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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requires that each scientist whose institution receives federal funds must seek a review of the ethical considerations of research with human participants, whether or not there is a deviation from the APA guidelines. Known as an institutional review board (IRB), this type of review committee is required to judge the appropriateness not only of proposed psychological research, but also of any type of research with human participants. The committee that reviews the research is to be made up of people who work at the same university, hospital, school, or other institution as the scientist and to also include members of the community where the institution is located.

Institutional review boards review the ethical considerations of research with human participants.

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The main task of the IRB is to determine whether the participants are adequately protected in terms of both welfare and rights. One major question that the committee asks is the following: Are there any risks—physical, psychological, or social—associated with participating in a given piece of research? Almost everything we do each day involves varying degrees of risk, so the committee attempts to determine when a risk is unreasonable.

The committee also considers the potential long-term effects of a particular treatment on a person. For example, asking a participant to run a mile, to give a small sample of blood, to have his or her heart rate measured, or to discuss his or her sexual preference or childhood involves some risks in the way the term is used by most internal review committees. However, the IRB may decide that, in light of the information that would be gained, these risks are not sufficient to prevent the study from being performed. Thus, a second major question that a review committee asks is the following: Are the risks to the participants outweighed by the potential benefits to them or by the estimated importance to society of the knowledge to be gained? If the committee determines that the answer to this question is yes, a third question is asked: Has the experimenter allowed the prospective participants to determine freely whether they will participate in the experiment? Finally, the committee asks the following: Will the experimenter obtain the participants’ informed consent?