Ethics in Research

ASSIGNMENT NO 1
Research Methods and Theory
Names and Id:
Tehreem Fatima
-F2021381014
Section:
Instructor:
Ms Sana Fatima
-------------------------
Department of Clinical Psychology
School of Professional Psychology
University of Management and Technology, Lahore
2023
Ethics in Research
What are Ethics
Ethics are defined as the norms of conduct or norms of acting in any social or moral act
that is acceptable and has many distinguished characteristics from unacceptable acts. These can
be learned in any institute and they also vary from one place to another, so these are also
adaptive skills essential to operate in society.
A different way of explaining ethics paves the way for disciplines that study ethical
conduct in an operational way such as Law, Psychology, Theology, Sociology, etc.
Psychological research also integrates methods, processing, and perspectives of ethics in the
conduction of any study and without these ethical boundaries, there will be no checks and
balances on researchers, which will disrupt the carefully curated social roots as we know them.
Reasons for Integrating Ethics in Research
There can be numerous reasons for ethical consideration in research, but these norms clarify
the goals and end product of the research being conducted. In all summarization, there are five
reasons why there is a need for ethics in the conduction of scientific research.
1. Enhancing aims of research: these can be the responsibility of being truthful about the
data being collected and rejecting the falsification of the work to get the desired results. It
ensures the honesty of research and its positive impact on the world.
2. Emphasizing values of collaborative work: Since research requires a lot of group-based
work and interaction with others. So ethics promotes values that are needed for
collaborative work, such as trust and mutual respect, etc. It includes patents, copyrights,
and the protection of research from being stolen in the modern technically advanced
world.
3. Accountability to the public: Researchers are funded by the public for the researchers
and this part makes them accountable to the public. The public has the right to uphold the
research on animal care, environmental consequences, and adequate use of the resources.
4. Helping the people: Making sure that the people or the benefactors of the research don’t
feel out and that they can trust the process till the end product along with the integrity of
the work.
5. Integrating moral and social values: the check-in of human rights, social responsibility,
public health, and safety and not following them can cause concerns about the safety of
the researchers and subjects.
Ethical Codes and Principles in Research
There are several codes and conduct that a human must adhere to, but renowned research
associations (David B. Resnik, 2020) APA, NIH, and FDA and in the world have their specific
ethical rule books that they follow and these books make sure they don’t cause harm to the
research competency of the work being done. Some of the common ethical principles in the
research area are as follows:
 Honesty: the most important value of a researcher is to be honest with the work and
people around. E.g. do not publish one paper under two different journals.
 Confidentiality: Protect confidential communications, patient records, personal record
keeping, and classified government work and subjects demographic data in the research.
 Objectivity: eliminating biases as much as you can. All the data analysis and data
interpretation should be conducted and peer-reviewed by people who have no skin in the
research hence making the research objectively secured.
 Integrity: Keeping a check on agreements, allowances, favors, and promises being kept
by you during research. E.g. if you promise a grant to someone in exchange for data
collection you must fulfill that promise ethically.
 Carefulness: avoiding errors, negligence, data errors, and inappropriate testing methods.
Keeping good backup data and records in time for emergencies.
 Transparency: Clearly disclose the process of the conduction of the research
 Accountability: Researchers are responsible for their research and hence they should be
ready to defend it against possible future accusations and required justification.
 Competence: Being adept in the selected topic for the ethical accuracy of the research.
The researcher should possess expertise in solving the problem stated.
 Protection of Subjects and Property: Protection of the privacy of the subjects and their
confidential data, taking precautions with sensitive populations in vulnerable states, not
conducting poorly designed animal research, and always legally yourself and your
research from thefts.
Ethical Decision-Making in Research
Even with diverse ethical codes, all the occurring situations cannot be dealt with and
that’s where ethical dilemmas and ethical judgements come around. It is of utmost importance
for researchers to learn different cases, problem-solving methods, and ethical interpretations.
Case Study
Ali is testing on mice for the induction of a new sleep medicine and the protocol requires
30 mice for the research to be valid. He has worked with over 28 mice, but due to lack of time as
he has to pack for his long-awaited family get-together and failure to experiment on the two
remaining mice, he extrapolates from 28 completed results to produce the remaining 2 results.
Ethical misconduct in the aforementioned study:
 Falsifying data and hence jeopardizing the whole research.

 Personal biases and irrational behavior
 Self-deception and immoral behavior
 Poor record keeping and miscalculations in this case can cause harm to several people
just due to sloppiness.
 Producing wrong and only desired data for getting biased end results. Thus wrongfully
manipulating data and eventually causing harm to the people who will take the
underdeveloped sleep drug.
Conclusion
Educating researchers about the ethical importance of research by introducing those

creative concepts, tools, principles, and methods can result in a reduction of personal biases and
misconduct in research. In time must face some kind of controversial topics about the
surroundings and only by being proficient in ethical conduct a researcher can conduct valid and
trustworthy research.
References
David B. Resnik, J. P. (2020, December 23). What Is Ethics in Research & Why Is It
Important? Retrieved from National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences:
https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/index.cfm

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ASSIGNMENT NO 1

Research Methods and Theory

Names and Id:

Department of Clinical Psychology

School of Professional Psychology

University of Management and Technology, Lahore

What are Ethics

Reasons for Integrating Ethics in Research

Ethical Codes and Principles in Research

Ethical misconduct in the aforementioned study:

 Falsifying data and hence jeopardizing the whole research.

Educating researchers about the ethical importance of research by introducing those

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