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Deception in Psychological Research

According to Pierce (2008), deception in psychological research exists in a rather grey area of ethical practice in that is neither uncommon nor prohibited, yet it is strongly discouraged. But should it be? Does the use of deception in psychological research seriously violate ethical research practice, and if so, what are the boundaries within which such a violation may actually be acceptable given the benefits arising from the research? The purpose of this paper is to examine the ethics of the use of deception in psychological research. The paper first defines the terms 'ethics' and 'deception' and then moves on to discussion the impact of deception, especially as it relates to the costs-benefits ratio. The final section of the paper develops and presents conclusions based on the presented discussion and reviewed research.

Thiroux and Kraesmann (2008) define 'Ethics' as a field of study that concerns itself with the standards of right and wrong in human behavior. According to the authors, ethics is concerned with rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, and other specific values; as a field, it also seeks to provide consistent and well-founded reasons for any standards that are developed and used to impose reasonable obligations and constraints on people's freedom of behavior.

In psychological research, certain ethical standards are brought to bear on the use of deception, which Patry (2001) defines as the deliberate provision of information that actively misleads people about some aspect of the psychological research that they are participating in as experimental subjects. In other words, deception is a deliberate and explicit misstatement of fact. Patry notes that deception violates the principle of autonomy in research ethics, which can be defined as the obligation on the part of the investigator to respect each participant as a person capable of making, if sufficiently informed, a decision regarding partic...

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Deception in Psychological Research. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:51, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/2001090.html