What Is Ethical Research?

( Ethics in Research) What Is Ethical Research?

Although the focus of this chapter is the ethical treatment of human and animal participants in behavioral science research, concern about the welfare of research participants is only one aspect of ethics in behavioral research. The ethical concerns of scientists also involve maintaining honesty in conducting and reporting scientific research, giving appropriate credit for ideas and effort, and considering how knowledge gained through research should be used. Determining whether a research project is ethical is a diffi cult enterprise because there are no clearly “right” or clearly “wrong” answers to ethical questions. By defi nition, ethics involves values, not facts. Nevertheless, as we will see, there is an agreed-on set of basic ethical principles that must be adhered to by those conducting research.  

       Ethical concerns are not unique to the behavioral sciences. Rather, they are part of the process of conducting research in any scientifi c fi eld. Physicists have long debated the ethics of having helped develop the nuclear bomb. Biologists worry about the potential outcomes of creating genetically engineered human babies, and chemists are concerned about the environmental effects of the chemicals they devise. Medical researchers agonize over the ethics of withholding potentially benefi cial drugs from control groups in clinical trials in which only some of the participants are given the drugs and of using animals to test potentially dangerous medical treatments. In each of these cases, however, scientists have justifi ed their decision to conduct the research with the belief that in the long run the potential gains of the resulting knowledge will outweigh any potential costs that may be incurred by participants or by society at large. 

          Some research, such as the forced participation in medical experiments conducted on prisoners by the Nazis during World War II (which gave rise to the Nuremberg code), is perceived as immoral by almost everyone. Other procedures, such as the use of animals in research testing the effectiveness of  drugs, or even the practice of asking an individual to complete a questionnaire without fi rst informing him or her what the questionnaire is designed to assess, are more controversial. However, because scientifi c research is designed to and has provided information that has improved the lives of many people, it is not reasonable to argue that because scientific research has costs, no research should be conducted. This argument fails to consider the fact that there are signifi cant costs to not doing research and that these costs may be greater than the potential costs involved in going ahead with the research project (Rosenthal, 1994). 

          Treating research participants ethically matters not only for the welfare of the individuals themselves but also for the continued effectiveness of behavioral science as a scientifi c discipline. For one thing, if society begins to question the ethics of behavioral research, this may create a general suspicion about and mistrust of the results of scientific research. Unethical behavior may also lead to government sanctions against the conduct of behavioral research. For instance, the concealed recording of jury sessions by psychologists led to the passing of legislation that entirely banned such studies (Vaughan, 1967). These issues demand that scientists assess the ethical principles of each and every research project and realize that they may have to change or potentially even abandon certain research procedures.

         This chapter discusses how scientists make judgments about ethical principles regarding the use of humans and animals as research participants. These decisions rely on the individual values of the scientist, as well as established ethical codes developed by scientifi c organizations and federal governments. In the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services provides the guidelines for ethical standards in research, and these are available at www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.htm. Perhaps the most relevant organization for behavioral scientists is the American Psychological Association (APA); a summary of this organization’s guidelines for ethical research with human participants is presented in Table 3.1. The basic goal of the chapter is to inform you about these guidelines and to thoroughly discuss the relevant issues, so that you will be able to use this knowledge to develop your own conclusions and guide your own decisions. We will focus on four basic goals of ethical research (Diener & Crandall, 1978): 

• Protecting participants from physical and psychological harm

• Providing freedom of choice about participating in the research

• Maintaining awareness of the power differentials between researcher and participant

• Honestly describing the nature and use of the research to participants