The Presentation of Ethics in Undergraduate Psychology Syllabi

Abstract

To identify where ethics is presented to undergraduate psychology students, this study reviewed a national sample of 706 syllabi for required mandatory psychology courses. The results indicated that 6 syllabi were designated as ethics courses and 65 syllabi did not mention ethics at all. Even though 641 syllabi mentioned ethics, the most frequent listing was under course policies, usually as a standard statement (e.g., academic honesty and plagiarism) required by many institutions. Our recommendation is that ethics should be intentionally included in the learning goals/objectives/outcomes with a corresponding assessment (assignments) in all syllabi in addition to policy statements.

Beyond following rules: Teaching research ethics in the age of the Hoffman Report

“…Korn (1984) states there is minimal coverage of research ethics in introductory psychology or social psychology textbooks. Despite APA recommendations that it be integrated into courses throughout the major (APA, 2013), Ruiz and Warchal's (2014: 121) review of scholarly publications on teaching ethics in psychology found 'little evidence to support that ethics is being taught in any systematic fashion', and You, Ruiz, and Warchal (2018) found that ethics is not a focus in undergraduate syllabi. The work of Adair, Lindsay, and Carlopio (1983) and Bachiochi et al (2011) suggests that the class time devoted to ethics varies by instructor and tends to emphasize adherence to the APA code.…”

Teaching About Systemic Ethical Misconduct Increases Awareness of Ethical Principles: A Replication and Extension of Grose-Fifer’s (2017) Tuskegee Role-Play Activity

“…Learning about research ethics in Introductory Psychology helps students understand their own rights as research participants, as many departments have subject pools that use Introductory Psychology students as a convenience sample (Sieber & Saks, 1989). Nevertheless, undergraduate psychology syllabi typically mention ethics in the context of academic honesty and plagiarism, rather than as a learning objective (You et al, 2018).…”

Teaching Ethics to Undergraduate Psychology Students: Review of the Evidence and Recommendations

“…Similarly, in psychology the recommendation is to incorporate ethics throughout the program and possibly add a stand-alone ethics course as a capstone (APA, 2013;Dunn et al, 2010;Halpern, 2010;Landrum & McCarthy, 2012;You et al, 2018). Such a program was presented by Ruiz and Warchal (2014).…”

“…Ethics education should be available in all undergraduate psychology courses, as a common thread (APA, 2013;Dunn et al, 2010;Halpern, 2010;Landrum & McCarthy, 2012;You et al, 2018). The British Psychological Society (2015) suggested that the teaching of ethics should be considered as the teaching of any other subject (p. 10).…”

“…Usually, textbooks for psychology courses present ethics in chapters that explain research, while the research methods textbooks provide more detailed ethics information in a separate chapter. Another common place to find ethical issues is in course syllabi under the topic of Academic Honesty (You et al, 2011(You et al, , 2018. These are hardly effective introductions to the complex personal and professional ethical decisions the psychology student will encounter after graduation.…”