Scientific Psychologists follow a specific guidelines for their decisions in doing research because it helps them ensure that their research participants are protected from potential harm. These guidelines are known as a code of ethics, indicating how human participants must be treated in pyschological research.
Participants must be informed and must understand what will happen to them during the study. The information that the researchers will gather about the participants must not be made public. The privacy and benefits of the participants is also considered. There are times that researchers deceive their participants so as not to modify their behaviors during the study. Researchers will then conduct debriefing to educate the participants about the true nature of their research.