Discuss the ethical issues that arose in the case of (insert name of case for example Migram's obedience study or Piliavin's subway study.

For a question that starts with discuss you would need to answer with at least three points, four if you have time. You would need to make sure your answer is balanced, therefore giving two strengths of the ethics of the study and two weaknesses. Ethical issues:Informed consent- Have all the participants been informed of what the research entails e.g. aim, procedure, method? Have all participants then given their consent to take part? Deception- Have any of the participants been lied to or deceived during the course of the research? This could include lies, manipulation, use of actors and so on. Confidentiality- Are the names of the participants released when results are published? If no names are ever published then it is confidential thus ethical. Debrief- All participants should be fully debriefed after research. They should be told of their contribution to the research and the different results and conclusions drawn. Protection of participants- The participants should leave the research in the same physical and mental state as when they begun it. There should be no harm of any kind caused to participants. Right to withdraw- All participants have a right to withdraw, meaning they can quit taking part at any stage. This should be communicated to everyone involved before beginning the research. Structure of the answer:Pupils should answer in PEEL paragraphs. Point, explain, evidence and link. Start by identifying the ethical issue then give a definition of the issue and how it relates to the question. Then bring in a case study as evidence with very brief details of the summary and how the ethical issue arose. Finally, link the study and the question and explain why this is ethical consideration is either a good or bad thing. Sometimes the ethical point may be good and bad- explain one side of the argument and then counter it. Example answer:
One ethical issue that arose in Milgram's study into obedience was deception. Deception is where the participants involved are lied to during the course of the research. As part of Milligram's research, 40 males volunteered to take part in what they believed was a piece of research into memory, where the participants would test the memory of another volunteer and administer electronic shocks as punishment for any incorrect answer. Participants were deceived here as they were not told the true aim of the research, which was actually to discover how obedient people would be in the presence of an authority figure. The use of actors added to this deceit as participants were told that the person receiving the shocks was another participant when in fact he was an actor, and finally the shocks in themselves were not actually real. The use of deceit in this experiment allowed Milgram to produce ecologically valid results but it may have caused harm to the participants who believed they were administering very harmful levels of electric shocks to other volunteers.