Cards Against Psychology Research Ethics – Scoping Study

All students on British Psychological Society-accredited degrees undertake an independent empirical project, including data collection and analysis, and must identify and apply appropriate ethical principles to protect participants’ rights, dignity, and wellbeing, ensure scientific integrity, and promote social responsibility. A strong grasp of ethics and research design prepares students to thrive in diverse, creative workplaces, making it important to instil values deeply rather than just provide surface knowledge. At Solent, psychology students receive research methods and ethics training from the start of their degree. They complete partial ethics forms in Levels 4 and 5, then submit an independent ethics application in Level 6 with supervisor support. The comprehensive form covers procedures, materials, risk management, participant documentation, and recruitment, and is reviewed by two members of the Psychology Ethics Panel. Feedback determines outcomes: approved, approved after additional checks, resubmit with revisions, or rejected outright. Reviews take about an hour, with subsequent submissions checked for addressed comments.
In 2023/24, of 80 first submissions, 20 required lead reviewer checks, five were rejected but allowed to resubmit, three were rejected outright, 13 were approved immediately, and 39 were sent for supervisor approval. Six projects required a second lead review, highlighting gaps in ethical understanding or attention to feedback, creating extra staff workload. Interactions with Level5 students reveal that even low-risk projects often show limited awareness of potential harm, confidentiality, and risk management. Duncan and Geist (2020) similarly found that students may know ethical principles in theory but struggle to apply them in practice. This project was designed to provide a creative intervention to deepen learning of ethical research. Game-based learning can enhance understanding of ethics, as Kasumovic, Pollo, and Dean (2025) show, by helping students see why norms exist and how choices impact outcomes. Card games, such as Cards Against Education / Engineering Ethics (Streiner et al., 2021; game link in references), engage students in ethical dilemmas through creative card combinations and discussion. The proposed Cards Against Psychology Research Ethics project aims to make ethics learning engaging, memorable, and reflective, particularly through exploring “worst-case scenarios.” With a new, more comprehensive ethics system launched university-wide in 2024/25, this approach could support ethics education across disciplines.