Ethical Considerations

Getting participants to agree to participate in the study before it takes place and also providing enough information so they can make an informed decision about if they want to participant.

• Debriefing

• Right to withdraw

• Informed consent

• Deception

After the study has finished, researchers reveal full details about the study, including aims, methods, results and maybe possible applications. This is when any deception is clarified.

• Debriefing

• Right to withdraw

• Informed consent

• Deception

Participants are given the right to stop participating in the study at any time. This can be made known during the informed consent phase of the study.

• Debriefing

• Right to withdraw

• Informed consent

• Deception

If any psychological or physical harm is expected as a result of the experiment, there needs to be a valid reason for this. This is relevant for studies on animals and humans.

• Debriefing

• Right to withdraw

• Informed consent

• Justification

When someone’s name is unknown - in research, this may involve not revealing real names (e.g. HM, SM) and/or removing names from lists of data.

• Confidentiality

• Right to withdraw

• Anonymity

• Justification

This is when you lead someone to believe something that’s not true. This is sometimes required to ensure validity of results, but should be justified and may be revealed during debriefing.

• Confidentiality

• Deception

• Anonymity

• Justification