Human Growth and Development

Ethics in Research Psychological research often involves human participants, requiring strict ethical guidelines to ensure fair and safe treatment. Informed Consent Informed consent means ensuring that participants understand the research they are considering and can make a free decision about whether or not to participate. ●​ Clear explanation: The purpose, methods, risks, and benefits of the study must be explained. ●​ Participant rights: They must be told they can withdraw at any time and ask questions. ●​ Voluntary participation: There must be no pressure to participate. Example: Before a study on sleep habits, participants are given detailed information about how data will be collected and how it might be used. Privacy and Confidentiality ●​ Participants (or their guardians) must be informed that their data will be kept confidential . ●​ Researchers must ensure that participant identity is protected , and data security measures are in place. Example: A study on teenagers' mental health anonymizes responses so that no specific individual can be identified. Deception in Research (Ethical Use of Misleading Information) Deception occurs when researchers withhold or mislead participants about a study’s true purpose. ●​ Why use deception? It reduces bias so that participants behave naturally. ●​ Ethical issue: It violates informed consent because participants don’t fully understand what they’re agreeing to. In the famous Milgram experiment , for instance, participants were led to believe that they were assisting Milgram with an entirely different experiment and that they needed to obey him as their superior, but this precisely allowed him to study their degree of obedience. While deception can be considered a valuable tool, it raises ethical concerns because it goes against the regulations of informed consent. Here's what informed consent typically involves: In developmental psychology, protecting privacy is especially important, particularly for children.

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