Читать книгу Abnormal Psychology - William J. Ray - Страница 141

Ethics is the study of proper action. Ethics examines relationships between human beings and provides principles regarding how we should treat each other. The ultimate decision in ethical questions resides in judgments of value. Ethical considerations of psychological experimentation have at their heart the idea that people participating in research should not be harmed (see Ray, 2012). Specifically, at the end of an experiment, participants should not be affected in a way that would result in a lower level of human functioning. This includes emotional distress.

ethics: the study of proper action

In most cases, the scientist has a question that he or she wants to ask and that the participant is willing to help answer. In some cases, the participants learn something about themselves from the experience and they are glad to have participated. In brain imaging studies, for example, participants often report that they enjoy seeing their brain activity (e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging [fMRI], electroencephalography [EEG]) displayed. Thus, they are willing to participate in research in exchange for these types of experiences.

If these experiences were always pleasant and any changes in the participant always positive, participants would participate gladly in experiments, and scientists would face few ethical questions. However, at times the scientist may want to answer a question that requires that the participant experience psychological or physiological discomfort. In terms of psychopathology, we need to be especially certain that the individual with a particular disorder understands what is being asked of her and can freely respond. These situations raise a number of questions:

1 What are the responsibilities of the scientist toward the participant?

2 What are the rights of the participant?

3 Are there guidelines for reconciling conflicts between the rights of the participant to pursue happiness and the rights of the scientist to pursue knowledge?

4 What type of relationship or dialogue would be most productive for helping the scientist and participant to fulfill their needs and desires?

Since the 1950s, the American Psychological Association (APA) has published a set of guidelines. This is available online at www.apa.org/ethics/. In 1974, the National Research Act was signed into law in the United States. This law sought to protect human research participants. In response to the law, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare held a conference in 1976 and produced a report. This is referred to as the Belmont Report (http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/belmont.html). The Belmont Report identifies three basic ethical principles—respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.

1 Respect for persons includes the idea that people can choose on their own whether to participate. Further, people with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection. This suggests that all individuals with mental disorders must be protected in research. An important consideration is to determine if individuals can speak for themselves and are able to agree to be part of an experiment.

2 Beneficence is to be understood as meaning that researchers should do no harm as well as maximize possible benefits and minimize potential negative experiences.

3 The third ethical principle of justice is a statement that research participation should be available to all people and not just to special classes or groups. This principle is operative in at least two different ways: first, that researchers use more than an easily accessible or compromised sample such as people in a mental hospital and second, that groups of individuals not be excluded. For example, during the middle of the twentieth century, little was known about the manner in which different types of treatments for mental disorders were influenced by cultural factors. Part of the problem was that individuals from some ethnic origins were not recruited into research studies. Another problem was that clinicians tended not to offer African Americans the same choice of treatment alternatives offered to white Americans.