Hey Mutha Blogga's, now I genuinly dont know what to write about but I'm going to give it a shot.
Ethics in research are probably one of the largest factors to consider when thinking about designing a study. Its no good saying 'I'm going to study the effects of getting hit by a car on emotion' and asking for volunteers. Just no one will apply, unless theyre a little crazy anyway... The ammount of ethical considerations are now so important that they do govern what can and cant be done! I'll reduce the topic a little now though and discuss the 'debrief'.
To me, debriefing your participats is one of the biggies in the ethical consideration world. If you coduct an experiment and dont give them the full picture at the end there could be a lot of wonder, confusion or even stress as to what they just took part in, especially if the experiment requires you to go the extra mile in terms of performing certain tasks. (Milgrams study into authorities effect on obedience) http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/0155060678_rathus/ps/ps01.html
If the participants in Milgrams study were left to believe they had seriously injured or possibly killed another person who knows what damage could have been caused to their mental state. What do you think is the most important ethical consideration in psychology?
(Yeahh thats right I just a question to generate debate)
peace out
Ethics in research are probably one of the largest factors to consider when thinking about designing a study. Its no good saying 'I'm going to study the effects of getting hit by a car on emotion' and asking for volunteers. Just no one will apply, unless theyre a little crazy anyway... The ammount of ethical considerations are now so important that they do govern what can and cant be done! I'll reduce the topic a little now though and discuss the 'debrief'.
To me, debriefing your participats is one of the biggies in the ethical consideration world. If you coduct an experiment and dont give them the full picture at the end there could be a lot of wonder, confusion or even stress as to what they just took part in, especially if the experiment requires you to go the extra mile in terms of performing certain tasks. (Milgrams study into authorities effect on obedience) http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/0155060678_rathus/ps/ps01.html
If the participants in Milgrams study were left to believe they had seriously injured or possibly killed another person who knows what damage could have been caused to their mental state. What do you think is the most important ethical consideration in psychology?
(Yeahh thats right I just a question to generate debate)
peace out
you say about stress in what they 'JUST' participated in. Now although the debrief will always happen, it may not be just after (it seems im getting picky with words but i'm not...) Many experiments consist of two seperate parts. Now you wouldn't be able to debrief the participants until the experiment is fully completed. This may affect results otherwise. This could further be seen in experiments that take time so information cannot be passed on to other person. I myself have recently taken part in a study and i will not have the debrief until decemeber, 2 months after the initial experiment.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that debriefing is important in most studies, however this sometimes causes issues in experiments. For example what if the participants then felt angry, for being deceived, and chose to withdraw their results? Then the entire study would have been a waste of time and effort, and society would never have benefited from Milgram's findings. I personally believe that the right to withdraw is the most important ethic to consider. With naturalistic studies, if participants found that they were in a study without their own permission, they could easily sue the researcher as they were not given the chance to withdraw their results. So, the study would have been a complete waste of time and effort, but this is a risk the researcher is willing to take.
ReplyDeleteHi Katie, I suppose in that sense the right to withdraw and debriefing go hand in hand.. Say the participants weren't aware of the study they couldn't withdraw but say you debriefed them, you then take ethics into consideration as they are now aware of the study and they now have the choice to withdraw their data! Good point.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that debriefing is one of the important ethical issue in experiment. After each experiments, there should be debriefing and especially when the experiments contain deception. The part of debriefing is to make sure participants do not have any confusion, bad mood and emotion. I think this part is quite difficult for researchers to do as they can't guarantee the participants are feeling well after leaving. At least they may say "OK, I am fine" although they are not feel well. Usually after debriefing, researchers should hand in a consent form to those participants. Make sure they know the progress of experiment and feeling well before signing the consent form. Consent form make sure researchers and participants have no confusion between them.
ReplyDelete