Ethical Research: Principles, Practices, and Measurement

Ethical Principles in Research

The Belmont Report

The Belmont Report summarizes ethical principles and guidelines for research involving human subjects. Three core principles are identified: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. Three primary areas of application are also stated: informed consent, assessment of risks and benefits, and selection of subjects.

Animal Welfare Act

The Animal Welfare Act requires that minimum standards of care and treatment be provided for certain animals bred for commercial sale, used in research, transported commercially, or exhibited to the public.

Respect for Persons

Respect for persons involves protecting the autonomy of all people, treating them with courtesy and respect, and allowing for informed consent. Researchers must be truthful and conduct no deception.

Beneficence

Beneficence is the philosophy of "do no harm" while maximizing benefits for the research project and minimizing risks to the research subjects.

Justice

Justice means ensuring reasonable, non-exploitative, and well-considered procedures are administered fairly — the fair distribution of costs and benefits to potential research participants.

Informed Consent

Informed consent is permission granted in the knowledge of the possible consequences, typically that which is given by a patient to a doctor for treatment with full knowledge of the possible risks and benefits.

Coercion

Coercion is the practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats.

Debriefing

Debriefing is a critical part of any experiment or psychological study that involves human participants. This procedure is conducted after the experiment or study has been concluded. Debriefing involves a structured or semi-structured verbal conversation between the researcher and the subjects whereby an array of topics are addressed and discussed, and the subjects are given an opportunity to ask questions.

Undue Influence

Undue influence is influence by which a person is induced to act otherwise than by their own free will or without adequate attention to the consequences.

Data Integrity

Data Fabrication

Data fabrication is the intentional misrepresentation of research results by making up data.

Data Falsification

Data falsification is manipulating research materials, equipment, or processes, or changing or omitting data or results such that the research is not accurately represented in the research record.

Measurement Concepts

Interrater Reliability

Interrater reliability is the degree of agreement among raters.

Interval Scale

An interval scale comprises numeric scales in which we know both the order and the exact differences between the values.

Ordinal Scale

An ordinal scale typically measures non-numeric concepts like satisfaction, happiness, discomfort, etc.

Ratio Scale

Good examples of ratio variables include height, weight, and duration, and it also has a true zero.

Discriminant Validity

Discriminant validity tests whether concepts or measurements that are not supposed to be related are actually unrelated.

Criterion Validity

Criterion validity is the extent to which a measure is related to an outcome.

Face Validity

Face validity is the degree to which a procedure, especially a psychological test or assessment, appears effective in terms of its stated aims.

Convergent Validity

Convergent validity refers to the degree to which two measures of constructs that theoretically should be related are, in fact, related.

Construct Validity

Construct validity is the degree to which a test measures what it claims, or purports, to be measuring.

Survey Design

Likert Scale

A Likert scale is a rating scale, often found on survey forms, that measures how people feel about something. It includes a series of questions that you ask people to answer, and ideally, 5-7 balanced responses people can choose from.

Open-Ended Question

An open-ended question is a question that requires a full answer, using the subject's own knowledge or feelings. These questions are objective, do not lead the person being asked, and result in an answer that requires an explanation.

Forced-Choice Question

A forced-choice question is a format for question responses that requires respondents to provide an answer (e.g., yes or no), forcing them to make judgments about each response option.