Question

Describe why ethical considerations are important and how a lack of ethics would impact the field of psychology and research (Please be detailed, at least 100 words)

Answer 1

In Britain ethical guidelines for research are published by the British Psychological Society and in America by the American Psychological Association. The purpose of these codes of conduct is to protect research participants, the reputation of psychology and psychologists themselves.

Moral issues rarely yield a simple, unambiguous, right or wrong answer. It is therefore often a matter of judgement whether the research is justified or not. For example, it might be that a study causes psychological or physical discomfort to participants, maybe they suffer pain or perhaps even come to serious harm.

Ethical issues in psychology became increasingly important in the last part of twentieth century, and are now firmly established as a significant part of modern psychology. They do not only feature as an area of study in their own right, but all psychological research is increasingly under scrutiny with regard to its ethical implications. Studies which were previously considered as acceptable are no longer regarded to be do.

Ethics and ethical principles reach to all aspects of human activities .The basic principles of research ethics are nowadays firmly established. However, it was not always so. Many researchers from the past centuries conducted studies on patients without their consent and with little, and often even without concern for their well-being. Even tough there were some instructions for ethical research dating from the early 20th century, they did not prevent scientists in Nazi .