シンポジウムII: 教育心理学研究における倫理の問題をどう考えるか

抄録

This was the first formal symposium on ethical issues in psychological research in Japan. Ethical issues in research usually consist of (1) treatment of human subjects or participants,(2) professional ethics, and (3) responsibility of science to society. The present symposium dealt mainly with the first issue, but certainly in connection with the other two.
It was as early as 1899 that Kutsumi wrote in a Japanese child study journal a research on treatment of young human subjects. Though touched occasionally by some researchers, it was only in the 70's that the ethical issues in conducting psychological research began to be discussed more systematically. Shimizu and Shimizu (1972) stressed the importance of researcher's adequate consideration of the research method from a humanitarian and educational point of view. Stimulated by the ethical standards for research with children proposed by the Society for Research in Child Development (US). Kojima (1975) questioned the adequacy of reliance on one-way consideration by the researcher, and proposed the need for respect of the subjects' human rights. He argued that the perfunctory “informed consent” by the subjects is not enough, and that true communication between the researcher and the subjects as to the research purposes, procedures, and its implications for our life was the basic prerequisite for consent by both sides.
In the present symposium, Shimizu, a developmental psychologist, discussed the consideration by the researcher's view and the ethical standards of conduct for researcher's view. He enumerated the difficulties encountered by both views. Though he was not prepared to pursue the enforcement of the ethical standards, he proposed the means to make the reseacher's consideration more adequate; e. g., further discussions on the basic principles of ethics, and mutual criticism of the research methods among researchers. Tomiyasu, a behavior analyst for the severely mentally retarded, introduced and discussed the current debates about ethical problems in behavior analysis technique in America. Above all he maintained that a “leading theory” or a “developmental theory”, in order to choose the right objectives and procedures of training, was badly needed. Haraoka, social psychologist, pointed out the ethically problematic researcher's attitudes and research methods in the field. He discussed the difficulty of solving the dilemma of scientific research purposes and concern for the subjects' humanity.
One of the audience criticized that the standpoint of the three speakers gave priority for research over the subjects' human life. Further he argued that the discussion of ethical issues should begin with an analysis of the current states of the psychological associations in Japan. This was the first step for further discussions on the ethical issues in psychological research in Japan. No one positively agreed on the enforcement of the ethical standards. Instead further discussions among psychologists, togetler with scientists in other fields, with teachers, parents, and children were recommended in order to make the researcher more sensitive to the complex aspects of the ethical issues.(H. Kojima)