Ethics

[skeletalclown]

Sorry for yet another thread, but there's just a few major points I'm still having trouble getting my head around, and with the exam being on thursday, I want to clear them up as soon as possible!!

Alright, on many different practice exams I've gotten, I've seen questions asking to name a relevant participant right which was not observed in a given study, for example withdrawal rights and Little Albert. That's easy enough, but then I've also seen follow up questions such as "why is this important?", or "why is it important ethical principles are observed?".
This doesn't SEEM too hard, but I just have trouble knowing what to refer to without being way too vague and any help would be much appreciated!!
So far I've just been saying things along the lines of "Withdrawal rights are important to ensure observation of the ethical principle of Respect, and thus to ensure that the rights of participants are observed and no undue harm comes to them", is this way too vague? Way off? Plain wrong? Any advice would be MUCH appreciated!!

[infecthead]

I think with these types of questions you just have to make a logical argument. Why do we have ethics? To minimise harm and ensure proper human rights are adhered to. You could also argue that ignoring ethics could confound your results, as psychological/physical harm could affect how the participants perform. Your answer seems fine.

[skeletalclown]

I like the confounding variable argument! Thanks heaps, I guess I was just going a bit too deep again!