Acceso usuarios
Jean Paul Caverni
The term «ethics», usually associated with Philosophy, has henceforth fallen into common use: It refers to principles and constraints that are required in any human activity with the goal of protecting life and respecting the person. Behavioral sciences and experimental psychology, among others, are concerned with Ethics.
In most countries with standardized scientific practices, ethical concerns in behavioral research have been endorsed by scientists and research institutions. Codes of to-be-followed behaviors have been proposed, as well as to-be-consulted authorities. Nothing like this has taken place in France. No code regarding the specific behavioral research has yet been proposed. There are no ethic committees in universities. Ethical questions have been the responsability of legislators, notably with the law of person protection in biomédical research.
After examining the law concerning behavioral research (and subsequent problems) and those from codes of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the British Psychological Society (BPS), the author proposes a code for scientists' behaviors in human behavioral sciences and how to put it into practice.
The challenge is great. For scientists, it concerns the right to be responsible. For research participants, it concerns the respective share between the right of selfishness on one hand and the duty of solidarity on the other hand.
