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Ethical Guidelines » Confidentiality, Withdrawal, Privacy and Harm

What you'll learn this session

Study time: 30 minutes

Cambridge spec: 7.7.1, 7.7.2

What confidentiality, the right to withdraw, privacy and minimising harm mean
How to spot problems with these four guidelines in a new study
How to improve a study so it follows them
A checklist of all seven ethical guidelines

Ethical guidelines are tested in Section D of both papers. The previous lesson, Consent, Deception and Debriefing, covered three guidelines. This lesson covers the other four.

Key terms:

Confidentiality: protecting participants' personal information by keeping their data anonymous.
Right to withdraw: participants are aware they can leave the research at any time.
Privacy: respecting participants' personal space and not making them reveal unnecessary personal details.
Minimising harm: participants are not exposed to any greater physical or psychological risk than they may experience in their daily life.

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Confidentiality

Confidentiality means protecting the personal information of participants by keeping their data anonymous. Anonymous means nobody reading the results can tell who said or did what.

Researchers keep data anonymous by leaving out names, using numbers or codes such as "Participant 7", and storing the data safely. A report that says "Maya, the girl who sits at the back of 10C, scored lowest" is not confidential.

Right to withdraw

The right to withdraw means participants are aware they can leave the research at any time. They do not have to give a reason, and nobody should make them feel bad for stopping.

📢 Tell them

Say clearly at the start that they can stop whenever they like. A right they do not know about is no use to them.

🚫 Do not pressure them

Saying "you have to finish, or you will ruin the study" takes the right away.

Privacy

Privacy is about respecting participants' personal space and refraining from making them reveal unnecessary personal details. Ask yourself: does the researcher really need to know this to answer the aim?

For example, a study on how much sleep teenagers get needs their bedtimes. It does not need their home addresses or their family's income. Asking for those would invade their privacy. Watching people where they would expect to be left alone also invades privacy. Covert observation is covered in Covert and Overt Observations.

Minimising harm, including maximising benefit

Participants should not be exposed to any greater physical or psychological risk than they may experience in their daily life. Physical harm means things like pain or injury. Psychological harm means things like stress, embarrassment or feeling that they have failed.

Maximising benefit means making sure the research is worthwhile, so that taking part leads to something useful.

Learn this

The test for harm is daily life. Doing a quiz is no riskier than a school test, so it is fine. Being shouted at or shut in a room alone is riskier than daily life, so it is not.

Spotting problems in a new scenario

In the exam you meet a study you have not seen before, and the scenario usually contains clues. Check each guideline in turn:

Confidentiality: are names or identifying details shared?
Right to withdraw: were participants told they could leave, and allowed to?
Privacy: were unnecessary personal details collected?
Harm: is the risk greater than daily life?

Worked example

A researcher studies how teenagers cope with a timed maths test. She asks for each student's name, home address and their parents' jobs. One student starts to cry halfway through, but she tells him to carry on because "the results will not count otherwise". She then pins everyone's names and scores on a classroom wall.

Problems: privacy (address and parents' jobs are not needed); right to withdraw (the student was not allowed to stop); minimising harm (the student was crying, so the stress was greater than in daily life); confidentiality (names and scores displayed).

Improvements: only ask for the information the aim needs, use participant numbers, tell everyone they can stop at any time and let the upset student leave, and keep the scores private.

How to improve adherence

Confidentiality: use numbers or codes instead of names, and keep the data stored safely.
Right to withdraw: say it at the start, and let them leave without fuss.
Privacy: collect only the details the aim needs, and let people skip questions.
Minimising harm: keep tasks no riskier than daily life, watch for signs of distress and stop if needed. Make sure the study has a useful purpose.

Checklist: all seven guidelines

✅ Before and during

Consent: voluntary and informed.
Avoiding deception: no wrong or incomplete information.
Right to withdraw: can leave at any time.
Privacy: no unnecessary personal details.
Minimising harm: risk no greater than daily life.

📝 Afterwards

Debriefing: full information once the data are collected.
Confidentiality: data kept anonymous.

Common mistakes

Mixing up confidentiality and privacy. Confidentiality is about keeping the data anonymous. Privacy is about not asking for unnecessary personal details in the first place.
Writing "they could not leave" when the scenario never says so. Only claim a problem the scenario shows, such as being told to carry on.
Saying any stress is harm. The question is whether the risk is greater than daily life.
Writing "it was unethical" with no guideline named. Always name the guideline and say why.

Exam-style question

A researcher investigates how teenagers react to a difficult memory test. She asks each student to stand up and say their name and test score in front of the class. She also asks about their health problems. One student says he wants to stop, and she tells him he must finish.

(a) Identify two ethical guidelines that the researcher did not follow. [2 marks]

(b) Explain how the researcher could improve the study so that it follows one of these guidelines. [2 marks]

Model answer

(a) Right to withdraw, because the student was told he must finish (1). Confidentiality, because names and scores were said aloud (1). Privacy, because asking about health problems is an unnecessary personal detail (1). Any two for 2 marks.

(b) For right to withdraw: tell all students at the start that they can leave at any time (1) and let the student stop without pressure (1).

Exam tip

In part (b), name the guideline and say what the researcher should do. "Be more ethical" earns nothing.

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