In one line: Psychologists study people, so they are responsible for how those people are treated. No result is worth harming a participant.
Imagine a friend asks you to help with a school project.
She gives you a puzzle that cannot be solved, tells you everyone else finished it in two minutes, and secretly films your face.
How would you feel when you found out? That feeling is why research has rules.
Every study is weighed on two things
- Benefit: what the study could teach us, and who that could help.
- Cost: the time, stress or risk for the people who take part.
Responsibility is one of the six concepts of the course. An ethical consideration is any point about treating participants fairly and without harm.
Before a study may run, its benefits are weighed against its costs. This is a cost-benefit analysis, and it is usually done by an ethics committee.
Remember: People before data.
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Key idea: Six duties protect participants before, during and after a study.
The six considerations
Informed consent
People agree to take part, knowing what it involves.
It has three parts: they are given enough information, they understand it and can ask questions, and they are free to say no.
Anonymity
No names are used, and nothing in the report can identify a person.
The data are kept private: this is confidentiality.
Right to withdraw
People can stop at any time, and can have their data taken out.
They are told this at the start, and nobody pressures them to stay.
Deception
Misleading people about the aim of a study, or leaving part of it out.
It is avoided where possible. If a study cannot work without it, it must be mild and explained afterwards.
Protection from harm
No undue stress: participants must not be embarrassed, frightened or hurt.
The risk must be no greater than in ordinary life.
Debrief
At the end, people are told the real aim and their part in it.
They are told about any deception and why it was used, and their questions are answered.
Consent · Anonymity · Right to withdraw · Deception · Undue stress · Debrief
Take a study in which people are told they have failed an easy test, to see how they react.
Their consent was not fully informed, they were deceived, and there is a risk of undue stress. A careful debrief, and the right to withdraw their data, are what could make it acceptable.
The six in one word: The first letters spell CARDUD: Consent, Anonymity, Right to withdraw, Deception, Undue stress, Debrief.
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Key idea: Each duty has situations where it cannot simply be followed.
Five hard cases
Children
A child cannot legally give consent.
A parent or guardian consents for the child (consent by proxy), and the child agrees too (assent).
Observing in public
Asking first would change how people behave.
So watching without consent is accepted only in places where people expect to be seen by strangers.
Deception that is needed
Some studies cannot work if people know the aim, because they would act differently.
A placebo study is an example: people must not know which pill is real.
Small groups and long studies
In a small group, details can identify a person even without a name.
In a study that follows people for years, researchers must know who they are.
Sensitive topics
Emotional topics can upset people in ways the researcher cannot see.
Vulnerable people need extra care, and support after the study.
Children · Public places · Needed deception · Small groups · Sensitive topics
The right to withdraw has hard cases too. In a focus group, one person leaving affects everyone. And payment must never make people feel they have to stay.
Hard does not mean optional: When a duty cannot be met in full, the researcher has to do more elsewhere.
After deception: a fuller debrief. With children: permission from parents and from the school.
Key idea: Ethical rules protect people. They also change the data a study collects.
| Rule | What it does to the data |
|---|---|
| Informed consent | Those who agree may differ. Knowing the aim changes how people act |
| Right to withdraw | Drop-outs leave a smaller, less typical sample |
| Anonymity | More honest answers, but no way to follow up |
| Deception | More natural behaviour, but data may be withdrawn |
| Protection from harm | Some questions cannot be studied at all |
| Debrief | Repairs harm and keeps trust in research |
Losing participants during a study is called attrition. If the people who leave differ from those who stay, the result is biased.
This is why ethics is not only a list of rules. It is part of judging how far a study's findings can be trusted.
Exam tip: A safeguard can be good for participants and a limit for the data, in the same study.
Say both: "Anonymity protected the students, and it also made honest answers more likely."
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How this is asked: Responsibility is one of the concepts you can be asked to explain in relation to your class practical, for 4 marks.
It is also one of the concepts offered in the longer question on a study you are given.
Your class practicals
- Your class runs four small studies of its own, called class practicals.
- They are an experiment, an interview, an observation and a survey.
- Paper 2 asks about the ones your class ran.
- Keep a short note of each: aim, what you did, who took part, what you found, and the ethics.
The answer pattern
- Say what responsibility means in research, in one sentence.
- Give one ethical consideration and what your class did about it.
- Give a second one in the same way.
- Add a third, or say what more could have been done.
The trap: a list of all six: Six considerations named, with no practical in them, stay in the lower half of the marks.
Two or three, each tied to what your class did, say more.
Your class practical was an experiment on memory. Twenty students from another class were told it was a test of reading speed, so that they would not try to memorise the text. Afterwards they were asked ten questions about it. Explain the concept of responsibility in relation to the experiment in your class practical.
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See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.