Identifying Ethical Issues In Brief Research Plans

Computer Games and Violence

The ethical issue raised by the plan is in regards to the rights to self-determination and privacy. The participants are in a way being forced to participate as all the parents of the 8-11 year old students are being sent the questionnaire. Moreover, the children are being used quite unethically as they will be exposed to 3 hours of field and not field play observation. Thus, participants are being utilized without their consent as the nature of the experiment can be unacceptable for many.

An important aspect of the identified problem is in regards to the concept of self-determination of the participants (The British Psychological Society, 2014). The parents of the children will be sent questionnaires without their prior approval. Participants do not go through any debriefing. Thus, the parents will have no idea why the information is being taken. Three hours of observation of potentially violent behaviors of students can pose serious threats to the integrity of the students. Students may end up being harmed by their classmates as there is no mention of any preventive measures in the experiment.

Firstly, the much required recommended changes are in regards to informing the parents of the kids about the whole purpose of the experiment. The questionnaires need to be distributed to parents only after proper permission is taken and assurance about the safety of their kids are provided. During observation for finding potentially violent behaviors there should be ample security that is provided.

References-

The British Psychological Society. (2014). Code of Human Research Ethics. Leicester.

The effectiveness of victim support training is being focused in the research. However, the major ethical issue identified in the case is that the participants are not being briefed properly about where the report will get published. The publishing of the report in the national psychology student’s council needs prior approval of the participants. Moreover, the records of the previous gang victim families will be checked and the families will be approached without consent.

The major problem that has been identified can serve to undermine the respect for autonomy and privacy of the individuals. Firstly, the participants are not being given proper information about where the results will be published (Gavin & Rodham, 2017). Secondly, the previous victim families may feel that their privacy has been harmed due to their inclusion without prior notice. Communities that are to be involved in an experiment need to be treated with respect for their privacy, autonomy and dignity (The British Psychological Society, 2014). It has to be remembered that the risk is greater as the gang violence victims are a vulnerable group.

The most important change to be made is to inform all the participants about the publishing of the report at the psychology students’ conference. Moreover, all the participants irrespective of being volunteers or the victim families need to be consented before the experiment as otherwise this can result in serious breach of privacy.

References-

Gavin, J., & Rodham, K. (2017). from ethical rules to ethical puzzles: Research ethics in the digital age. Psychology Review, 23(1), 2-5.

The British Psychological Society. (2014). Code of Human Research Ethics. Leicester.

There are serious concerns in regards to the breach of ethical considerations in this project. Firstly, the participants are being directly mislead into participating into the interview. They are being deceived by providing false information about the experiment. Moreover, the essay assignment is compulsory part of the course. This means that the research can have far reaching impact on their future prospects of the students (Walliman, 2017).

The identified significant ethical issues with regards to the project are breach of social responsibility, maximizing the potential for harm rather than the benefits of the participants and providing deceptive information (The British Psychological Society, 2014). The participants will enter the experiment thinking that they have entered another experiment to test other research topics. The participants’ future can be greatly harmed if the teachers give them lower marks as a result of the experiment. The risk factor and the breach of integrity are serious issues (Deterding et al., 2015).

It is firstly recommended to give the participants actual true information in regards to the research and the focus of the research. Moving forward the experiment considering the usage of actually valuable course related essay assignments should be immediately scrapped. A completely harmless environment of an essay competition can be used as a replacement research scenario. The participants should be used only with their prior consent.

References-

Walliman, N. (2017). Research methods: The basics. Routledge.

The British Psychological Society. (2014). Code of Human Research Ethics. Leicester.

Deterding, S., Canossa, A., Harteveld, C., Cooper, S., Nacke, L. E., & Whitson, J. R. (2015, April). Gamifying research: Strategies, opportunities, challenges, ethics. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2421-2424). ACM.

Deterding, S., Canossa, A., Harteveld, C., Cooper, S., Nacke, L. E., & Whitson, J. R. (2015, April). Gamifying research: Strategies, opportunities, challenges, ethics. In Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2421-2424). ACM.

Gavin, J., & Rodham, K. (2017). from ethical rules to ethical puzzles: Research ethics in the digital age. Psychology Review, 23(1), 2-5.

Gray, B., Hilder, J., Macdonald, L., Tester, R., Dowell, A., & Stubbe, M. (2017). Are research ethics guidelines culturally competent?. Research Ethics, 13(1), 23-41.

Hedgecoe, A. (2016). Reputational risk, academic freedom and research ethics review. Sociology, 50(3), 486-501.

The British Psychological Society. (2014). Code of Human Research Ethics. Leicester.

Walliman, N. (2017). Research methods: The basics. Routledge.