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 choosewhen or not to participate in research?

What is the function of informed consent?

How might a researcher abuse his or her power in the researchrelationships?

When and why is deception used in research?

Why we have to consider the ethics?

Example. Medical ExperimentsConducted on prisoners by theNazis.

Example. Medical ExperimentsConducted on prisoners by theJapanese 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

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.

Protecting Research Participants from Physical and Psychological Harm Types of Threats

The Potential for Lasting Impact

1. Some research directly create stressful situation.

2. Some research leads the participants to discover something unpleasant about themselves.

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.

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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Informed Consent Form

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 provideA Informed Consent Form before the experiment.

See the IRB criteria of consent form and the sample

Ths contains a clear description of the research. In addition, it gavethe name of investigators, the title of the research project. Finally, there is a blank line which the participants to indicate they agreeto take part.

Maintaining Awareness of Power Differentials

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

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

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.

Deception occurs whenever research participants are not completely and fully informed about the nature of the research project before participating in it.

Honestly Describing the nature and use of the research

Example 2. Heine & Kitayama (2000)To observe participants’ natural motivation toward a task, they videotaped the participants’ behavior using hidden camera.

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”.

Deceptio

n

Example 1. Asch (1952, 1965)To measure participant’s conformity, six confederates made wrong answers intentionally.

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

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

Is there any good way to avoid deception?

Simulation Studies

Participants are fully informed about the nature of theresearch and asked to behave “as if” they were in a social setting of interest.

Example. Haney, Banks, & Zinbardo (1973)The Stanford Prison Study.

When do the participants fully understand the research?

Debriefing Sheet

It is designed to explain the purposes and procedures of researchand remove any harmful aftereffects of participation.

When you use Psych 111 subject pool, the instructor needs toprovide the debriefing sheet immediately after the research has ended.

Example. The debriefing sheet meets IRB criteria

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..

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.

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

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 researchThat is not federally funded must be approval by the IRB.

See IRB form

The Researcher’s Own Ethics The ultimate responsibility lies with the investigator!It’s you who make decision about the ethics of research.It’s 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!

Let’s conduct research that is interesting and fun both for the participants and for the investigator .

Try to take participants’ point of view!

How do you conduct an experiment?

Do you submit the research proposal to IRB?

Yes

Do you use human participants?

Do you have a consent form?

Do you have a debriefing sheet?

Try to avoid using deception.Do you still need to use deception?

Try to avoid causing unnecessary stressto the participants. Is the research fun?

Consider the time your experiment requires.Will your participants get tired?

Do you think your experiment isimportant to conduct?

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Are you polite to the participant during the session

Do you check the name of the participant?

Do you provide a consent form?

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Do you provide a debriefing sheet?

Do you also interview the participants to find out theirimpression towards the experiment?

Do you think you succeeded in removing the participantsstress and bad mood?

Yes