day should discuss their observations and arrive at an agreement before finally giving it a meaning. In fact, one is better off, if the respondents too are involved in such meaning-making process. E THICAL I SSUES As you know, psychological research is concerned with human behaviour, the researcher is expected to follow certain ethics (or moral principles) while conducting the studies. These principles are: respect for persons’ privacy and choice to participate in the study , beneficence or protecting the participants in the study from any harm , and justice or sharing the benefits of research with all participants .
Some of the important aspects of these ethical principles are described as follows. . Voluntary Participation : This principle states that the persons on whom you want to conduct the study should have the choice to decide whether to participate or not to participate in the study. The participants should have the freedom to decide about their participation without any coercion or excessive inducement, and the freedom to withdraw from the research without penalty, once it has begun.
. Informed Consent : It is essential that the participants in a study should understand what will happen to them during the study. The principle of informed consent states that potential participants must receive this information before data from them are collected, so that they make an informed decision about participation in the study. In some of the psychological experiments, electric shock is given to the participants during the experiment.
Still in some cases obnoxious (e.g., harmful or unpleasant) stimuli are presented. They may at times be required to give some private information, which is generally not shared with others. In some studies, the technique of deception is used in which the participants are given instructions to think or imagine in certain ways and are given false information or feedback about their performance (for example, you are very intelligent, you are incompetent). It is, therefore, important that the participants are explained the nature of the study before its actual commencement.
. Debriefing : Once the study is over, the participants are provided