Ethics

Ethics FAQ

General information

Note that this page only holds information relevant to research ethics in the Department of Psychology. For all other information about research ethics at City, including information about how to apply, participant information sheets and consent form templates, and general guidance please see City’s research ethics pages.

Research with human participants is an essential feature of both research and teaching within the Psychology Department. We have approximately 600 undergraduate students, 200 postgraduate students and 30 full time members of staff. This results in the need to review a large number of ethics applications every year. Whilst many of these research projects represent very minimal risks (e.g. a participant may be asked to identify the colour of a series of words presented on a computer screen), others require more ethical scrutiny (e.g. they may employ deception, adults at risk or ask questions of a sensitive nature).

  • Low risk projects are normally reviewed by an independent member of academic staff within the Psychology Department.
  • Medium risk projects are normally reviewed by the Psychology Department Research Ethics Committee at one of their regular meetings.
  • High risk projects are reviewed by the Senate Research Ethics Committee. 

Other Ethical Codes of Practice

All ethical review follows guidelines set out by the British Psychological Society (2014).

Composition of the committee

All Psychology Department members of academic staff are ex-officio members of the Psychology Department Ethics Committee and may be asked to review low risk ethics applications from students. Full committee members comprise of at least eight members of academic staff from a range of different backgrounds, together with at least one lay member not affiliated with the university and one student representative.

Further information

Please click on the links below for more specific guidance on the following topics:

Katy Tapper

Updated 10th January 2019

Print Friendly, PDF & Email