• Question: how are you researching anxiety? How do you avoid ethical issues?

    Asked by anon-183911 to Owen, Nathan on 5 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Nathan Hook

      Nathan Hook answered on 5 Nov 2018:

      Generally you commit to following a published code of ethics. Here is the one from the BPS:
      https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-code-ethics-and-conduct

      Also you would describe what you intend to do to a research board, who decide up front if it’s ethical before you start.

      What you might also do is test it on healthy people first. For example, a new treatment for depression might be tested on people who had had very sad depressing music played (at half speed) to them first – not to say ‘being sad’ is the same as ‘being depressed,’ but it might be close enough to test it out in a pilot study.

Comments

  • Photo: Abbie

    Abbie commented on :

    Also, if you recruit from NHS settings, you have to prepare an even more stringent ethics application. These take a while to prepare and you may have to go in person to explain the project and answer questions. This would happen on top of having to prepare an ethical application for your own department. There are lots of checks in place and the NHS ethics committees have clinicians as well as patients and other members of the public on them to make sure all is well and acceptable.

    Ethics are really important and I think that psychology is in a really good position at the moment with thinking about ethics of research and managing it well. We are past Milgram ethics!