Ethics in Psychology free essay sample

This paper is going to define ethics and examine the concept of the risk and benefit ratio. Research on animals is an ethical topic and concern to researchers in the psychology field. Testing on animals is a controversial issue and in response to this ethical dilemma the American Psychological Association (APA), is a specialized association that represents psychologists in the United States, has designed rules and guidelines that must be followed.This author will try to look at how the testing of animal has influence psychological research. Ethics are useful in order to lead investigators around ethical situations that may arise when carrying out research. A typical illustration would be to prevent from telling the people of a specific study what researchers are testing and looking for. In what instances is it acceptable and when is it not? Developing ethics in research can help guide researchers when deciding answers to those types of questions. We will write a custom essay sample on Ethics in Psychology or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Shaughnessy, Zechmeister, Zechmeister, 2009) Ethics is a set of guidelines that people are asked to follow and in the United States ethics is often directly related to a law, for example; murdering someone is against the law and considered unethical by most. When conducting scientific research researchers are looking for a fact or trying to prove a theory and declare it the truth. To obtain that type of answer the research conducted must be ethical. (Shaughnessy, Zechmeister, Zechmeister, 2009) If the research starts off with a lie than the entire research project would be at jeopardy. Searching for the truth is not an easy task because researchers are human, and sometimes truths differ, this is when the APA code of ethics is an important tool for researchers. The APAs code of ethics guides researchers to evaluate ethical dilemmas when conducting research. Some of the dilemmas that may arise are weighing the benefits and risks associated with the use of deception in regard to participants and the use of animals in research. The APA was founded in 1892 and it was 60 years later that the APA decided to create a formal code of ethics. In 1938 the Professional Ethics Committee was created and the committee reviewed criticisms to determine if research was ethical, not having something in writing for psychologists to follow became a problem. During the 1950s the APA determined to create a pragmatic developed code based on the research of ethical problems stumble upon by some of APAs affiliates. American Psychological Association, 2009) One thousand three hundred nineteen members were asked to describe in detail ethical dilemmas they came across while conducting research, 679 psychologists returned the survey and out of the 679 psychologists 134 indicated that they had not encountered any ethical dilemmas. (American Psychological Association, 2009) The respondents described 703 ethical troubling events and those reported events were broken down into 23 categories; the majority of the concerns revolved around confidentially and researchers reporting false research statistics.So few concerns about the ethical dilemma associated with animal testing were reported that it did not even warrant its own category out of the original 23 categories the APA set-up. The APA wrote a code of ethics for all of the areas of concern including research testing on animals. (Pope Vetter, 1992) However, citizens are still concerned about testing on animals and research on animals is still protested by animal rights groups; what people feel about this issue tends to be a personal choice based on their personal ethics.