Critical Discussion of Ethical Issues

Critical discussion of ethical issues

Introduction

In attempting to address the topic, I will be giving an outline of ethical issues, and will be discussing Informed Consent. Issues like deception, debriefing, confidentiality, protection from psychological and physical harm and right to withdraw, will also be brought to light.

Ethical issues in research are a set of guidelines about how to carry out research with humans as well as animals. These guidelines were brought in by the American Psychological Association in 1992 and the British Psychological Society in 1998. These guidelines were set as a result of extensive social research, which included conformity and obedience studies. Coolican argues, "In all circumstances, investigators must consider the ethical implications and psychological consequences for the participants in their research. The essential principle is that the investigation should be considered from the standpoint of all participants: foreseeable threats to their psychological well-being, health, values or dignity should be eliminated." (Coolican, 1999 p.475). Their key role is to ensure that researchers do not take advantage of their participants as they have in the past. There have been instances of torture and harm done to participants as shown in Milgram's Study of 1963. The ethics committee is responsible to ensure adherence to general guidelines and adjudication of any complaints.

The most discussed ethical issues are deception, debriefing, confidentiality, protection from psychological and physical harm, informed consent and right to withdraw.

Discussion

Deception

Deception in social research is argued to be necessary and as Hogg suggests some degree of 'trickery', 'deceit' and 'lying' is required in order for the researcher to fulfil their hypothesis. If deception is not upheld, then the researcher would not get a high level of validity. This is because the participants are likely to behave in a manner the experiment would like them to (Hogg, 2005 p.19).

Debriefing

Debriefing concerns keeping the participant fully informed to his or her satisfaction. The participants should be given the opportunity to ask questions and they should be answered honestly. However, Beumrind believes that once deception has taken place then no amount of debriefing is able to rectify the wrong that has taken place (Hogg, et.al 2005 p.25). Debriefing is usually used as an excuse for not debriefing in the first place, and the researchers justify their methodology by stating they have debriefed after the research has taken place. In addition, debriefing is often used to overcome the fact the researcher did not get informed consent at the start of the research. Researchers must thoroughly debrief their participants after the experiment and explain the nature of their research, including their involvement and purpose of the research. The researcher must explain if any misleading has occurred within the study and the reasons behind any deception to the satisfaction of the participant. The participants should be given the opportunity to ask any questions and should be answered honestly.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was one of the most discussed ethical issues in experiments since the study of Milgram in ...