Study 1
The ethics panel received the following proposal:
Study 1
This study is designed to discover what effect peer pressure might have on people’s voting behaviour. Phase one of the study will involve adding a question stating ‘which party did you vote for at the last election?’ to the end of an in-class exam being taken by twenty undergraduate students. Phase two will take place a week later in a scheduled seminar, and consist of asking the same students, one after another, to tell the group as a whole whom they had voted for.
Think about the three ethics principles and how you might expect a psychological study to meet each one, and then decide whether you think this study meets each ethics principle.
Ethics principle 1 - Study 1
Wellbeing, health, values and dignity
Ethics principle 2 - Study 1
Informed consent
Ethics principle 3 - Study 3
Right to withdraw
Question 3
Would you give this study ethical approval?
Discussion
As is stated in this course, applying ethical principles is never that straightforward and there are often cases where people have differing opinions. Don't worry if you had different answers; instead concentrate on which aspects of the study we have linked to each of the three ethical principles.
OpenLearn - Psychological research, obedience and ethics
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