In one line: How findings are reported and used matters as much as how they were collected.
Looking after participants is one part of responsibility. Once the results exist, there is a second part: social responsibility.
Findings travel. One study can become a headline, a rule in a school, or a belief about a whole group of people.
Remember: The duty follows the finding.
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Key idea: After a study: report honestly, do not label groups, and think about misuse.
Three duties
Report honestly
Give the results as they are, with their limits.
Say how uncertain they are. Do not hide results that do not fit.
Do not label groups
A small difference on average is not a fact about every person in a group.
Think about misuse
Ask how the finding could be used to treat people unfairly, and word it so that this is harder to do.
Honest · No labels · No misuse
Suppose a study finds a small average difference between two groups on a memory task. An honest report says how small it is. It adds that it tells us nothing about any one person. And it does not let the result become "group X cannot remember things".
Watch out: An average is not a person.
Most people in the "lower" group may score higher than many in the other group.
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Key idea: Some findings can hurt a group of people. And some findings should be acted on.
Protect
- Some research is socially sensitive: it is about groups that are already treated unfairly
- A careless report can add to stigma: a mark of shame on a group
- Duty: report with care, and say what the finding does not show
Speak up
- Psychologists advise schools, courts and governments
- They hold a position of power
- Duty: press for changes that the evidence supports (advocacy)
If research shows that starting school later helps teenagers to sleep and learn, staying silent is also a choice. Telling those who set school hours is part of the job.
Use it in an answer: Ask two questions about any finding: who could be hurt by how it is reported, and who should be told?
How this is asked: Responsibility is one of the concepts for the 15-mark essay on Paper 1. It is also one of the four concepts in the 15-mark question on a study you are given.
Responsibility for how findings are used is a point many answers miss.
The essay pattern
- Say that responsibility goes on after the study ends.
- Honest reporting: limits and uncertainty.
- Groups: averages, labels and stigma.
- Misuse, and the duty to speak up.
- Finish with a judgement.
The trap: stopping at consent: Consent and debriefing are about participants.
This question is about what happens after: reporting and use.
In the context of health and well-being, discuss the responsibilities of psychologists when they report findings about mental health.
Model answer plan
See the answer broken into clear points, with guidance on how each point earns marks.