Ethical Considerations in Psychology Research
Ethical Research...
- Are research studies guided by the safety of humans and animals
- Require informed consent (this is obtained after a participant is made aware of all the complications of the study
- Requires a debriefing in which all participants are informed after the study of its true meaning and any type of deception that could have occured
- Participants can withdraw at anytime from the study
- Must be kept confidential
The Stanford Prison Experiment
In 1971, Philip Zimbardo decided to conduct an experiment to test how social roles affect behavior. He decided to set up a prison in which he split up 24 people equally between prisoners and guards. After several days, the guards had assumed full responsibility and power over the prisoners and treated them poorly, including physically and mentally abusing them. It was declared unethical as the prisoners safety and well-being were ignored during thedy.
Ethical Research?
In 1939, Wendall Johnson wanted to explore why some children have stutters in their speech. He tested this by giving positive feedback to children without stutters and negative feedback to those with stutters. Those with stutters were severely affected by this experiment, while the others fared fine. It was unethical because of the treatment of the children and the absence of reflection on the possible long-term effects.
Previous unethical psychology experiments
Regulations regarding human participants and animal subjects
Animal Subjects
- Generally, rodents and birds are used for experimentation
- Similar to humans, any experimentation with lab animals must be approved by a board, the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) reviews and inspects the use of animals in lab research
- When experiment research is considered unethical for humans, researchers resort to animals as there are less strict guidelines
- Humans share a lot of ancestry with the animals studied in psychology
Human Participants
- There are countless strict protocols used with human participants
- Each experiment involving humans must be reviewed by the Institutional Review Board (IRB)
- The board reviews all aspects of the experiment to see if it is safe and secure for humans
- Potentials include informed consent, deception used, and a full debriefing for participants
- Any minors (under 18) must have a legal guardian sign for them to enter the study
- Over the past few centuries the limitations on human use in experimentation have become much stricter