Ethics in Research

Ethics in Research

1. Social

   • Sherif
     • Did not get informed consent from the boys
     • Did not protect the boys from harm
     • Deliberately caused prejudice to occur
   • Looking at cults may put groups in potential harm
   • Reicher and Haslam
     • Participants could withdraw any time
     • Full debrief
     • Medical screening before and during the experiment
   • Milgram did not get informed consent
     • Presumptive consent
   • Research into obedience may cause psychological harm
   • Obedience research in the 1950s + 1960s would be considered unethical by today's guidelines

2. Cognitive

   • Baddeley
     • No issues, except maybe boredom
   • Schmolck
     • HM was researched on a lot, and his doctor, Dr Scoville was vilified for this
       • However, this research allowed many a psychological breakthrough
     • HM was the most experimented on individual in psychology
       • Found the experiments fun
   • Some information may be withheld to minimise demand characteristics
   • Most offer withdrawal and provide a debrief
   • To maintain confidentiality, case studies were given pseudonyms or abbreviated
   • Case studies have been criticised for invading privacy

3. Biological

   • Raine
     • Injections are needed for PET scans and require participants to remain still throughout
   • Animal research can be done, for example invasive procedures can be performed which would be impossible in humans
     • There are animal rights activists believe animals and humans should be treated the same

4. Clinical

   • Rosenhan
   • Williams

5. Learning

   • Watson and Rayner
     • Caused psychological harm to a small child
     • No ethics at the time
     • Fridlund et al. claimed Albert had an illness since birth, which was known but not disclosed by Watson and Rayner
   • Animal research involving adverse stimuli may be seen as unethical
     • Skinner's box
     • Rats were starved so they would learn to pull a lever in order to access food
   • Bandura caused the children distress by deliberately frustrating them

6. Child