Ethics in psychology worksheet

APA Code of Ethics Activity

University of Phoenix

PSY 335—Research Methods

Directions:

Consider the following factual and fictional descriptions of research. Select the APA ethical guideline for researchers that the research violates, if any.

Exercise 1

You are a student in a beginning psychology class and one of the assignments in the course is that you have to participate in your professor’s study on eye tracking when reading technical articles. The participation in the study is required and has a value of 25 points.

Is this a violation of APA research guidelines?

Yes, it violates Principal 8.01—Institutional Approval

Yes, it violates Principal 8.04—Client/Patient, Student, and Subordinate Research Participants

Yes, it violates Principal 8.06—Offering Inducements for Research Participation

No, it is not a violation of an APA research guideline

Exercise 2

A researcher videotapes patients to see their reaction to wait time for appointments. The patients do not know they have been taped and were not asked for permission for the tapes to be filmed.

Is this a violation of APA research guidelines?

Yes, it violates Principal 8.03—Informed Consent for Recording Voices or Images in Research

Yes, it violates Principal 8.05—Dispensing with Informed Consent for Research

Yes, it violates Principal 8.07—Deception in Research

No, it is not a violation of an APA research guideline

Exercise 3

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was a project conducted by the US Public Health Service in Alabama. The American Government promised 400 men free treatment for bad blood. The treatment was never given to the men and was purposely withheld. The study sample was made up of poor African American men who were not aware they were being studied for the effects of syphilis.

Is this a violation of APA research guidelines?

Yes, it violates Principal 8.02—Informed Consent to Conduct Research

Yes, it violates Principal 8.05—Dispensing with Informed Consent for Research

Yes, it violates Principal 8.06—Offering Inducements for Research Participation

No, it is not a violation of an APA research guideline

Exercise 4

A study involved a group of children diagnosed with mental retardation, who lived at a state hospital for children with mental retardation. The children were deliberately infected with a contagious disease. The study’s purpose was to study the history of the disease when left untreated and later to assess the effects of a new medication as a treatment. Parents were encouraged to enroll their children in the study in exchange for admission of their child to the state hospital (which was deliberately short of space).

Is this a violation of APA research guidelines?

Yes, it violates Principal 8.04—Client/Patient, Student, or Subordinate Research Participation

Yes, it violates Principal 8.06—Offering Inducements for Research Participation

Yes, it violates Principle 8.07—Deception in Research

No, it is not a violation of an APA research guideline

Exercise 5

A psychologist is conducting research and has approval from his medical school’s Internal Review Board (IRB). The original submission to the IRB stated the study would use written informed consent forms. Later on, the researcher decided to use oral informed consent instead of written consent forms. The researcher decided that even though he had changed the procedures, he did not need to clear this change through the IRB and proceeded with the research project.

Is this a violation of APA research guidelines?

Yes, it violates Principal 8.01—Institutional Approval

Yes, it violates Principal 8.02—Informed Consent to Conduct Research

Yes, it violates Principal 8.05—Dispensing with Informed Consent for Research

No, it is not a violation of an APA research guideline

Exercise 6

A psychologist is conducting research and conducts phone interviews with 500 participants. The project interviews take 7 months to complete and the researcher decides it will be too much trouble to contact each participant after the study to share information with them, so they never receive any information after their initial interview.

Is this a violation of APA research guidelines?

Yes, it violates Principal 8.03—Informed Consent for Recording Voices or Images in Research

Yes, it violates Principal 8.05—Dispensing with Informed Consent for Research

Yes, it violates Principal 8.08—Debriefing

No, it is not a violation of an APA research guideline