RESEARCH ETHICS
Module 2
Experimental Psychology
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2 Course Content
1. Introduction to Ethics in Research
2. Definition of Ethics
3. What is human research?
4. Why is Research Ethics important?
5. Ethical Principles Guiding Research
6. Participants : who are the?
7. Procedures for protecting study participants
8. Major Potential benefits to participants
9. Major Potential Risks to participants
10. Ethics: Areas of Focus
11. Treatment of vulnerable groups
3 Introduction to Ethics in Research
You must accept the responsibility to behave
ethically toward those who will affected by your
research.
Ethics is the study of proper action.
Research ethics concerns the responsibility of
researchers to be honest and respectful to all
individuals who may be affected by their research
studies or their reports of the studies’ results.
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ETHICS
Ethics: principles for guiding decision making and
reconciling conflicting values.
People may disagree on ‘ethics’ because it based
on people’s personal value systems.
What one person considers to be good and right
may be considered bad or wrong by another
person.
5 What is Human Research?
Human Research is :
1. Research conducted with people
2. Research conducted about people
research dealing in their data or issue
6 Why is Research Ethics important?
It is a reflection of respect for those who take
part in research.
It ensures no unreasonable, unsafe or
thoughtless demands are made by researchers.
It ensures sufficient knowledge is shared by all
concerned
It imposes a common standard in all the above
respects.
7 Why is Research Ethics important?
It has become the norm as an expectation for
research activity.
It is a professional requirement for practitioners
in some disciplines e.g. psychology
It is a requirement for access to participants in
others e.g. health
8 Ethical Principles Guiding Research
1. Respect for human dignity
2. Respect for free and informed consent
3. Respect for vulnerable persons
4. Respect for privacy and confidentiality
5. Respect for justice and inclusiveness
6. Balancing harms and benefit
7. Minimizing harm
8. Maximizing benefit
9 1. Human Dignity
Basis of ethical obligations
Two (2) essential components
1. The selection and achievement of morally acceptable ends
2. The morally acceptable means to those ends – protect the
multiple and interdependent interests of the person (bodily,
psychological, cultural integrity)
10 2. Consent
Presumption that individuals have capacity and right to
make free and informed decisions
In research = dialogue, process, rights, duties,
requirements for free and informed consent by the
research subject.
Your research cannot proceed without consent
Consent must be maintained throughout
11 3. Vulnerable Persons
Ethical obligations towards vulnerable persons
• Diminished competence
• Diminished decision-making capacity
Entitled to special protection, special procedures to
protect their interests.
Entitlement (based on grounds of human dignity, caring,
solidarity, fairness) to special protection against abuse,
exploitation, discrimination.
12 4. Privacy & Confidentiality
Fundamental to human dignity
Standards protect the access, control, dissemination of
personal information.
Helps to protect mental and psychological integrity
13 5. Harms and Benefits
Balance critical to ethics of human research
Foreseeable harms should not outweigh anticipated
benefits
Harms-benefits analysis affects welfare and rights of
subjects
14 6. Justice and Inclusiveness
Fairness and equity
Procedural justice
Application process
Distributive justice
Harms and benefits
15 7. Non-malfeasance
Duty to avoid, prevent or minimize harm
No unnecessary risk or harm
Participation must be essential to achieving scientifically
and societally important aims that cannot be realized
without the participation of human subjects
Minimizing harm requires smallest number of human
subjects that will ensure valid data
16 8. Beneficence
The duty to benefit others
The duty to maximize net benefits
Produce benefits for subject themselves, other individuals
Produce benefits for society as a whole and for the
advancement of knowledge (usually the primary benefit)
17 ETHICAL PRINCIPLES ACCORDING TO
BELMONT REPORT
The Belmont Report identified three (3) principles
essential to the ethical conduct of research with humans:
1. Respect for persons
2. Beneficence
3. Justice
18 Respect for Human Dignity
This principle includes:
1. The right of self-determination
2. The right to full disclosure
19 The Right to Self-Determination
The right to self-determination means that prospective
participants have the rights to decide voluntarily whether
to participate in a study, without risking penalty or
prejudicial treatment. It also means that people have that
right to ask question, to refuse to give information, and to
withdraw from the study.
