Ethical Procedures and Guidelines Defining Pschycological Research
Psychological research is often a very controversial subject among experts. Many people
feel that there are many moral standards that are often not followed. Others may believe
that there is much harmful misinformation that can often be harmful to subject and
others. Still others believe that psychology is a lot of theories without any
reinforcing information. Whether any of these assumptions may be true or not, there have
been guidelines created which serve to silence many critics of the science. These
guidelines make research safe and structured, which will protect the subjects from
unnecessary harm.
As psychology advances, there is seen a need for more rules and regulations for the
ensurement of subject comfort. Hence, there are many more rules now than even twenty
years ago. These rules really encompass a few broad but very important ideas. One of
these ideas is protecting the dignity of the subjects. Another important component of
this code refers to consent. All of these will be explained in greater detail below.
Another gray area in psychology lies in the deception of subjects. There are some basic
rules guiding how deceptions can be carried out. There is a large section of the code
that was made with regards to animal research. The last major section of the ASA ethical
guidelines has to do with giving credit where credit is due, and information sources.
All of these regulations make research safer for the subjects and increase the
effectively of psychological research.
In psychological research, protecting subjects dignity is very important. Without
willing subjects the research process would be brought to a halt. In order to protect
the subjects' dignity, the lab experiments must be well prepared, and ethically
appropriate. Only subjects who are targeted should be affected, and if a large number of
people are to be affected, psychologists should consult experts on that specific group.
Psychologists are to be held directly responsible for the ethics that are utilized
during the experiment. In addition to this psychologists are bound by the normal,
governmental laws concerning research. In addition to these regulations concerning the
law and standards, psychologists are required to inform subjects of the basic procedure
that they will be agreeing to. This flows into the idea of informed consent.
Informed consent means basically that the subject must be informed of the basic
procedure that they will be agreeing to. There should not be any variations from the
agreed upon plan. Whenever there is a doubt about whether or not informed consent is
necessary , an institution or expert in the area of the subjects should be consulted.
One complicating factor in this sector is deception in research. In order to conduct
certain experiments, it is helpful to psychologists to deceive the participants, with
respect to exactly which experiment is being performed upon them. The rules concerning
this are effective, but (necessarily) rather vague. First of all, psychologists are
never supposed to use deception unless no other alternative of method for the experiment
at hand is available. The deception cannot be in a manner that would affect the
participants' decision to participate. And any deception that takes place should always
be explained as soon as possible, after the experiment has reached its conclusion.
In order to preserve subjects dignity, the information about the experiment that the
subjects have participated in should be made available to the subjects as soon as
possible. This includes, the exact nature of the experiment, the results , and the
conclusions of the experiment. This will probably have been already agreed upon by the
experimenter and the subject, but just in case, the experimenters are required to honor
all commitments made to the subject. This improves the credibility of the whole science,
as a whole.
When the subjects are not human, there are still rules governing the treatment of such
subjects. These pertain mostly to protecting the (relative) comfort of these subjects
during experimentation. Basically, when experimenting upon animals, basic care procedures
must be followed. When anesthetic or euthanasical procedures are to be used, they must
be carried out in a fashion that will be both professional and comfortable to the
subjects. Obviously, the procedures that can be carried out upon animals are more
drastic than those on humans because there is no informed consent involved in the study
of animals, and the procedures can be justified because the results are purportedly
supposed to assist in the betterment of the human race.
The last area of ASA code lies in reporting information. The natural plagiarism laws
are, as always, in effect. This is in addition to many precise scientific falsification
laws. These state that a scientist may not falsify or fabricate information, first of
all. Also, if a psychologist discovers any significant errors in the study after the
fact, steps to correct these errors must be taken immediately. Also, the psychologists
must give credit when it is necessary, and never neglect to leave any information out.
All of these regulations seem to be very logical, and it is well that they should. They
have been developed over hundreds of years throughout the study of psychology. With
respect to current times, these rules seem like they are sufficient, but the book of code
should never be closed. There will always be a new situation where a new addendum is
required to protect a subject, or to assist in the research. As is the case with
therapy, there will, without a doubt, be court cases that will change the code of ethics.
But the ASA codes seem to be as proficient as any that are practical in this age. Some
of these regulations may inhibit the immediate results that can be gained, but without
them, there would be a definite lack of willing participants to volunteer. This would
essentially bring psychological research upon humans to a halt.
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