Summary of Ethical Guidelines (as discussed in class)

Ethics refers to the correct rules of conduct that has to be followed when carrying out a research
(Singh, 2019). There are many committees under various organizations like the APA to govern
researches and the ethical issues revolving around them. Psychological and behavioural science-
based researches are majorly undertaken considering and following the ethical guidelines
published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Given below are the general ethical principles of psychological research –

1. Beneficence and Nonmaleficence – bringing benefits to people who take part in the test
or the research, protecting them from any personal, financial, social, organizational or
political factors that might misuse their influence, and to safeguard against any harm
2. Fidelity and Responsibility – psychologists are aware of the professional responsibilities
that they hold and the ethical rules and the code of conduct they should follow
3. Integrity – promoting accuracy, honesty, and truthfulness in the science, teaching and
practice of psychology
4. Justice – Granting access to and benefitting from the contributions of psychology and to
equal quality in the process, procedures, and services being conducted
5. Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity – Respecting privacy, confidentiality and
worth of people

Some other guidelines that psychologists need to keep in mind while testing are as follows –

1. Voluntary Informed consent

2. Debriefing
3. Protection of participants
4. Full information about deception (if used)
5. Confidentiality
6. Withdrawal procedure

Further, the guidelines provided by the Nuremberg code is very much applicable to all the
research taking place worldwide.

If asked to add on some more principles or guidelines to the existing ones, the following would
be my suggestions

1. In case of divided loyalties, then the participants must be informed in prior. The
researcher or the psychologist must be involved in such a case, only when the
participant’s safety is more at stake when information is kept a secret than when shared
2. Further, the rights of the test taker and the responsibilities that they hold must be made
clear to them. Ignorance cannot be claimed and used a san excuse.
3. Psycho-educating the test-takers must be made mandatory prior to the test