20 The Right to Full Disclosure
The principle of respect for human dignity encompasses
people’s right to make informed, voluntary decision about
study participation. Which requires full disclosure.
Full Disclosure
Means that the research has fully described the nature of the
study, the person’s right to refuse participation, the researcher’s
responsibilities, and likely risks and benefits.
21 The Right to Full Disclosure
Summary
The right to self-determination and right to
full disclosure are the two major elements
on which informed consent- discussed.
22 Beneficence
One of the most fundamental ethical principles
in research is that of beneficence which imposes
a duty on researchers to minimize harm and to
maximize beneficence. This principle covers
multiple dimensions
The right to freedom from harm and
discomfort
The right to protection from exploitation.
23 The right to freedom from harm and
discomfort
Research have an obligation to avoid, prevent, or minimize
harm in studies with humans. Harm and discomfort can take
many forms:
Physical (e.g. injury)
Emotional (e.g. stress)
Social (e.g. loss of social support) of financial (e.g. loss of
wages)
Ethical researchers must use strategies to minimize all types
of harm and discomfort, even ones that are temporary.
24 The right to protection from exploitation
Involvement in a study should not place
participants at a disadvantage or expose
them to situations for which they have not
been prepared. Participants need to be
assured that their participation, or
information they might provide, will not be
used against them in any way.
25 The right to protection from exploitation
For example
Person describing his or her economic
circumstances to researcher should not be
exposed to the risk of losing public health
benefits; a person reporting drug abuse
should not fear exposure to criminal
authorities.
26 Cont,….
-Qualitative, Quantitative Data
In qualitative research, the risk of exploitation my become
especially acute because the psychological distance between
investigators and participants typically declines as the study
progresses.
On the other hand, qualitative researchers typically are in
better position than quantitative researchers to do good, rather
than just to avoid doing harm, because of the close relationships
they often develop with participants.
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JUSTICE
The third broad principle articulated in
the Belmont Report concerns justice, which
includes participants’ right to fair treatment
and their right to privacy
1. the right to fair treatment
2. the right to privacy
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1. The Right to Fair Treatment
One aspect of the justice principle concerns
the equitable distribution of benefits and
burdens of research. The selection of study
participants should be based on research
requirements and not on the vulnerability or
compromised position of certain people.
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Cont..
The right to fair treatment encompasses other
obligations. It means the researchers must treat people
who decline to participate in a study or who withdraw
from it in a non prejudicial manner they must honor all
agreements made with participants, including the
payment of any promised stipends; demonstrate
sensitivity to (and respect for) the belief, habits, and
lifestyles of people from different backgrounds or
cultures; and afford participants courteous and tactful
treatment at all times.
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2. The Right to Privacy
Virtually all research with humans involves
intruding into personal lives; researchers should
ensure that their research is not more intrusive than
it needs to be and that participants’ privacy is
maintained throughout the study. Participants have
the right to expect that any data they provide will be
kept in strictest confidence.
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Participants: who are the?
Participants
People who are the principal focus of the research.
Whom the research impacts (concurrently or retrospectively)
32 Procedures for protecting study participants
Now that you are familiar with fundamental ethical
principles for conducting research, you need to
understand the procedures researchers follow to
adhere to them.
It is these procedures that should be evaluated in
critiquing the ethical aspects of a study.
33 Risk-Benefits Assessments
One strategy that researchers use to
To protect participants is to conduct risk-benefits
assessment. Such assessment is designed to
determine whether the benefits of participating in a
study are in line with costs be they financial,
physical, emotional, or social (i.e. whether risk-to-
benefits ratio is acceptable).
34 Cont.,
The general guideline is that degree of risk to be
taken by participants should never exceed the
potential humanitarian benefits of knowledge to
gained. Thus, the selection of a significant topic that
has the potential to improve patient care is the first
step in ensuring that research is ethical.
35 Major potential benefits to participants
Access to a potentially beneficial intervention that
might otherwise be unavailable to them.
Comfort in being able to discuss their situation or
problem with a friendly objective person.
