The Process of Conducting Ethical Research in Psychology

Earlier in the history of the field of psychology, many experiments were performed with highly questionable and even outrageous violations of ethical considerations. Milgram's infamous obedience experiment, for example, involved deceiving human subjects into believing that they were delivering painful, possibly even life-threatening, electrical shocks to another person. This exhibited a blatant disregard for the mental well-being of those subjected to the experiment by not considering the drastic psychological effects of being tricked into purportedly hurting a fellow human being.

Controversial psychology experiments like this played a major role in the development of the ethical guidelines and regulations that psychologists must abide by today. When performing studies or experiments that involve human participants, psychologists must submit their proposal to an institutional review board (IRB) for approval. ​These committees help ensure that experiments conform to ethical and legal guidelines.

Ethical codes, such as those established by the American Psychological Association, are designed to protect the safety and best interests of those who participate in psychological research. Such guidelines also protect the reputations of psychologists, the institutions that sponsor psychology research, and the field of psychology itself.

Ethical Guidelines for Research With Human Subjects

When determining ethical guidelines for research, most experts agree that the cost of conducting the experiment must be weighed against the potential benefit to society the research may provide.

For example: when assessing the efficacy of a medication, is treating a test group of people who need this medication with a placebo worth the negative experiences that group might have during the experiment? Is the discomfort or suffering of a small group worth the larger goal of understanding how and for whom this medication would be most useful? These are some of the ethical considerations that go into the design of an experiment.

While there is still a great deal of debate about ethical guidelines, there are some key components that need to be followed when conducting any type of research with human subjects.

Participation Must Be Voluntary

All ethical research must be conducted using willing participants. Study volunteers should not feel coerced, threatened, or bribed into participation. This becomes especially important for researchers working at universities or prisons, where students and inmates are often encouraged to participate in experiments.

Voluntary participation has a two-fold advantage. Not only does it protect the rights and safety of the test subjects, but it also increases the likelihood of accurate results. Forcing someone to participate in an experiment can result in that person reporting what they think the researchers are hoping for rather than what they are actually experiencing, often in the hopes of their participation in the experiment ending sooner or ingratiating themselves to the researchers to receive a reward.

Researchers Must Obtain Informed Consent

Informed consent involves all study participants being told about every procedure involved in the experiment and informed of any and all potential risks. Consent must be documented in written form. Informed consent ensures that participants know enough about the experiment to make an informed decision about whether or not they want to participate.

For instance, if participating in a medication study, the participant must be informed that they might be receiving a placebo rather than the actual medication. It would be unethical to lead a participant to think that no matter what, they would be receiving medication. It must be documented that the participant understands this and agrees to it.

Obviously, this can present problems in cases where telling the participants the necessary details about the experiment might unduly influence their responses or behaviors in the study. The use of deception in psychology research is allowed in certain instances, but only if the study would be impossible to conduct without the use of deception, if the research will provide some sort of valuable insight, and if the subjects will be debriefed and informed about the study's true purpose after the data has been collected.

Some examples of ethical deception in psychology research include:

• Misrepresenting the purpose of the experiment so that participants do not realize they are being studied for certain behaviors
• Telling a participant they are interacting with other participants when actually they are interacting with a researcher
• Telling a participant they did well or poorly on a quiz or evaluation when they did not 
  

Researchers Must Maintain Participant Confidentiality

Confidentiality is an essential part of any ethical psychology research. Participants need to be guaranteed that identifying information and individual responses will not be shared with anyone who is not involved in the study.

Not only does this protect the anonymity of participants who might not want others to know that they qualified for or wanted to take part in a psychology experiment, but it also ensures that the participants are not purposefully altering their responses and behaviors during the experiment to protect themselves from potential feedback or backlash.

Protecting These Guidelines

While these guidelines provide some ethical standards for research, each study is different and may present unique challenges. Because of this, most colleges and universities have a Human Subjects Committee or Institutional Review Board that oversees and grants approval for any research conducted by faculty members or students. These committees provide an important safeguard to ensure academic research is ethical and does not pose a risk to study participants.