Running head: ETHICS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL
Ethics in Psychological Research Paper
Heather Van Den Arend
University of Phoenix
Ethics in Psychological Research Paper
Ethics are an important concept in psychological research. The rules of ethics outline how researchers are to deal with certain issues such as the release of information, care of animals, and use of human subjects in research studies. This paper will define the term ethics and how it pertains to psychological research. The paper will then discuss the concept of the risk/benefit ratio. Finally, this paper will describe the use of human subjects in psychological research and evaluate the impact of the use of human subjects on psychological research.
The National Research Act was signed into law in 1974. This law created the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. This act ensures that institutions which receive research funds from federal agencies must develop committees to review any research which will be sponsored by that institution (Schaughnessy, et.al., 2006).
Anyone who is submitting a research proposal to conduct experiments or studies involving human subjects must submit a research proposal to the committee that has been set-up to make sure that all ethical standards are being met. These are called Institutional Review Boards (IRB). The IRB has the authority to deny the researcher’s proposal, as well as approve it, or make the researcher modify the proposal before it can be approved.
Human research participants are possibly at risk for injury if they are exposed to harmful environments or events. Whenever human subjects are involved in research they face this risk; it could only be avoided by ending all participation of human subjects in research experiments. The job of the IRB is to ensure that this risk is minimal to all human subjects involved in psychological research. Some of the potential risks to human subjects in...