Debates in Psychological and Critical
Thinking
The Ethics of Participant's Rights - Lecture 2
Why do ethical issues arise for psychologists?
- humans and animals are sentient beings that feel emotions as reactions to situations
What do psychologists study?
- the scientific study of the mind and how this influences our behaviour
- sometimes emotions experienced by participant are not deliberately induced by the
researcher
- Electric shock experiment included deception
Ethical considerations for all psychological research
- privacy and confidentiality
- respect
- communities and shared values within them
- impacts on the broader environment, living and otherwise
- issues of power
- consent
- self determination
- importance of compassion
Why do we need ethics codes?
- respect, competence, responsibility, integrity, max benefit and min harm =
overarching code
- shared collective duty of care for all living creatures
- the changing world creates new ethical challenges
Ethical awareness, reasoning and action
- ethical awareness = what issues may arise from a course of action
- ethical reasoning = being aware of competing biases when completing ethical
challenges
- ethical action = consider motivations and ability to act ethically
Issues of consent
- sufficient info given
- freely and voluntarily given permission
- withdrawing or modifying consent
- can ask for your data to be withdrawn within agreed and consented limits
- consider participant age, vulnerabilities and safeguarding
Deception
- false informing and withholding some info are very different
- debate of whether deception is unethical
- observational research only okay in situations where people would expect to be
observed by strangers
Protecting the individual vs benefitting the society
- Ethical debates focus on protecting the individual
- We need to consider ethics in the broader sense
, - Improving quality of people's lives and society as a whole
Ethics of researching with non-human animals
- evolutionary continuity between humans and other species
- therapy animals
- understanding animal behaviour
- consideration of the BPS guidelines for psychologists working with animals
- active promotion of animal welfare is encouraged
Psychologists as agents of change
- Some ethical issues for psychologists as practitioners eg. counsellors:
- informed consent
- influence of therapist
- behavioural control
What and who is psychology for?
- Most psychs are motivated by positive values
- learning to be ethical also involves:
- being concerned with our responsibilities to each other
- recognising and tackling ethical conflicts
- understanding power differences
- consulting committees of practice
February 27th 2023
Free Will and Determinism
- 5, 5, 4, 3, 4 Score = 21
What is free will?
- we can decide what we do/think/feel
- we are capable and able to choose our path, autonomous
- we are not forced, coerced or constrained
- we can change our plans/goals/paths as desired
- implications of moral responsibility/accountability
- requires the mind to interact with our body (dualism) - Descartes 1664
Determinism
- you do not decide what you think/do/feel
- all thoughts, actions etc caused by antecedent conditions
- no other outcomes possible
- played out from the beginning of time
- does not require mind to interact with body (materialism)
Philosopher's views
Determinism
- everything we do is caused by forces over which we have no control
- if our actions are caused by forces over which we have no control, we do not act
freely
- therefore we never act freely
- cause and effect eg. physics, chemistry
- materialism: your brain is your mind - no outside decision making processes
Problems with it
- our understanding of physics has progressed from newton causal laws
- quantum mechanics: probabilistic, not casual
Thinking
The Ethics of Participant's Rights - Lecture 2
Why do ethical issues arise for psychologists?
- humans and animals are sentient beings that feel emotions as reactions to situations
What do psychologists study?
- the scientific study of the mind and how this influences our behaviour
- sometimes emotions experienced by participant are not deliberately induced by the
researcher
- Electric shock experiment included deception
Ethical considerations for all psychological research
- privacy and confidentiality
- respect
- communities and shared values within them
- impacts on the broader environment, living and otherwise
- issues of power
- consent
- self determination
- importance of compassion
Why do we need ethics codes?
- respect, competence, responsibility, integrity, max benefit and min harm =
overarching code
- shared collective duty of care for all living creatures
- the changing world creates new ethical challenges
Ethical awareness, reasoning and action
- ethical awareness = what issues may arise from a course of action
- ethical reasoning = being aware of competing biases when completing ethical
challenges
- ethical action = consider motivations and ability to act ethically
Issues of consent
- sufficient info given
- freely and voluntarily given permission
- withdrawing or modifying consent
- can ask for your data to be withdrawn within agreed and consented limits
- consider participant age, vulnerabilities and safeguarding
Deception
- false informing and withholding some info are very different
- debate of whether deception is unethical
- observational research only okay in situations where people would expect to be
observed by strangers
Protecting the individual vs benefitting the society
- Ethical debates focus on protecting the individual
- We need to consider ethics in the broader sense
, - Improving quality of people's lives and society as a whole
Ethics of researching with non-human animals
- evolutionary continuity between humans and other species
- therapy animals
- understanding animal behaviour
- consideration of the BPS guidelines for psychologists working with animals
- active promotion of animal welfare is encouraged
Psychologists as agents of change
- Some ethical issues for psychologists as practitioners eg. counsellors:
- informed consent
- influence of therapist
- behavioural control
What and who is psychology for?
- Most psychs are motivated by positive values
- learning to be ethical also involves:
- being concerned with our responsibilities to each other
- recognising and tackling ethical conflicts
- understanding power differences
- consulting committees of practice
February 27th 2023
Free Will and Determinism
- 5, 5, 4, 3, 4 Score = 21
What is free will?
- we can decide what we do/think/feel
- we are capable and able to choose our path, autonomous
- we are not forced, coerced or constrained
- we can change our plans/goals/paths as desired
- implications of moral responsibility/accountability
- requires the mind to interact with our body (dualism) - Descartes 1664
Determinism
- you do not decide what you think/do/feel
- all thoughts, actions etc caused by antecedent conditions
- no other outcomes possible
- played out from the beginning of time
- does not require mind to interact with body (materialism)
Philosopher's views
Determinism
- everything we do is caused by forces over which we have no control
- if our actions are caused by forces over which we have no control, we do not act
freely
- therefore we never act freely
- cause and effect eg. physics, chemistry
- materialism: your brain is your mind - no outside decision making processes
Problems with it
- our understanding of physics has progressed from newton causal laws
- quantum mechanics: probabilistic, not casual
