Ethics In Psychological Research

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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Every psychological research requires maximum ethical conduct. If there is any form of deception then the research is not valid unless under special circumstances. It is necessary then to define what ethics is and what deception is. The two terms are widely used in the society and especially when dealing with morality and the norms of a society in general. This term is also commonly used in research and therefore it is important to know what they denote and their effects.

Definition of Ethics
It is a word whose origin is Greece, ‘ethos’ in Greek refers to an individual’s character or behavior. Ethics in the current society is a term widely used in psychology and it denotes a body of rules governing how people in the society should behave in actions and words. It judges what is considered to be wrong and what is considered to be right. In the field of research it refers to the principles that govern researchers in their work. It also guides in the evaluation of the research work to ensure that there is no deception. Until 1960, there was no ethics in research and this was the reason behind many cases ...
... of deception and lack of privacy. Ethics in research is very important because it helps protect those who participate in research and ensure maintenance of privacy in peoples’ research work (Stanly et al. 1996, p. 118)

Risk/benefit ratio
Whether or not it is ethical to use deception psychological research is what has been imminently discussed in the past at the moment. It is usually argued that as long as the use of deceptive measures does not affect the participants then it is worth using it. There are some participants who do not mind whether they are deceived or not. Yet others end up giving up on the research as a result of lack of confidence. It is clearly shown that some deceptions like methodical deception are very important in knowing the morally important information incases of behavioral tendencies. Research participants and other individuals are left to their on way of thinking (Ortman et al. 1998, p. 806).when the benefits and costs are compared they are almost the same since there are participants who are negatively as well as positively affected.

Deception
Research writing emphasizes on revealing the true picture of an issue. One of the definitions given to it is, not telling those who participate what they ought to know, and also informing them wrongly on what they should know. Another definition is, giving people information which will misguide them regarding what they were studying. This second definition is used in psychological research. It is also defined as misstatement of fact (Stanly, et al. 1996, p. 118).

Deception therefore occurs when a researcher, conceal the details of what other participants ought to know. In professional writing, this is firmly considered to be wrong or unethical. For example the American psychological Association, takes it as a great offense. Participants have to be fully informed of the source of the information so that if they want to retrieve it, they can easily do it. In several experiments, there is usually a need that the participants may not know about the hypothesis; this will then deceive them of the actual purpose for undertaking the research. It can also be done by failing to reveal the feedback of the results of the study carried out (Zechmeister et al. 2008).

Some of the information that people are usually deceived about are purpose of research, the researcher’s role and the guidelines followed while undertaking the research.
Lying to the participants can have an influence either of encouraging them to continue participating in the research or not to. In psychological research cases of deception are attributed to have first occurred way back in 1954 as reported by W.E in his article, ‘Deceiving Experimental Subjects’. He addressed the issue of balance between science and how to treat research subjects. Unfortunately for him, this subject on ethics was not taken in seriously. It was not until Stanly Milgram brought up the issue once again in 1963 and this led to greater awareness by Diane Baumrind in 1985 on the need to stop deception on psychological research (Stanly, et al. 1996 p. 119).

Ethics in APA for instance, only allows the use of deception when the risks involved in the study are few and when there are no other ways out. It is reported that there are alternatives in other places which are given to deception. For instance an individual can be asked to imagine that he or she is in a certain situation and is expected to respond accordingly. This is role playing (Stanly et al. 1996, p. 118).

Impact of deception on research.
Participants after discovering that they have been deceived usually lose trust on the researchers. This mostly leads to the withdrawal of the participants since they no longer have confidence in them. The participants may not even clear the research they were undertaking and this becomes a draw back to psychological research. An example is given of Oliansky in 1991 who reported participant’s rejection of any more research when they had been deceived. Those participants who are negatively affected usually show that even the general public is affected by the same. Most of those who carry research are college students and are therefore greatly affected since they are misled basing on the information they receive. Some of the information they are given as they undertake experiments may not be easy to investigate. It also affects how the participants will behave towards the researcher. The ability of the researcher o overlook the research is then compromised a great deal (Stanly, et al. 1996, p. 118)

Surprisingly also, it is evident that there are people who like being deceived. There are some who report that their likelihood of taking up more research increased after they had found out that they were deceived. Smith and Richardson confirm this in 1983 where they report that the participants of a certain research were glad to continue dealing with researches of deception. According to them, they had benefited more from it than if they had undertaken the experiment with no deception. (Stanly et al, 1996, p. 118).

Basing on the findings on the effect of deception on the participants, this led Bonett in 1998 to conclusively say that deception may not ultimately affect a participant on his or her willingness to keep on participating on research even in the future (Stanly et al, 1996, p. 119).

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