Deception in Psychological Research

Even though codes of ethics are written down, they are not known as rules, but it is given to set the boundaries of what is and is not an acceptable way to conduct research

Retaining information from anyone in the medical field can be beneficial, and also detrimental depending on the situation. In the 1950s, doctors thought it was acceptable to keep information from patients, especially, the poor black population. The “paradox benevolent deception” was a “common practice” among Henrietta’s doctors at John Hopkins. The biggest misconception she endured was, “Henrietta asked her doctor when she’d be better so she could have another child…until that moment, she didn’t know the treatment left her infertile” (Skloot, 47). At the time, African Americans were uneducated, and doctors failed to take the time to explain certain medical terminology. Doctors conceal information from their patients because they believe it

The American Counseling Association has also developed a Code of Ethics that all counselors are bound to follow to uphold the integrity of the profession. The Code of Ethics has a specific area devoted solely to research and how procedures should be handled. First and foremost, researchers should follow all federal, state, and local laws pertaining to research with human subjects (ACA, 2005). The Code of Ethics also explains that researchers are responsible for the well being of their subjects and they should take special precautions to avoid harm in any way, including physical,

This provides a guideline that ensures that researchers minimize the amount of risk a study may impose to a participant. When planning a study, it is also important that each of the participants are provided with a sense of security and not placed at a disadvantage. When participants enter into a study, a level of trust is established, and their identities and the information they provide must be protected and never be used against them or exploited for any reason.

Failure to protect subject’s personal information, is an example of not complying the above two principles in the research industry. Researchers are in a position of dealing with a great deal of very personal information that their participants have agreed to disclose. Depending on the type of study, personal identifiers such as names, birthdates, places of residence etc. may or may not have to be collected. In situations where these data are collected, researchers may take several steps to ensure the confidentiality of their participants’

A number of key terms describe the system of ethical considerations that the modern research establishments have set up to protect the rights of research subjects. Voluntary participation and confidentiality are principles that demands that the respondents to be free from coercion in any way when participating in the research, protected in the raw data, and published

Our study will comply with standard ethical research procedures. We will obtain informed consent from our participants before they participate in our study. Our potential participants will be fully informed about what will happen during our study; in addition, they will understand the effects that our study will have on them and our research (Grinnell, Unrau, and Williams, 2014). We will not use bribery, deception, threats, or any other forms of coercion in order to gain participants for our study. The physical/emotional safety of the participants will come before the research; therefore, we will adhere to all ethical research procedures.

Informed consent most closely interrelates to the guideline of deception. Deception is possibly the most controversial and also the most important aspects of research in psychology. Deception occurs when the experimenter withholds information about the study or the true aim of the study. In psychological research, it is important to use the least amount of deception possible. In all cases the researcher must take careful consideration to the benefits of any deception. If deception is carried out the participant is likely to experience: a feeling of being uncomfortable, negative feelings towards the research, and suspicion of the research. However, sometimes deception is necessary for the researcher because if the participants understand the aim of the study they could act differently according to the aim of the study. For instance, in memory research the researcher can inform the aim of the study because the participants do not know what they will be asked to remember.

There are three basic ethical principles that researchers should adhere while conducting research. The three

In ordinary life, deception is typically justified on the grounds that it is for the benefit for the individual who is being deceived (Miller, 2012). In research work, it is common for research studies that evaluate fundamental aspects of human behavior to use deception while carrying out the research. The use of deception in research wok is usually one of the hardest ethical decisions that researchers are confronted with when conducting research studies. It may involve petty minor omissions of information about the research study to the respondents, or even an outright misinformation about the aim of the study. In most cases, the rationale for deception on fields such as human behavior is that it is not possible to obtain accurate information about how people behave when they know when they know what they are being observed or evaluated for (Bankert and Amdur, 2006). Stanley Milgram, a social psychologist, experiments on obedience to authority figures is a significantly prominent test in the study of the use of deceptions

Psychological research has been growing and developing new ways of studying human behavior, collecting knowledge and expanding our understanding of our nature. For instance, studies involving human subjects presented risks for violation of ethical research guidelines, by pushing the limits of human experience (Kim, 2012). Throughout history, there have been numerous studies that elevated this concern, such as the Milgram Experiment of 1963. One of the major ethical raised was that it lacked informed consent from the participants and eventually raised the issue of protecting human subjects. This paper examines the ethical compliance in psychological research and emphasizes the importance of ethics and professionalism by analyzing different

I’ve learned that it’s not necessarily what we find out from research but, where we gathered the information. We should be careful with how we find out information. With all information gathered, we must also gather participants. It is essential that those whom take on the role of scientific researcher of psychology that the guidelines of the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct be followed (Cozby & Bates, 2015, p. 47). Confidentiality and privacy is very important within research. Confidentiality is an issue when a researcher has assured subjects that the collected data are only accessible to people with permission, generally only the researcher (Cozby & Bates, 2015, p. 50). One major step to ensure proper treatment is to gather informed consents. An informed consent allows all participants to understand all parts of research might influence their active decision of

Ethical guidelines are the frameworks and standards that govern psychologists in conducting a morally justified research to respect the rights of the participants. Since the researchers are responsible for the welfare of the participants, it is vital for them to act in accordance with a specific strict code of ethics and moral principles. One of the common ethical framework used in many psychological studies is IVCARD where ‘I’ stands for Informed Consent, ‘V’ equals Voluntary Participation, ‘C’ is Confidentiality, ‘A’ being Accurate Reporting, ‘R’ is Right To Withdraw and ‘D’ as Do No Harm. Although there are few disadvantages of these strict ethical guidelines, the advantages outweigh them. This is evident from two of the

To ensure that a researcher’s enthusiasm for knowledge and understanding doesn’t let them get carried away, clear guidelines for ethical behaviour in research, a Code of Ethics, have been established by governments, institutions and various professional societies such as the American Psychological Association(APA), the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI).

The main reason why it is necessary to study misused and misleading psychology terms is because clarity is important in the field of psychology. Clarity in this context refers to the level of accuracy when using technological terms (Lilienfeld et al., 2015). Because the specific field of psychology includes ambiguous concepts like emotions, personality traits, and mental disorders, it is especially important for psychology students and professionals to be as clear as possible. Without enforcing clarity within the field of psychology, professionals and students may distribute and receive misinformation about these terms.