Edexcel Psychology for A Level Year 2: Student Book

Ethics Applying your knowledge An example of a synoptic exam question linked to human ethics: Assess whether ethical conduct by psychologists working with participants just means not lying to them or harming them. (20) The paragraphs below illustrate how you might answer this: Lying to participants relates to the BPS principle of respect. If you lie to participants (deception) they can’t give informed consent, as in Milgram’s studies. Some participants may have objected to being in a study on obedience, for example if they would be upset by its aim to understand the Holocaust. They had no opportunity to raise such a moral objection. So in relation to the standard of respect, lying is a critical ethical problem in psychology, partially agreeing with the statement. (82 words) Sometimes, lying is essential. Deception may be the key to validity, or observations of people in public places may make obtaining consent impractical. Baddeley (1966b) relied on the participants not knowing he was studying semantically- and acoustically- related words and Sherif et al ., in their 1961 study of boys at Robbers Cave, needed participants to be unaware they were being observed. Nevertheless, psychologists should resolve problems caused by lying using a debrief to reassure the individual and restore them to their previous state. (83 words) Ethics in human research The BPS code of ethics and conduct (2009) identifies four principles: respect, competence, responsibility and integrity. 1. Respect Respect for others can be shown in many ways. For example, privacy should be protected especially when studying personal memories, thoughts or beliefs. Confidentiality of data is a way to safeguard identity and thus protect privacy, especially when individuals may be personally identifiable, such as in the case study of the amnesic HM (Y1 page 197). Respect is also related to informed consent because individuals should be able to choose to participate in research. Truly informed consent is only possible when a person knows what will be involved. Sometimes this is not possible, for example HM was unable to fully understand he was a participant. Children may also have a limited understanding, such as those in Albert Bandura’s studies of social learning (Y1 page 140). Informed consent is not possible in covert observations, such as in Constantine Sedikides and Jeffrey Jackson’s (1990, Y1 page 31) study on zoo visitors nor in cases when deception is necessary, such as Milgram’s (1963, Y1 page 32) obedience research. Deception should be avoided but where it is essential (to maintain validity) it should be approved by an ethical committee or, as in Milgram’s case, by consulting with colleagues. 2. Competence This requires researchers to be skilled and up-to-date in matters related to their research area. For example, if researchers administer therapies, as may be the case in studies of cognitive-behavioural treatment they should be qualified to do so. 3. Responsibility Researchers must consider both participants and psychology in general. If participation is distressing, people could lose faith in psychology. For example, in the study by Charles Hofling et al . (1966, Y1 page 31), 85% of nurses obeyed instructions from a doctor on the telephone to give a patient a dose of unknown medication that exceeded the maximum given on the label. It would have been upsetting for the nurses when they realised they were capable of making such an error, and more generally, could make people less willing to trust health services. 4. Integrity Truthfulness matters, so researchers should be honest and fair, for example, avoiding deception where possible and ultimately giving experimental and control groups in clinical studies of therapies equal access to the most effective therapy. Ethics in animal research The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and Home Office regulations govern the use of animals in research. Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 This law requires researchers to consider causes of psychological distress and physical pain in animals, such as housing, feeding and social companions. For example, social isolation and food deprivation in Skinner box procedures cause animals distress and Ivan Pavlov’s studies on dogs would have caused physical pain in the initial procedure to insert the salivary drain tube. Home Office regulations Compliance with the Act is monitored by Home Office inspectors. They check that acceptable people (researchers and technical staff), procedures and premises are being used in research. For example, research using surgery to investigate biological factors affecting aggression would need to demonstrate that the researchers were humanely killing animals after the study. The three Rs Animal suffering is reduced using the 3Rs: replacement, reduction and refinement. Researchers aim to replace animals with non-animal alternatives, to reduce the number of animals used to the minimum needed to achieve effective results and to refine procedures to minimise suffering. Justifying animal research Animal research is necessary because more procedures and controls can be used with animals than with humans, including pain. For example, biological psychologists investigating aggression inject animals with testosterone and justify this because knowledge about the effects of testosterone can be used to reduce human violence. An alternative view suggests that such use of animals can never be justified as we don’t have the right to harm other species in order to protect ourselves. Part of such arguments say we are so different from animals, especially in terms of our social behaviour (e.g. we can talk and have complex social structures) that generalisations are invalid anyway. On the other hand there are parallels (e.g. in brain structure and function) and such disadvantages may be outweighed by the advantages. Remember that ethics in human and animal research was covered in the Research methods chapter in our Year 1 book. Notice that the title is ‘Applying your knowledge’ unlike our more usual ‘Check it’ questions.This is because all issues and debates questions require you to apply your knowledge of issues/debates to the psychology you have studied. 17