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Ethics Proposals Research Rev

psychology ethics proposals research

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glorb glorb
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14 views2 pages

Ethics Proposals Research Rev

psychology ethics proposals research

Uploaded by

glorb glorb
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ethics in psychology

For each of the following research proposals, decide whether you think that it should be approved
based on ethical standards. If not, suggest to the psychologist what needs to change in order for it
to meet that standard.

1. A psychologist wants to study the effect of loud noise on a person’s ability to concentrate. In
order to do this, he blasts loud music through the participants’ earphones while they are trying to
read a text.
I think that this study would be approved based on ethical standards, however the loudness of the sound must
be kept within a certain limit to avoid physically harming the participants. Furthermore, individuals with heart
conditions or those who are easily frightened must be informed of the potential for loud, sudden noises which
may scare them. Thus, informed consent is necessary, and preventing as much undue stress and harm would
be ideal.

2. A criminal psychologist wants to carry out an observation of how prostitutes convince someone
to have sex. He will do this by a covert observation, where he poses as a person wanting her
services.
There is a lack of informed consent from the prostitute, and are unaware that they are participating which is
needed. Deception is also used, as the psychologist is not fully truthful and this may cause undue psychological
trauma to the prostitute in the future.

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3. A developmental psychologist wants to test the problem solving abilities of elderly people
residing in a retirement home. He goes from room to room in the center and asks them if they
would be willing to do a Suduko puzzle.

4. In order to determine the role of vasopressin, a hormone, on the sexual behaviour of animals,
DNA which promotes the production of vasopressin is grafted onto the DNA of animals that lack it.
Preventing undue harm is the key idea here - ensuring that the DNA drafting will not have any averse or greatly
harmful effects on the animals should be considered before continuing. The study would not be approved
without evidence that DNA grafting will not greatly harm or cause undue harm to the animal.

5. A researcher wants to carry out a series of interviews with a group of Afghan War veterans to
assess the extent to which personal experience in the war has affected their perception of the future.
As bringing up their personal experiences in the war might cause undue stress - the veterans should be
informed that the study asks about this specifically, without any deception as there is no need for deception and
it cannot be justified here.

6. A psychologist hopes to explore the motivation of students for academic dishonesty – for
example, plagiarism or cheating on an exam. In order to do this, he hopes to obtain student records
from the head of the school.
The consent of the students’ & their parents are not being taken into consideration, nor were they informed that
their records would be used for a study. There is a lack of informed consent, and all records must be
anonymized (no names are associated with specific records).

7. A psychologist wants to study male sexuality with a sample of university students. He is


planning on using a focus group in which they will discuss their earliest sexual thoughts, and
whether they have ever had homosexual fantasies. In order to guarantee the accuracy of the data,
the focus group will be recorded.
Participants should be informed that they will be recorded, told that they have the right to withdraw (and remove
their data from the study) and that this recording will be deleted after all necessary data is collected, so as to
protect them.

8. A school psychologist wants to try out a new approach to reading for 5-year-olds. The plan is to
have one class have this new special program and the other class would continue with the former
program. The goal is to see if the group with the new program develops higher reading skills than
those without it.

9. A child psychologist wants to test the effect of television violence on children’s behaviour. She
will show a group of 6 year old children a movie in which a murderer hunts down and kills small
children. She will then have the children work in pairs on a frustrating puzzle to see if they exhibit
any aggression toward each other.
The children’s parents must be asked for consent. The children are not protected from undue stress and harm
since they are being exposed to an extremely violent movie - this would be considered undue stress and may
have a lasting psychological impact on the children.
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