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.

Informed consent is the principle that states that—to the best of a psychologists' ability—plain language that is understandable to the subject is to be used to gain the consent of persons upon whom research, treatment, or services are to be performed. In instances where a person is legally incapable of providing consent, psychologists are still required to provide an appropriately phrased explanation, obtain the assent of the person involved, consider that person's preferences, and seek authorization from any guardian or responsible third party. An unconscious person may give consent prior to becoming unconscious (e.g. in sleep research and certain forms of therapy), or have a responsible guardian give assent for them. Although many ethical principles for animal care apply, a chimpanzee is a non-person and the research associated with these organisms does not require informed consent. A four-year-old child can still have most procedures explained to them in simplified language and they can voice their preference for procedures—with proper parental/guardian consent likely also required. Even an unwilling prisoner may have certain court-ordered procedures performed on them (e.g. in the mandatory psychological evaluation provided for potential suicide/self-harm cases). In these cases, every effort must be made to ensure the person understands what is going to happen before it takes place and has the opportunity to voice their concerns or questions.

The principle of confidentiality covers situations in which the law requires certain forms of disclosure. This includes limited circumstances that force the researcher to provide personally identifiable information in order to prevent harm to persons or to obtain consultations for therapy/medical treatments.

When a study is published, a researcher may rephrase or simplify the language, results, conclusions, or methods of the research in order to appeal to a wider audience. Sometimes, particular journals require the author to simplify research before a submission can be accepted. This is only acceptable when no relevant facts are changed and the rephrasing of conclusions are not suggestive.

The principle of confidentiality requires all psychologists to take steps before, during, and after research to ensure that no individually identifiable information is accessible to non-researchers without the expressed consent of the participants. A case study can be defined as an intensive review of at least one person’s psychological profile. It is virtually impossible to remove all identifiable information from such a report. For this reason, confidentiality agreements are often lengthy in case studies, and the participant(s) must be kept aware of the risk that, in spite of a researcher's best efforts, their identity may become known.