3.2: History of Ethics Codes
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)History of Ethics Codes
Nuremburg Codes (1947)
One of the earliest ethics codes was the Nuremberg Code. The Nuremburg Code a set of 10 principles written in 1947 in conjunction with the trials of Nazi physicians accused of shockingly cruel research on concentration camp prisoners during World War II. It provided a standard against which to compare the behavior of the men on trial—many of whom were eventually convicted and either imprisoned or sentenced to death. The Nuremberg Code was particularly clear about the importance of carefully weighing risks against benefits and the need for informed consent. This cost/benefit analysis tries to see if the cost to the research participants is worth the benefit to science. More recent thinking encourages researchers to also consider the cost to the community, not just an individual. This comparison may change over time; something that used to seem too costly might not seem costly anymore, or something that used to seem easy might seem too costly now.
If the cost to the participants or their community seems higher than the importance of the knowledge hat would be gained, it easier to justify the experiment if the costs to the participants and their community can be decreased. How could a researcher decrease the cost to the participant? One way is to provide resources. For studies that may result in psychological harm, this could include counseling. For students that may cause physical harm, a resource that could be provided might be medical care. But the best way to reduce harm to the participants and their community it to find alternative testing designs that would be less harmful.
Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (1953)
The American Psychological Association's (APA) Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (also known as the APA Ethics Code) was first published in 1953 and has been revised several times since then, most recently in 2016 (APA, 2021). It includes about 150 specific ethical standards that psychologists and their students are expected to follow. Much of the APA Ethics Code concerns the clinical practice of psychology—advertising one’s services, setting and collecting fees, having personal relationships with clients, and so on. For our purposes, the most relevant part is Standard 8: Research and Publication. The next section will consider some of Section 8's most important aspects in more detail.
Declaration of Helsinki (1964)
The Declaration of Helsinki is a similar ethics code that was created by the World Medical Council in 1964. Among the standards that it added to the Nuremberg Code was that research with human participants should be based on a written protocol—a detailed description of the research—that is reviewed by an independent committee. This idea of an independent committee is the start of the requirement for an institutional review board (IRB). The IRB is a committee that reviews proposed research to ensure ethical treatment of participants; this will be discussed in more detail when APA's Section 8 (APA, 2021) is reviewed. The Declaration of Helsinki has been revised several times, most recently in 2024. According to the World Medical Association, the Declaration of Taipei on Ethical Considerations regarding Health Databases and Biobanks (World Medical Association, 2025) adds additional protections needed for modern research. This is an area in which behavioral research should enhance protections.
Do you want to get ahead of other students at the end of their bachelor's degree? You should join a research lab! To prepare for that, save your certificate of completion of one or more of the following trainings from the Department of Health and Human Services's (HHS) Human Research Protection Foundational Trainings:
- Lesson 1: When HHS Regulations Applies Apply
- Lesson 2: What is human subject research?
- Lesson 3: IRBs
- Lesson 4: IRB Review of Research
- Lesson 5: Institutional Overview of Human Research
And if your school doesn't currently have an active research lab, consider working with a professor start a student club or course so that you can get research experience.
Belmont Report (1978)
In the United States, concerns about the Tuskegee study and others led to the publication in 1978 of a set of federal guidelines called the Belmont Report. A particularly tragic example is the Tuskegee syphilis study conducted by the US Public Health Service from 1932 to 1972 (Reverby, 2009). The participants in this study were poor African American men in the vicinity of Tuskegee, Alabama, who were told that they were being treated for “bad blood.” Although they were given some free medical care, they were not treated for their syphilis. Instead, they were observed to see how the disease developed in untreated patients. Even after the use of penicillin became the standard treatment for syphilis during the course of this 40-year study (in the 1940's), these men were denied treatment. They were not informed of the full methodology of the study, and local hospitals were told not to treat the men. The study was finally discontinued after details were made known to the general public by journalists and activists.
Crash Course's Black American History #29: The Tuskegee Experiment
For more information on the Tuskegee Experiment, the Crash Course series on Black American History devoted an episode (#29) to this horrific study (Smith, 2021).
The Belmont Report explicitly recognized three important ethnical principles for researchers on humans:
- Seeking Justice
- Respect for Persons
- Beneficence
The principle of seeking justice includes the importance of conducting research in a way that distributes risks and benefits fairly across different groups at the societal level. The importance of respect for persons acknowledges individuals’ autonomy and protection for those with diminished autonomy (e.g., prisoners, children), and translates to the need for informed consent. Informed consent will be discussed in more detail in the section on APA's Section 8 (APA, 2021). Finally, the principle of beneficence underscores the importance of maximizing the benefits of research while minimizing harms to participants and society.
The Smithsonian Learning Lab has created an interactive website to learn about ethics in psychological research before and through the Belmont Report. Check out Before Belmont: Ethics in Experimental Psychology from the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology (2020).
Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects (1991)
The Belmont Report became the basis of a set of laws:, the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, that apply to research conducted, supported, or regulated by the federal government. Because all public universities in the United States are supported by the federal government and many research grants are from federal agencies, these policies apply to almost all research conducted in the United States. An extremely important part of these regulations is that universities, hospitals, and other institutions that receive support from the federal government must establish an institutional review board (IRB), the committee that is responsible for reviewing research protocols for potential ethical problems. More information on IRB's will be provided in the section on APA's Section 8 (APA, 2021).
Ethics Codes
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services's Ethical Codes and Research Standards page provides links to all of these ethics codes, and more! They are all highly recommended and, with the exception of the Federal Policy, short and easy to read.
For some additional examples and discussion of unethical research, the Crash Course series on Statistics discussed ethical data collection in an episode (#12) (Hill, 2018).
References
American Psychological Association. (2021, January 1). Ethnical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index
Health and Human Services (2025, May 7). Human research protection foundational training. U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources. https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/education-a...ing/index.html
Hill, A. (2018, April 18). Henrietta Lacks, the Tuskegee experiment, and ethical data collection: Crash Course Statistics #12. Crash Course. https://thecrashcourse.com/courses/h...statistics-12/
Reverby, S. M. (2009). Examining Tuskegee: The infamous syphilis study and its legacy. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Smith, C. (2021, December 21). The Tuskegee experiment: Crash Course Black American History #29. Crash Course. https://thecrashcourse.com/courses/t...an-history-29/
Cummings Center For the History of Psychology. (2020, October 22). Before Belmont: Ethics in experimental psychology. Smithsonian Learning Lab. https://learninglab.si.edu/collectio...ZNGQriWxb5nXDs
United States Department of Health and Human Services (2024, April 29). Ethnical codes and research standards. https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/internation...rds/index.html
World Medical Association (2025). Declaration of Helsinki. https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medic...n-of-helsinki/