Ethics

The other day in class we learned about Ethics in Psychological Research. We reed through experiments we learned what it meant to be ethical or not. Ethics are: "the rules of conduct recognized as appropriate to a particular profession or way of life." Knowing what is ethical and what is not is important when you run test on human to research something. We talked about 6 different guidelines for Human Research Participants these you should think about when running a test, they are:

1. Consent
1. Being the researcher you must obtain a consent for the participant. basically you need to have a written document saying that the participant agreed to do what they were told. you must always make sure they know exactly what they are getting them self into and you have to be aware of limited understanding and accommodate to them.
2. Deception
1. You need to avoid lying to the participant whenever possible, sometimes you may not be able to avoid it. You may not lie to the point that when you tell them what you lied about they will have objection or feel uneasy.
3. Debriefing
1. After the the data has been collected you must explain everything that has happened. After you have told them what has happened they need leave in the same state that that they arrived in.
4. Withdrawal
1. You have to inform the participant that they can withdrawal from the experiment at any point in time and it must be made clear.
5. Confidentiality
1. Unless the agreement states otherwise all of the experiment has to be kept confidentially between the participant and the researcher.
6. Protection
1. The participant must not have any mental or physical damage done during the experiment, going back to number 3 they must leave in the same state they entered in.

If you don't know all of these things before you decide to take part in Human Research you might take part in unethical activities and not know all of your rights.
I learned a lot about telling if experiments are ethical or unethical and what my rights are during the research project.