CONFIDENTIALITY ISSUES IN PSYCHOLOGICAL-RESEARCH

There has been increased attention in recent years to the importance o f individual privacy and professional confidentiality both in Australi a and overseas. At the same time, psychologists' growing research inte rests in areas such as AIDS, child sexual abuse, and domestic violence have led to new ethical dilemmas over the contract of confidentiality between researchers and their research participants. The present pape r discusses a number of issues regarding the ethics of confidentiality in psychological research. Following Bok (1989), the issues are highl ighted within the context of four ethical principles that underlie res earchers' obligations to preserve confidentiality. These principles ar e derived from considerations of privacy, loyalty, the pledge of silen ce, and professional codes of ethical standards. Each of these princip les is illustrated with examples taken from recent research. We devote special attention to instances that appear to provide a clash between moral principles.