Apply ethical principles and research methods to psychological investigations, including informed consent, confidentiality, debriefing and the role of ethics committees.

What this dot point is asking

This Unit 4 dot point asks you to apply ethical principles to the design and evaluation of psychological research.

Core ethical principles

• Informed consent: voluntary agreement based on adequate information; for minors, parental or guardian consent is also required.
• Right to withdraw: participants may leave at any time, including withdrawing their data afterwards, without penalty.
• Confidentiality and privacy: identifying information is kept secure and results are reported anonymously.
• Protection from harm: physical and psychological harm must be minimised and should not exceed everyday life.
• Deception: withholding or misleading about the true aim is permitted only when no alternative exists, the risk is low, and it is approved; participants must be debriefed.
• Debriefing: restoring participants, correcting any deception, and offering support or referral.

The role of ethics committees

Before research begins, a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) reviews the proposal to ensure it complies with ethical guidelines. In Australia these guidelines follow the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) National Statement, and the Australian Psychological Society (APS) Code of Ethics governs professional conduct. The committee weighs the potential benefits of the research against the risks to participants and can require changes or reject a study.

Evaluating classic studies against modern standards

Several landmark studies would not pass a modern ethics committee, which makes them excellent material for evaluation questions.

• Milgram's obedience study caused participants severe stress and used deception about the shocks; participants could not easily withdraw given the experimenter's prompts.
• Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment exposed participants to psychological harm and the researcher's dual role as superintendent compromised oversight; it was stopped early.
• Watson and Rayner's Little Albert study conditioned fear in an infant who was not desensitised afterwards, breaching protection from harm.

Research methods and ethics together

Good design and ethics are intertwined. A study that uses an unrepresentative, coerced sample is both methodologically weak and ethically questionable, while one that protects participants but cannot answer its question wastes their goodwill. WACE expects you to apply both lenses: identify the independent and dependent variables and how each is operationalised, the experimental design, the sampling method and likely confounds, and at the same time check that consent, withdrawal, confidentiality, protection from harm and debriefing are properly handled. Deception, in particular, trades a small loss of informed consent for control over demand characteristics, and is only acceptable when the risk is low, there is no alternative, it is approved by an ethics committee, and participants are fully debriefed.

Confidentiality, privacy and data

Confidentiality means that participants' identities and data are protected and that results are reported anonymously, often by using codes rather than names and by reporting grouped data rather than individuals. Privacy means participants control what information about themselves is collected and how it is used. Breaching confidentiality can cause real harm (embarrassment, discrimination or distress), which is why secure storage, anonymisation and limited access are standard requirements that an ethics committee will check before approving a study.

In the exam, name the specific principle (not just "it was unethical"), give the evidence from the study, and weigh harm against benefit when reaching a judgement.