Psychologists' Ways of Dealing With Ethical Issues

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Psychologists' Ways of Dealing With Ethical Issues There are different ways that psychologists deal with ethical issues. One way is through use of ethical guidelines. These are concrete, quasi-legal documents that help to guide conduct within psychology by establishing principles for standard practice and competence. Another way is through the use of an ethical committee. This is a group of people within a research institution that must approve a study before it begins. An additional way is through socialisation. This is when psychologists get together and learn to take on each others ethical attitudes. A final way is punishment. A psychologist who disobeys the ethical code will have to appear before a special committee which judges the seriousness of the offence. The psychologist will then be dealt with accordingly. Deception is one of the many ethical issue that have been raised by social influence research. The BPS say that ‘intentional deception of participants over the purpose and general nature of the investigation should be avoided whenever possible. Participants should never be deliberately misled without extremely strong scientific or medical justification.’. Some forms of deception involve lying to participants about the nature of a study, such as Milgram’s study on obedience to authority. Participants were told that they were taking part in a study of how punishment affects learning, when in fact the study was on whether ordinary people will obey a legitimate authority even when required to injure another person. Other forms of deception involve the unfolding of important information that may effect participants willingness to take part in the study. An example of this is Zimbardo et al.’s prison stimulation experiment. Participants were not told all the ins and outs of the study, so they were not completely sure of what they were getting themselves in to. With full knowledge of all aspects of the study, many participants may have been less willing to partake. One way of compensating for deception is debriefing.

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