Considerations on Respect for Evaluation Participants in Evaluation Ethics:

Implications from Research Ethics in Psychology

Abstract

  This paper discusses respect for people, an important principle of evaluation ethics, from the viewpoint of ethical considerations for research participants in Psychology. Based on the discussion, this paper withdraws the implications for issues to be reflected in the Guidelines for the Ethical Conduct of Evaluations, which was established by the Japan Evaluation Society. As psychological research involves a higher risk than practical activities, an ethical review is required prior to research. When evaluation participants are to be exposed to a significant risk, a similar review is desirable. Thus, judgment criteria on the necessity of ethical review need to be researched. Since the Guidelines does not assume the situation that an evaluation decides assignment of intervention, informed consent in such situation and acceptable formation of control group also need to be discussed. In addition, some issues emerged from the practice of research ethics. Ethical review affected the selection of research method and researchers tended to avoid a certain type of research method. The ethical principles conflicted each other and this situation made ethical judgement difficult. As a result, the ethical considerations overburdened research participants in the case.