Ethics in Psychology

1. Ethics in Psychology

2. Ethics - moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.

3. Research & Testing Ethical principles: • 1. Get permission of participants. • 2. Protect them from harmand discomfort. • 3. Keep information confidential. • 4. Explain the research afterwards. • These principles apply to scientific research. Other places may not have ethics. (retail stores, companies…)

4. 1961 Milgram Experiment • In the 1970s, Stanley Milgrammeasured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who told them to do things against their personal conscience. • Wanted to know if Nazi guards were just following orders. • Experiments were considered unethical and psychologically abusive.

5. ETHICAL GUIDELINES • The American Psychological Association (APA) then strengthened their ethical guidelines regarding research design, implementation, and practice. • They prevent unnecessary deception and pain to humans and other animals, and protect confidentiality.

6. ETHICAL GUIDELINES • All public and private institutions have Institutional Review Boards (IRB) that must approve of all research conducted within their institutions. • They protect participants by requiring researchers to obtain signed informed consent agreements from all participants.

7. ETHICAL GUIDELINES • These statements describe procedures, risks, benefits, and the right of the participant not to participate, or to withdraw from the research study without penalty at any their willingness to participate. • Participants cannot be deceived about significant aspects that would affect their willingness to participate.

8. ETHICAL GUIDELINES • After they finish participating, they are debriefed about the research (i.e. the nature, results, and conclusions of the research are revealed).

9. ETHICAL GUIDELINES • Psychologists who conduct research involving other animals must treat them humanely. • Acquire, care for, use, and dispose of animals properly. • Make efforts to minimize their discomfort, infection, illness, and pain.

10. ETHICAL GUIDELINES • Please read the following scenarios carefully. Within each scenario is an ethical problem or dilemma. Identify and discuss the ethical problems with each scenario. • Once you have identified the ethical problem within the scenario, explain how you would change or revise the design to make it ethically acceptable. • Please think carefully about each scenario and if possible, provide a solution.

11. ETHICAL GUIDELINES • An experiment was conducted to test a new drug for depression. For the experimental group, Dr. Creekmore wrote a new prescription for depression without discussing it with the patients. For the control group, Dr. Creekmore prescribed their normal prescription. • What is wrong with this scenario?

12. ETHICAL GUIDELINES Dr. Foggs conducted a study entitled “Emotion in the Media” to test the effects of anger. The participants were shown a video containing infuriating materials. The participants were then given a questionnaire to complete. Participants were told they could leave upon completion of the questionnaire. Dr. Mad thanked the participants for their time. • What is wrong with this scenario?

13. ETHICAL GUIDELINES • In an introductory psychology course, students were offered extra credit for their semester grade. In order to receive the credit, they had to participate in a AP Psychology research project. They were not given any other alternative opportunities to receive extra credit. • What is wrong with this scenario?

14. Unit 2:Research and Statistics AP Psychology Mr. Ng

15. Module #2Research

16. Research & Testing • Hindsight Bias – the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. • Easier to describe what has happened than to predict it. • Overconfidence – thinking we know more than we really do. • These two phenomena lead us to overestimate our intuition.

17. Research & Testing • Science is driven by curiosity, a passion to explore and understand without misleading or being misled. • The scientific attitude is to question facts, but being open to new learning. • Skepticism – questioning things that are believed to be fact. • Scientists have to be skeptical asking two questions, “What do you mean?” and “How do you know?”

18. Research & Testing • Scientists also have to have humility, or accepting that they too can be wrong. • Curiosity, skepticism, and humility is the basis of the scientific attitude. • Critical Thinking – examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.

19. Research & Testing • Research has led to surprising findings as well as proving popular ideas wrong. • Scientific method – make observations, form theories, and then refine theories. • Scientific theory – an explanation using a set of principles that organizes and predicts behaviors or events. • Hypothesis – testable prediction

20. Research & Testing • Operational definition – a statement of the procedures used to define research variables. • Replicate – repeating a research study to see if the findings are the same. • Useful Theory – organizes and links observed facts and implies clear predictions that be tested.

21. Research & Testing • Laboratory environment should be a ‘simplified reality’ which allows focused study of specific behaviors. • Not as concerned about behavior than with general principles that help explain behavior.

22. Research & Testing • Culture – shared ideas, attitudes, and traditions amongst a group of people which are passed on from one generation to the next. • Culture shapes who we are, how we act, and how we react. • Need to be culturally aware!!!! • Although cultures are different, many of the basic processes are the same.

23. Research & Testing • Gender issues are unavoidable in psychology. • Biology determines our sex, then culture bends the gender, but males and females are basically the same.

24. Research & Testing • Animal testing allows us to learn about people. • It has led to treatment for diseases, diabetes, polio, rabies, etc… • Animal testing can often be cruel to animals, but may lead to discoveries that benefit mankind. • Basic argument is whether it is right to value human life over that of animals.

25. Research & Testing • Psychology is not value-free. Our values effect what we study and how we study and interpret it.

28. Thinking Critically • 1954 – Brown vs. Board of Education ruled that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal”. • Desegregated schools. • First case that a social psychologist participated.

29. Thinking Critically • Mamie P. Clark and Kenneth B. Clark were expert witnesses. • Conducted a study where they gave African-American children Black & White dolls and the most chose the white dolls. • Under segregation, Black children were internalizing anti-black prejudice.