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PSYC 1000

PSYC 1000. Lecture 7. Ethical Issues in Research. Respect for the basic rights of humans and animals is a fundamental obligation of all researchers All research proposals are reviewed by special committees Must follow guidelines established by research & professional organizations

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PSYC 1000

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  1. PSYC 1000 Lecture 7

  2. Ethical Issues in Research • Respect for the basic rights of humans and animals is a fundamental obligation of all researchers • All research proposals are reviewed by special committees • Must follow guidelines established by research & professional organizations • Tri-Council Policy Statement • Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists

  3. Ethical Issues in Research • Informed Consent • Research participants asked to sign statements indicating that they have been informed about the potential risks and benefits of the study and consent to participate • How much information can be made available without compromising the study? • Risk/Gain Assessment • Risks to participants must be minimized, especially in studies with personal consequences to behaviour • How does one quantify “psychological” damage?

  4. Ethical Issues in Research • Intentional Deception • Misleading someone as to the purpose or goal of the research • Sometimes necessary to avoid biasing results • Particularly true in social psychology experiments. • CPA Code of Ethics specify that deception only be used when there is no other alternative and the research contributes to science

  5. Ethical Issues in Research • Debriefing • Participants must be provided with as much information as possible about the study • e.g., purpose, hypotheses, anticipated results & expected benefits • Given researcher contact information and option to be contacted when the results of the study are released

  6. Tea Room Trade • Laud Humphreys examined sexual behaviour in public places (“tea rooms”) • Subjects were not aware that they were under study. • Researcher recorded license plate numbers of individuals and provided a fabricated story to police to obtain personal information of the subjects.

  7. Tea Room Trade • What are the ethical issues with this study? • What, if any, measures could have been taken to improve this study from an ethical viewpoint, without compromising the research goals? • Do you feel that the ethical violations were justified in light of what was learned about the “tea room” phenomenon?

  8. Milgram Study • Experimenter, Teacher (participant), and Learner (actor) • Experimenter instructed Teacher to administer electrical shock to a restrained Learner when an error was committed. • Shocks progressively increased in intensity in a manner transparent to the Teacher. • Learner started protesting at about 150V • Most subjects continued to administer shock until “death” of the Learner (450V).

  9. Deception in Children • Researcher provides parents with full details of the study, including expected outcome. • Children are placed in a situation where they are very likely to lie (> 90%). • Behavioural observations are made during the telling of the lie (i.e. eye gaze direction).

  10. Eyewitness Testimony • Individuals are not informed in advance of the true goals of the study but are given a “fake” task to perform. • The experimenter, pretending to be a thief, snatches the purse of the participant. • The real experiment involves the identification of the “thief” from a list of “suspects” • Participants are subsequently debriefed and told the rationale and goals of the real study.

  11. Issues in Animal Research • Key question is whether animals should be used in psychological and medical research • Animal rights vs. animal welfare perspectives • Benefits of animal breakthroughs versus controversy of animal models for human behaviour • Does cost benefit analysis apply in the same way to animal research? • Special animal care ethics guidelines exist • At the University of Winnipeg this is primarily the role of the Senate on Animal Care Committee (SACC).

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