Ethical Issues in Behavioral Research January 25 2016 Let s begin with some questions What does it mean to behave ethically o Keeping harm at a minimum o No deception must know what the subject is about o What about mice Or subjects that aren t able to understand their rights o Benefits outweigh the risks Ethics Rules or standards for appropriate conduct What makes a research study ethical or unethical Is it ethical to deceive a participant o Deception Masking the purpose of an experiment o Can there be some circumstances that it is necessary to deceive o Important to tell the participant after the study is completed that they participant were deceived Are there things that can t be done under any circumstances regardless of o Death Manipulation of a relationship How much do you think a participant needs to know in order to provide o Details of the procedures of the study What about deception A lot of these issues are complex and usually result in the answer it the benefit consent depends Tuskegee Experiment Example of an Unethical Research Design 1932 1972 Designed to measure the long term effects of Syphilis When the study began Penicillin was not found yet Took place in Macon County Alabama Low income farm workers 700 African American men were participants in the study The men were told they had bad blood but some had no idea they had Syphilis Actively kept participants from seeking treatments of Syphilis offered free meals burial services money to the spouses after death etc Used unreasonable deception and no benefit Coercion Offered incentives that couldn t be turned down o Really couldn t say no because they were so poor Did not provide informed consent not even aware they had Syphilis Prevented the participants from ever receiving Penicillin Why are ethics in research important There is often a potential for risk either physical or mental Deception may be involved o Sometimes necessary to answer the question appropriately Sensitive information is often collected o Health information Mental disorders STD history illegal drug use etc o Relationship information Sexual behaviors experience of cheating on your partner etc o Criminal background Work with vulnerable populations o i e mental illness or prisoners o Problems with consent process o Withholding treatment in a control group o Assent Power differential between experimenter and participant o Coercion is often unintentional 1 Provide information that enhances our understanding of behavior and lead to improvement of human animal welfare 2 Protect the rights and welfare is the human and nonhuman participants When first obligation conflicts with the second researchers face an ethical 3 approaches one could take in resolving ethical dilemmas Obligations in the study dilemma Ethical Philosophies Deontology Universal ethical standards exist o Certain actions are inherently unethical and should never be performed regardless of the circumstances Ethical Skepticism Universal ethical standards don t exist o Every research decides on their own if a behavior is ethical or not o Ethical standards cannot be imposed from the outside but instead should be imposed by individual s choice Utilitarian Judgments regarding the ethics of an action depend on the consequences of that action benefits of research should be weighed against costs o This is what we see today APA adopted this philosophy o IRB follows the utilitarian perspective APA s Guidelines are Utilitarian Benefits o Knowledge or scientific advancement of some type of behavior o Implications of that knowledge and how it can better society o Further understanding of application improved techniques o Practical outcomes o Academic benefits o Participant benefits Extra credit money etc o Treatment of some type of illness Costs o Resources o Time the participant and researcher o Physical or mental harm o Effort o Money Weigh benefits against costs cost benefit analysis o Institutional Review Board IRB Non academic board that completes a cost benefit analysis before a study can be completed Is the researcher missing anything Costs What must NOT be done Informed consent must be obtained o Sign a document o Check a box online Privacy must not be invaded Participants must not be coerced o You are allowed to leave at anytime without withdrawing the benefits the participants were promised o Participants can ask if their data not be used at the end of the study Risks must be minimal o The risk is no greater than the risk a person will encounter in o Expedited review Study does not go to the full IRB because it has everyday life minimal risk Deception only used if it is essential Participants must be debriefed o Good time to get reactions of the participants o Debriefing Clarify the nature of the goals remove stress obtain reactions o Participants should be feeling good about participation by the end February 1 2016 Scientific Misconduct 1 Fabrication Invention of data cases Happens but not often 2 Falsification Intentional distortion of data cases Massaging the data messing with the data to work 3 Plagiarism Taking credit for other people s ideas words thoughts 4 Ethical considerations not unique to psychology Abuse of power Discrimination Sexual harassment The Measurement of Behavior Scales of Measurement Assign numbers to participant s responses Different scales use numbers in different ways 4 types of scales 1 Nominal scale numbers are labels Ex Gender race Can t add subtract multiply or divide them mathematical properties Simplistic least complex 2 Ordinal scale numbers represent ranks Ex Rank priorities rank satisfaction with items o Rank the importance of these qualities to your self concept appearance weight strength health flexibility etc o Another example Applause for contestants 3 Interval scale equal differences between numbers reflect equal differences between participants responses Ex Depression self esteem IQ scale is an interval scale because 0 does not represent an absence of an IQ temperature is also an interval scale 4 Ratio scale because they have a true zero point numbers can be subject to mathematical transformations Ex Age weight The Type of Scale Determines the amount of information we have Determines the types of analyses that can be performed on them Measurement Issues Reliability time Validity Reliability o The measurement is consistent if it leads to the same number each o The measure is accurate it assesses what you think it assesses Extent to which measurements
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