PRELIM-Professional Ethics in Psychology

Professional Ethics in Psychology

1. Professional Ethics in Psychology INTRODUCTION

2. What is Ethics? The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

3. What is Ethics? The Case Study of H.M.

4. Ethical Issues Informed Consent The idea that any participant in an experiment should be informed about what the research entails and asked formally to consent to take part. Basic human right was first recognized by the Nuremberg trials.

5. The Nuremberg Code A set of ethical research principles for human experimentation created by the court in the US.

6. Morals and Ethics Morals Rules to guide our behaviour Based on a number of socially agreed principles which are used to develop clear and logical guidelines to direct behaviour. Contain ideas about what is good and what is desirable in human behaviour. Concerned with or relating to human behaviour, especially the distinction between good and bad or right and wrong behaviour’

7. Morals and Ethics Ethics A moral framework that is applied to a narrow group of people A social, religious, or civil code of behaviour considered correct, especially that of a particular group, profession, or individual’ The philosophical study of the moral value of human conduct and of the rules and principles that ought to govern it

8. Morals and Ethics Issues Something which arises because of a conflict In the case of psychological research it is usually a conflict between the requirements of meaningful research (e.g. deception) and the rights of participants (e.g. to be treated honestly).

9. Morals and Ethics Four Categories of Ethical Behaviour Consequence Action Character Motive

10. Morals and Ethics Two approaches for solving moral dilemmas Absolute Morals Some things are simply right or wrong Relative Morals Believe that all morals are dependent on context

11. Rights and Values Rights Divine Rights - the rights are seen to come from the God of that society, and are commonly written in a holy book and interpreted by religious scholars Natural Rights - describes human nature and to say what parts of our behaviour are inevitable and what parts are created by the world we live in. Cultural Rights - rights from custom and practice

12. Moral and Ethical Development Behaviorists’ view A matter of learning which behaviour gets rewarded and which gets punished Psychoanalysts’ view Explains and looks at how the child internalizes the personality of their parents Cognitive Development view Emphasizes how we think through problems to arrive at our judgement

13. Why study Ethics? The study of ethics allows us to reflect on our own behaviour and so change it for the better.

14. Ethical Issues Ethical Issues in Psychology The dilemmas that arise when designing psychological research and the moral principles we use to assess whether our psychological research is good or bad, right or wrong.

15. The Participant’s View All individuals should be treated with respect and allowed to be in control of their own life (autonomous). Individuals should not suffer immediate or long-term harm, either psychological or physical. What you do and say should not be exposed to public scrutiny without your permission. Research should be a collaborative process between researcher and participant not an autocratic one of ruler and subject, the term used in the past to refer to a research participant.

16. The Profession’s View Members of any professional group have a duty to protect the integrity of that group.

17. The Society’s View The purpose of conducting any research is to establish knowledge that may be used to improve the world in which we live or to better understand ourselves and our behaviour.

18. Justifying Unethical Research Some forms of deception aren’t that bad Presumptive Consent You cannot ask the actual participants to give their informed consent because this would spoil the experiment, but you can ask a similar group of people and then presume that the actual participants would feel the same way.

19. Justifying Unethical Research Validity of Research Data Field experiments commonly have greater validity and the price we pay is deception. Costs and Benefits If we can see that a study has the potential to produce meaningful findings that can be used to enhance human lives, then we can balance this against possible costs

20. Resolving Ethical Issues Ethical Committees Used in order to avoid bias when a researcher is left to make his or her own ethical judgements about a prospective research study. Their existence helps to correct the power imbalance between experimenter and participant.

21. Resolving Ethical Issues Ethical Guidelines Professional groups develop ethical codes of conduct that are a set of rules which can and should be followed by members of the professional group. Debriefing - the participant must be correctly informed about the aim of the experiment. Right to withdraw - All participants should be advised at the start of a research study that they can withdraw from the study at any time.

22. Resolving Ethical Issues Using alternative ways Prior General Consent - participants were given a list of research projects including one that involved deception. Role Play - inform the participants about the nature of the study and then ask them to pretend that they are actually participating in an experiment