Transcript Issues in Psychology

• Focus on the important questions:
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Why are ethics important?
What are the issues?
What is and isn’t acceptable?
How should we make ethical judgements?
• Avoid writing essays about how naughty
Milgram & Zimbardo were
• Use the studies to illustrate your discussion of
the issues
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Ethical issues in psychology
• A number of reasons including:
• Moral obligation to society
• Professional values (‘amelioration of the
human condition’)
• Image of the discipline and profession
• Practical reasons e.g. getting participants
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Why are ethics important?
• Research practices that threaten
(directly or indirectly) the well-being of
the participants e.g.:
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Informed consent (lack of)
Deception
Risk of harm (physical/psychological)
Confidentiality & privacy (threats to)
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What are the issues?
• Deontological
• The correctness of an action lies in itself, not its
consequences
• E.g. lying is always wrong, even if it produces a
good outcome
• Teleological
• The correctness of an action is determined by its
intended consequences
• E.g. lying is good if it is done for the ‘right’ reasons
(like protecting a person from harm)
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Ethical perspectives
• Utilitarian
• A form of teleological ethics
• The moral correctness of an action is determined
by its consequences for society as a whole
• “The greatest good for the greatest number”
• Psychological researchers usually take a
utilitarian view, but with certain absolute
prohibitions
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Ethical Perspectives
• Where ethical problems arise, a costbenefit analysis is often applied, where:
• Costs are the (potentially) negative
consequences of the research – usually for
the PPs involved (NB: SSR)
• Benefits are the (potentially) positive
consequences of the research for the PPs
or (more usually) for society
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Making ethical decisions
• Provides a framework for making ethical
decisions
• Involves subjective judgements about
costs and benefits
• Consequences cannot always be
anticipated e.g. Zimbardo, Milgram
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Cost-benefit analysis