ETHICS--CHAPTER 3

Modified: 2006-02-10

Outline

LOST IN THE MALL
- Elizabeth Loftus and the Lost in the Mall studies
PRISON GUARDS AND PRISON INMATES
- Phillip Zimbardo's prison simulation study
WOULD YOU SHOCK A STRANGER?
- Stanley Milgram's obedience experiments
HISTORY OF ETHICS
- History
  - Ancient religious codes
  - Ethics as philosophy
  - Christianity and ethics
  - Modern religious codes
  - Relativistic vs. Absolutist
- Psychology and Ethics
  - Watson & Rayner--Little Albert
  - Landis--unexpected shocks
  - Nazi "experiments"
  - World War II and Nuremberg Code
  - Psychology and its ethical code
    - how to analyze data
    - how to analyze data
    - how to report results
THE INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD (IRB)
- Review research proposals
- Recommend ethical and methodological changes
- TAMUT IRB Information
THE ETHICAL PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGISTS AND CODE OF CONDUCT (ETHICAL CODE)
- General Principles
  - A. Beneficence and Non-Malificence
  - B. Fidelity and Responsibility
  - C. Integrity
  - D. Justice
  - E. Respect for People's Rights and Dignity
- Ethical Standards
  1. Resolving Ethical Issues
  2. Competence
  3. Human Relations
  4. Privacy and Confidentiality
  5. Advertising and Other Public Statements
  6. Record Keeping and Fees
  7. Education and Training
  8. Research and Publication
  9. Assessment
  10. Therapy
- Specific Standards
- Ethical Standard 4.01, Maintaining Confidentiality
- Ethical Standard 8, Research and Publication
  - Responsibilities to Participants
    - Informed consent 8.02 (same as 3.10)
    - Dispensing with informed consent (8.05)
    - Deception in research (8.07)
    - Debriefing (8.08)
    - Other Responsibilities to Participants
      - Informed consent for recording (8.03)
      - Special populations (8.04)
      - Inducements ((8.06)
  - Responsibilities to Psychology
    - Reporting research results (8.10)
    - Plagiarism (8.11)
  - Ethical Standard 8.09, Animal Research
- An Ethical Debate
  - Smoker Compliance to Newly-moved "No Smoking" Signs
    - Second hand smoke
    - Permission to move signs
    - IRBs consulted?
SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY AND SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT
- Honest mistakes
  - Good science may be ethically risky
  - Incompetence
- Unethical behavior
  - Peer review
  - Scientific misconduct
RETURN TO SHOCKING STRANGERS, THE PRISON, AND THE MALL
- Milgram and Obedience
  - Caused changes (informed consent) to ethical standards
- Zimbardo and the Stanford Prison Experiment
  - Study worked too well
- Loftus and the Lost in the Mall Studies
  - Teaching and research distinction
ETHICS AND YOUR PERSONAL RESEARCH
- Read the Ethics Code
- Discuss your project with classmates and instructor
- Research and ethics are inseparable

In the Know

In the Know--Psychology is not alone in its concern for ethics. Nearly every professional organization has its own code of ethics. Look at the CD&endash;ROM or the Web page that accompanies this book to find ethics codes published by other professional organizations.

In the Know-- A current exception to informed consent relates to United States military personnel. Executive Order 13139 (September 30, 1999) allows the Department of Defense to administer "new investigational drugs" to members of the military without their consent. On October, 28, 2004, federal judge Emmett Sullivan ruled that the order did not apply to anthrax vaccines (Judge halts forcing of anthrax shots, 2004). After, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) filed a motion to resume the vaccine (Files, 2004) and administered it to at least 250 service members despite the court's ruling (Divis, 2005). Sullivan eventually allowed the DoD to resume administering the shots, but only to troops who voluntarily agree, citing a 2004 law which allows administering unapproved drugs during declared emergencies (Anthrax vaccinations allowed to resume, 2005).

GLOSSARY

confidentiality
- The requirement to keep research data about individual participants private.
deception
- Deliberately misleading participants about any aspect of the research.
debriefing
- Explaining to participants the nature, results, and conclusions of the research just concluded and correctioning any misconceptions they may have had.
ethical codes
- Written or widely accepted proscriptions about proper behavior and morality.
inducements
- Inducements for research may include cash, grades, or prizes to encourage or reward research participation.
informed consent
- Explaining to volunteer particpants about a study's purpose, duration, procedures, risks, discomforts, adverse effects, benefits, limits of confidentiality, incentives; their rights and freedom to decline or withdraw.
institutional review board (IRB)
- Group that reviews research proposals for ethical propriety.
Nuremberg Code
- Ten recommendations about permissible medical research. released after the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial.
peer review
- Formal process in which scientists judge colleagues' work submitted for publication or funding.
plagiarism
- The unintentional or intentional use of words or ideas of others without attribution.

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