Increased knowledge about themselves or their
condition, either though opportunity for
introspection and self-reflection or through direct
interaction with researchers.
36 Major potential benefits to participants
Escape from a normal routine, excitement of being
part of study.
Satisfaction the information they provide may help
others with similar problems or condition.
Direct monetary or material gain through stipends or
other incentives.
37 Major Potential Risks to Participants
Physical harm, including unanticipated side effects.
Physical discomfort, fatigue, or boredom.
Psychological or emotional distress resulting from
self-disclosure, introspection, fear of the unknown,
discomfort with strangers, fear of eventual
repercussion, anger or embarrassment at the type of
questions being asked.
38 Major Potential Risks to Participants
Social risks, such as the risks of stigma, adverse
effects on personal relationships, loss of status.
Loss of privacy
Loss of time
Monetary costs (e.g. for transportation, child car,
time lost from work).
39 Research Ethics: Area of Focus
Harm
Informed Consent
Confidentiality
Deception
Reporting Results and Plagiarism
40 Harm
Researchers should take every precaution to ensure that
participants are not subjected to undue harm or stress.
Harm and discomfort can take many forms; can be
physical (e.g. injury), emotional (e.g. stress), social (e.g.
loss of social port or financial (e.g. loss of wages.
Ethical researchers must use strategies to minimize all
types of harm and discomfort, even ones that are
temporary.
41 Informed Consent
Voluntary Informed Consent is essential for research involving
human subjects.
According to American Psychological Association (APA), Informed
consent should include:
Description of the nature of research
Statement of the research is voluntary and participants can withdraw
at any time
Identification of how confidentiality will be protected
Description of what info researchers will share with participants
Identification of who is responsible for research with contact
information
42 Confidentiality
All information collected is a research project should
remain confidential
Data should be locked away in a secure setting
Electronic databases should also be protected
43 Plagiarism
Comes from the Latin word meaning “to kidnap”
Examples of plagiarism:
Copying someone else’s words without proper citation
Stealing someone else’s ideas
Stealing someone else’s intellectual property
Bottom Line: Cite sources properly and minimize
quotations in research reports
44 Treatment of vulnerable groups
Adherence to ethical standards is often
straightforward. The rights of special vulnerable
groups, however, may need to be protected through
additional procedures and heightened sensitivity.
Vulnerable subjects may be incapable of living fully
informed consent, or may be at high risk of
unintended side effects because of their
circumstances.
45 Treatment of vulnerable groups
You should pay particular attention to the ethical
dimensions of study when people who are vulnerable are
involved as being vulnerable are the following:
1. Children legally and ethically
2. Mentally or emotionally disabled people
3. Severely ill or physically disabled people
4. The terminally ill
5. Institutionalized people
46 1. Children legally and ethically
Children do not have the competence to give informed
consent and so the consent of children’s parents or
guardians should be obtained.
However, it is appropriate especially if the child is at
least 7 years of age- to obtain the child’s assent as well.
Assent refers to the child’s affirmative agreement to
participants.
If the child is development mature enough to understand
the basics of informed consent evidence of respect for
the child’s right to self-determination.
47 2. Mentally or emotionally disabled people
Individuals whose disability makes it impossible for
them to weight the risk and benefits of participation
and make informed decisions.
People affected by cognitive important, mental
illness, coma and so on)
Also can not legally provide informed consent. In
such cases, researchers should obtain the written
consent of legal guardian.
48 3. Severely ill or physically disabled
For patients who are very ill or undergoing certain
treatment (e.g. mechanical ventilation) it might be
necessary to access their ability to make reasoned
decisions about study participation.
Another issue that for certain disabilities special
procedures for obtaining consent may be required.
Example: with people who cannot read or write or who
have a physical impairment preventing them for writing
alternative procedures for documenting informed
consent should be used.
49 4. The terminally ill
Terminally ill people can seldom expect to
benefit personally from research, and thus the
risk-to-benefit ratio needs to be carefully
assessed researchers must also take steps to
ensure that if the terminally ill do participate in
a study, their health care and comfort are not
compromised.
50 5. Institutionalized people
Nurses often conduct with hospitalized or
institutionalized.
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