IB Psychology: Sample SAQ for SCLOA, 'Ethical Considerations in Cultural Origins of Behaviour and Cogntition.'

*The following answer presents one way of answering the given question out of many possibilities of ways in which a candidate is free to answer.

Sample Question -

 

Explain one ethical consideration relevant to one study using a sociocultural approach to understanding cultural influences on cognition and behaviour.

Sample Answer -

Humans have a right to activity and therefore, to know about the consequences of an activity that they engage in. In a research scenario, this implies that participants have a right to know in complete details why they were made to be a part of a research study, how data supplied by them will be used once their participation is complete and clarify any doubts they have regarding their participation. Debriefing individuals who participate in a study is therefore, absolutely necessary.

Kemmelmeier et.al. (2006) conducted a study to investigate the influence of the cultural dynamic of individualism versus collectivism on charity and volunteering behaviours of individuals. The method employed was to interview participants over the telephone. Participants were asked to disclose the nature of causes that they had volunteered for and donated to in the past. Information related to charity towards strangers has a very personal nature since it is not binding on the individual, but the choice that he makes at will. For a study gathering such personal information, debriefing is particularly necessary for participants to feel assured that their details would not be misused for, say, some commercial purpose such as persuading them to perform charity for other causes and that their confidentiality will be maintained by researchers.

The fact that participants had contact with the researchers only over the telephone could obscure the trust that is built from face-to-face contact. Since participants were never exposed to a research setting, they could doubt the authenticity of the research. Debriefing would prevent participants from building suspicion towards the researchers or research in psychology in general.

Participants in the study were contacted at random from among the population of people who had provided their in a regularly conducted national survey on charity and giving. Since they did not volunteer for the study, participants would have some doubts about why their data was made available to researchers and how it would be used further. It was the responsibility of researchers, then, to highlight the necessity of conducting the research to participants, of taking their time and to show them the larger benefit to psychology and society that their data could provide. Though there is no mention of any debriefing done in the research report, debriefing was the only means to make all of this possible.

Thus, debriefing is an ethical consideration that gives research participants the respect that is due to them for furthering the cause of psychology.

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