A requirement by the American Psychological Association (APA) is that the participant in a human study must give informed consent. That is, they must know they are involved in a study and give written consent. There can't be any extreme deception about the study; the participant must have an understanding of the expectations and premise of the study.

Once the research is completed, the identity of the people involved in the study, under absolutely no condition, may be revealed. The identity of the participant will never be made an integral part of the study, and there are no forms that allow for this.

According to American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines, a participant in a study cannot be placed under significant mental or physical risk. There are no forms that the participant can sign that would allow for these conditions in a study.

The debriefing procedures according to American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines are such that after the experiment, participants are told the end goal of the study and ways to attain the results. Doing so before the experiment could affect the results in an undesirable way, and so this information is provided to the participant after the experiment is completed.

The American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines for participation in a psychological study are such that there may be no involuntary partcipants or coercion involved in the study. The participants must provide clear and written informed consent before participating in the study.

Informed consent, confidentiality, anonymity, and debriefing are all aspects of an ethical study. Informed consent means that all subjects were given the necessary information for them to decide whether they wanted to participate in the study, or not. Confidentiality means that the experimenters will not release any information about subjects without their consent. Anonymity means that the experimenter does not know the identity of the subjects. Debriefing is when an experimenter tells the subject more information about the study's purpose and procedures after the study is completed.

Coercion means persuasion via threat or force, so coercion is NOT a feature of an ethical study.

Informed consent is part of the ethical standards adopted by the American Psychological Association. This provision says that all participants must be told the purpose of the study and informed of any potential harm. Informed consent is considered an ethical keystone in medical and psychological research on human subjects.

Animals should be used in experiments that cannot ethically be performed in humans. In this case, an initial study of a psychotropic drug should be conducted first on animals, in order to assess the potential damage of the drug's side effects. In order for a drug to be approved for human use, the drug must first be tested on human subjects, but this is true of later stages of drug testing. Studies of diet and exercise on mood would not be potentially harmful in the same way as a study of a new psychotropic drug, so they would be appropriate instances in which to use human subjects (as long as the courses of diet and exercise were not inherently harmful to the participants).

Some research designs make it necessary to record demographic information from participants; however, the APA ethical guidelines require strict monitoring of the location of research data and that all data be made as anonymous as possible.

The American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines for ethical principles in psychology state that psychologists should refrain from initiating an activity when they know or should know that there is a substantial likelihood that their personal problems will prevent them from performing their work-related activities in a competent manner. In other words, the branch associated with competence warrants against the proposed behavior.