Deception in research psychology
Deception in research psychology refers to the act of misleading someone about the true nature of a given situation. It may range from minor omissions, for example not telling people everything about your study, to absolute falsehood about the nature of study. In the field of psychology, deception has always become a debatable issue. Some psychologists claim that the act of deception leads to dishonesty hence a participant is denied of the true information about the experiment (Cardwell et al, 190). Other psychologists claim that deception helps the participants behave in their natural way. Psychological ethics refers to the rules that govern the process of research in order to prevent harm, such that the participants are well informed about the nature of study. This paper will argue whether deception is necessary in the research psychology or not.
There are a number of problems associated with the use of deception. Even when the participants will be debriefed later on, some participants may not have confidence in research. Normally, participants are able to figure out the true nature of study even if the researcher tries to hide the truth. Deception may negatively affect the attitudes of the participants concerning behavioral research (Cardwell et al, 190). No one likes to be lied to, even if it is in research, people will always expect factual information. Additionally, deception may also affect the researcher negatively because it can produce distrust where people will always distance themselves from the researcher. It has been argued that the use of deception by psychologists may be replicated by the community and this can cause deception become the order of the day. Along the same line, in order to eradicate deception completely, all movies and illusionist shows that are deceptive should be prohibited. This argument, however, seems to be exaggerated.
Because of the dangers of deception, there is a need to avoid deception in research. IRBs have always received many complaints because of deception. However much it may look advantageous to mislead others, people need to understand the other alternative ways of obtaining information without deceiving (Kantowitz et al, 86). Instead of telling lies, there is a possibility to get the same information with full disclosure that cannot cause distrust among people.
Nevertheless, deception in research can be acceptable under the following conditions; when there is no other nondeceptive method to be used in the study of a given phenomenon. Deception may also be acceptable when its results make significant contributions about the study (Kantowitz et al, 86). It may also be acceptable if its results will not be harmful to research participants. It can also be allowed on condition that deception will be made known to participants as soon as the research study is released.
Despite the fact that deception is unethical just from the moral point of view, it is not considered to be completely undesirable, aversive, or unacceptable. In the same way, however much we condemn this act of deception, we shall at some point need it for experiments to work. In studying unethical behavior, researches will always need to deceive because participants may hide their true behaviors when they realize that they are being observed hence full information may not be got (Kantowitz et al, 87). Thus for this case, researches need to deceive in order to obtain the right data.
One example of deception is a research conducted by Stanley Milgram. He did not inform participants his purpose of study at the start of the research. His research centered on obedience to authority. He had one participant act as a teacher and another act as a student. The teacher would ask the student questions and punish the student for any question failed. The punishment was electric shock with increased voltage. Despite the painful punishment, the teacher was to obey authority and act responsibly regardless of the complaints from the student. The results finally showed that 65% of participants obeyed authority and administered punishment as required regardless of the complaints(Cardwell et al, 191). Milgram later explained the true purpose of his study after the experiment. In reality, we can say deception was necessary for this particular experiment.
Work cited
Cardwell, Mike, and Cara Flanagan. Psychology As: The Complete Companion. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes, 2005. Print.
Kantowitz, Barry H, Henry L. Roediger, and David G. Elmes. Experimental Psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. Print.
