1. Research Ethics
The American Psychological Association Guidelines
Protecting the Welfare of Animal Subjects
Fraud in Science
Plagiarism
Ethical Reports

2. What are research ethics?
Research ethics are a framework of values within which we conduct research. Ethics help researchers identify actions we consider good and bad, and explain the principles by which we make responsible decisions in actual situations.
Research Ethics

3. What is an Institutional Review Board (IRB)?
Institutional review boards (IRBs), which are composed of laypeople and researchers, evaluate research proposals to make sure that they follow ethical standards.
Research Ethics

4. Research Ethics What is its purpose?
IRBs protect the safety of research participants. Their first task is to decide whether a proposed study increases participants’ risk of injury since psychological research can cause physical and/or psychological discomfort.
Research Ethics

5. Research Ethics What is its purpose?
As researchers, we must accurately estimate the degree of risk in our research. We typically do this by reading the literature and consulting with colleagues. IRBs will also help researchers estimate the degree of risk involved in their studies.
Research Ethics

6. What do "at risk" or at "minimal risk” mean?
Studies that place subjects at risk increase the chance of harm compared with not participating in the study.
Minimal risk studies do not increase the likelihood of injury.
Research Ethics

7. When should an IRB approve an "at risk" study?
IRBs should approve an “at risk” study when a risk/benefit analysis determines that risks to participants are outweighed by gains in knowledge.
Research Ethics

8. Which three principles did the Belmont Report (1979) emphasize?
The Belmont Report proposed three principles:
1. Respect for persons: individuals have the right of self-determination (basis of informed consent).
Research Ethics

9. Which three principles did the Belmont Report (1979) emphasize?
2. Beneficence: minimize harm and maximize potential benefits (basis of risk/benefit analysis).
3. Justice: fairness in both the burdens and benefits of research.
Research Ethics

10. What is informed consent?
A subject or guardian agrees in writing to the subject’s participation after relevant details of the experiment have been explained.
This description may include risks and benefits, but does not extend to deception or the hypothesis.
The APA Guidelines

11. What is informed consent?
Perhaps the most important principle built into ethics codes is the right of a participant to refuse to be in the study or discontinue participation. Ethical researchers, therefore, cannot coerce participants to agree to be in the study or prevent participants from discontinuing the study.
The APA Guidelines

12. Who is targeted by APA ethical guidelines?
APA ethical guidelines apply to psychologists and students when they assume the role of psychologists during research or practice.
The APA Guidelines

13. Explain APA guidelines on deception.
Deception may be used when it is the best way to obtain information.
Deception may not be used to minimize the participants’ perception of risk or exaggerate their perception of potential benefits.
The APA Guidelines

14. Which steps must researchers take if deception is used?
Subjects must be allowed to withdraw from the experiment at any time and should never face coercion to remain.
The experimenter should provide debriefing (full disclosure) after either their personal participation or the completion of the entire study.
The APA Guidelines

15. What does debriefing involve and when is it required?
Debriefing involves explaining the true nature and purpose of the experiment.
Debriefing is an essential component of good experimental research. We must offer our participants a full explanation of our study any time that we use deception.
The APA Guidelines

16. What is a confederate? Why is the use of a confederate deceptive?
A confederate is an experimenter’s accomplice.
Use of a confederate is deceptive because subjects are led to believe that the confederate is another subject, experimenter, or bystander, when he or she is actually part of the experimental manipulation.
The APA Guidelines

17. What is the principle of full disclosure?
Full disclosure means explaining the true nature and purpose of the study to the subject at the end of their participation or at the completion of the entire experiment.
The APA Guidelines

18. How does debriefing accomplish this?
In debriefing, an experimenter discloses the true nature and purpose of the study to the subject and solicits subjects’ questions at the end of the experiment.
The APA Guidelines

19. Explain the difference between anonymity and confidentiality.
Anonymity means that subjects are not identified by name.
Confidentiality means that data are securely stored and only used for the purpose explained to the subject.
The APA Guidelines

20. How do researchers achieve these goals?
Researchers achieve anonymity by collecting data without names and assigning code numbers.
They achieve confidentiality by storing data in a locked safe and only using the data for the purposes explained to the participants.
The APA Guidelines

21. How do psychologists protect the welfare of animal subjects?
Animal welfare is the humane care and treatment of animals. Institutions that conduct animal research must establish an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) to evaluate animal research before it is conducted.
Protecting the Welfare of Animal Subjects

22. How do psychologists protect the welfare of animal subjects?
The IACUC must determine that the researchers have explored all alternatives and have documented that there are no other feasible alternatives.
Protecting the Welfare of Animal Subjects

23. What does animal rights mean?
Animal rights is the position that sensate species (those that can feel pain and suffer) have equal value and rights to humans.
Protecting the Welfare of Animal Subjects

24. What is scientific fraud? What motivates fraud?
Scientific fraud involves falsifying or fabricating data.
A researcher’s graduation, tenure, promotion, funding, or reputation may motivate researchers to commit fraud.
Fraud in Science

25. What are the main lines of defense against fraud?
The peer review process filters submitted manuscripts so that only 15-20% of articles are printed. Replication, where researchers attempt to reproduce the findings of others, is the second line of defense.
Fraud in Science

26. What are the main lines of defense against fraud?
Competition by colleagues for scarce resources, while a cause of fraud, is the third line of defense.
Fraud in Science

27. What is plagiarism? Why is it wrong?
Plagiarism is misrepresenting someone’s “ideas, words, or written work” as your own.
Plagiarism is a form of fraud, in which an individual claims false credit for another’s ideas, words, or written work.
Plagiarism

28. Which ethical issues may be involved in research reports?
Authorship credit should only be given to those who made a major contribution to the research or writing.
Researchers should not take credit for the same research more than once.
Ethical Reports

29. Which ethical issues may be involved in research reports?
The ethical solution is to cite original publications when republishing data in a journal article or republishing journal articles in an edited volume.
Ethical Reports