology and to equal quality in the processes, procedures,
and services being conducted by the research (Jackson, 2016).
I can see the complicated nature of this situation and how this can appear
more gray than a black-or-white solution. I currently see the best solution to
this situation is your second proposal. As a psychologist, you are expected to
gather informed consent from eligible participants in your study (3.10 Informed
Consent, APA, 2017). In this situation, the student requesting involvement
appears to be lacking capacity-related cognitive abilities described by the
National Bioethics Advisory Commission (2001). In considering standard 3.10
Informed Consent and the NBAC (2001) description.
Now, despite the student’s current ineligibility to participate in the study
currently, further conversation with the student’s parents would be the most
viable way to gain the student’s participation in your study. As you continue to
process and decide the best way to proceed with describing the reasoning
behind not allowing the student to participate in the study, perhaps future
studies of the same type could be limited to students under the age of 18.
Alternatively, while also creating potential areas of concern and ethical
complications, utilization of control and experimental groups may be a method
to be used and place adult students unable to provide informed consent in the
control group. As with your current student, when parental consent is required,
deciding the appropriate levels of deception and disclosure to parents must be
balanced with Principle E Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity, 3.04 Avoiding
Harm, and Principle of Beneficence and Nonmaleficence should be identified.
I commend you on identifying the ethical dilemmas you are faced with as well
as making the decision to reach out for guidance. It appears you have a
foundation in which you operate ethically and were faced with an unforeseen
circumstance. As with research, this often happens. Continue working this
direction and feel free to run any potential solutions or decisions you are
unsure of by me in the future.
References
American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists
and code of conduct (2002, amended effective June 1, 2010, and January 1,
2017). https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/
Jackson, S. (2016). Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical Thinking
Approach (5th ed.). Cengage Learning
