Discuss+ethical+considerations+related+to+research+studies+at+the+socio-cultural+level+of+analysis.

Common Ethical Considerations
 * An ethical consideration is a consideration of what is acceptable to do in a study. Researchers always have to balance between what they want to find out and the rights of participants
 * Different professional organizations of psychologists have drawn up different set of guidelines or principles. Examples are American Psychological Association (APA) and British Psychological Society (BPS)


 * 1) 1. Informed consent
 * 2) a. Participants must be formally asked to indicate their agreement to participate. They should be informed about the general purpose of the experiment and their rights. Most experiments do involve informed consent.
 * 3) 2. Use of deception
 * 4) a. Participants are sometimes deceived about the true nature of the study because knowledge might alter behavior to fit the experiment. There needs to be strong justification for deception.
 * 5) b. Example of deceptive experiment: Milgram’s experiment. This experiment measured the willingness of a participant to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts against their conscience and deceived people into believing they were hurting others, which might have caused discomfort and psychological damage
 * 6) 3. Protection from harm
 * 7) a. Avoid any situation that may cause a participant to experience psychological or physical damage
 * 8) b. Example of harm: Zimbardo’s prison experiment. The participants were separated into 2 groups; the prisoners and the guards. They were then brought to an area that functioned as a mock prison and was said to last for 2 weeks. However, the experiment was canceled after only 6 days. Through the corruption of power of the guards physical and mental harm came about the experiment.
 * 9) 4. The right to withdraw
 * 10) a. Participants have the right to withdraw at any time during the study
 * 11) b. In Zimbardo’s prison experiment people felt they did nt have the right and were sometimes coerced by other participants into staying
 * 12) 5. Confidentiality
 * 13) a. Researchers should not record the real names of any participants, they should use numbers of false names
 * 14) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">6. Debriefing
 * 15) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">a. Participants are informed of the true nature of the study after the research has taken place
 * 16) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">b. The aim of debriefing is to restore the participant to the state she was in at the start of the experiment