Principles-based Ethical Research

This video outlines the key principles that we follow when conducting psychological research.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand the principles-based approach to ethical research.
2. Understand the different ethical approaches used in different research environments.

Video

Question 1

In the context of research ethics, what do you think the following concepts mean?

• Scientific value
• Respect for persons
• Assent
• Social Responsibility

You can find answers after the video

Concepts like scientific value and social responsibility play important roles as ethical principles that guide our research. They help researchers to decide upon the types of questions they can ask, and how to answer those questions. In this video, we discuss the ethical systems that psychologists use to guide their research. You can also follow along the video using the slides below. For questions and comments, contact hugh.rabagliati@ed.ac.uk.

Download the slides for this presentation here.

Solution

Term	Discussion
Scientific value	Research needs to add new knowledge. For research subjects, taking part in research is a burden. If research is poorly designed or hapharzardly carried out, the burden of taking part is greater than the cost.
Respect for persons	People have the right to exercise their autonomy. This is why we conduct research using informed consent, so that our research subjects have the wherewithal to choose whether to participate.
Assent	Not all research subjects are capable of providing informed consent (like infants), but we still must ensure that they assent to participate.
Social Responsibility	Our research must be just, equitably distributing benefits and costs. And as researchers we must be trustworthy, ensuring that our participants’ data and participation is protected.

Quiz

Question 2

Cambridge Analytica harvested personal data from millions of Facebook users, without the research subjects’ explicit consent. How does this relate to the principle of Respect for Persons?

Solution

To act with Respect for Persons is to acknowledge that other people have autonomy, and should be able to choose whether to participate in research and provide their data for research. Because Cambridge Analytica did not gather informed consent for harvesting data, their actions did not allow the research subjects to act with autonomy, and so were not consistent with the principle of Respect for Persons.