Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Ethics in Biological Psychology - Coggle Diagram
Ethics in Biological Psychology
Brain research
Brain imaging
Consent: Participants can agree on whether or not the researchers can take images of their brain.
Privacy: The participant's name was not revealed to the public, researchers have to respect participant's privacy. It is important as maintaining privacy can help protect them from potential harms including embarrassment or distress.
Confidentiality: the brain imaging results should be kept to the research facility and not revealed to the participants or the public before the study is published (or the participants have to make a contract, promising that they will not leak the results of the brain imaging if not allowed.)
Respect for persons: Researchers must ensure that participants understand the goals of the research project and the method of data collection. They must know what will be done to them, as well as what the research is for. Potential risks must also be stated (Such as fMRI's not being safe for people with metallic devices or potentially causing distress in people with claustrophobia)
HM's real name was not revealed until he passed away
Deception: In some cases, details of the imaging process (e.g what the researchers are trying to get an image of) should be hidden from the participant in order for the imaging to capture the brain's most natural reaction. This is because the brain activity might change if the participants are aware of what they are being measured on.
Withdrawal: The participant should have been able to remove themselves from th experimented if they felt uncomfortable or claustrophobic while being put through MRI machine.
Hormones research
Deception: this must have been considered to ensure that participants knew as much as possible without creating bias.(they did not know if they were injected with cortisol/adrenaline or a placebo)
lupien et al. -> informed consent, loss in memory may have meant they have forgotten that they have given consent
Debrief: The participants did not know which drugs they were injected with (adrenaline/cortisol)
In the Lupien et al. study, memory recall became more difficult for the group of elderly people with high levels of cortisol, there was a risk of worsening their memory and they may not have been informed of that
Confidentiality/Privacy: participants' names were not revealed to the public and their results were kept in confidence and unable to be identified. Their personal privacy was not breeched.
Some of the studies used rats instead of humans (maybe to lessen the ethical concerns)
newcomer et al. -> even though they ingested cortisol & this affected their memory negatively, there was informed consent + damage was temporary
stress hormones create stress
Neurotransmission research
Antonova et. al study on how neurotransmitters play a role on behaviour.
Debriefing was conducted and it said that several participants were stressed and exhausted after the experiments; either because of the drug injection or because of the continuous brain tests with the fMRI.
Therefore, this has a negative short-term effect on the participants that were in the experiments.
Informed consent from all participants and their privacy and anonymity was secured
Not sure if there will be any detrimental considerations that are super important in terms of any of the studies for neurotransmission just because the experiments that took place were very small in a sense that what the participants were asked to take part in wasn't crucial or unsafe.
do we really know how neurotransmitters work? Could it be dangerous to mess around with brain chemistry?
All participants had their names hidden but still had brief descriptions of them and their approximate age
Cahil and McCaugh, needed to consider the impression left on the participants after hearing the sad story about the boy and then debrief them afterwards in telling them that the story wasn't real and was just used to emotionally arouse the participants
Gais and Born study, Physostigmine can have unpleasant side effects, it was a small risk of physical harm and mental stress being caused to participants.
For Antonova study, the participants came into the experiments blind so they did not know what they were getting in to.
Applications of findings
Use of recreational drugs
McCaugh and Cahill - Beta blockers were used on the participants to block adrenaline from being released into their system while they were told emotional stories. The participants that watched the slides and images were adults and consented to participate in this study. Hence their findings were ethically applied in the study to determine the relationship between emotional reaction and memories.
Hormones and drugs may have negative side effects to human behaviour.
The hormone research allows us to see how stress hormones may affect retention of memory. Injecting people with too much stress hormone could negatively impact their retention of memory or putting people under stressful conditions may trigger the overrelease of stress hormones.
How could this be used?
Use psychological findings to investigate effective and beneficial treatments in reducing the negative impacts of mental health disorders, for instance
If we find out there is a brain region for violent behaviour, could we want to remove it as a surgery to stop people being violent? Could localisation theory be used to manipulate in this way?
If we know that neurotransmitters / hormones can influence behaviour, can we use these findings to control behaviour? E.g. medicating for anti-social behaviour?
helps with our understanding of addiction