1.7) Ethics of Psychological Experiments

Stanley Milgram's experiment was actually on obedience - how long would his participants continue to listen to him and shock the learner?

But if he had told them his real goals, it would clearly have affected their behavior; they would have been far less likely to be obedient if it were put in their minds that this was what Milgram was testing.

Stanley Milgram

In another famous unethical experiment, told participants that they were helping him conduct an experiment about learning. He had an actor in another room play the 'learner,' and told the participants to administer electric shocks to the learner if he got a question wrong.

Institutional Review Board (IRB).

The IRB is in charge of determining whether the harm done by an experiment is worth its potential value to science and whether researchers are taking all of the precautions they can to make the research experience pleasant and informative for participants.

The American Psychological Association

allows research to be conducted on animals though they require that researchers are careful to - as with their human participants - minimize harm and make sure that the harm they do is worth it for its scientific benefit.

In psychological research, there is a genuine need for

deception but ethics now require that it be minimized and that patients are fully informed of the deception in a debriefing session once the experiment is over and are allowed to ask any questions.

Philip Zimbardo

designed his Stanford Prison Experiment to look into the causes of conflict between guards and prisoners. The experiment quickly got out of hand--the guards quickly began abusing the prisoners for the sake of order.

To sum things up

for the sake of ethics, psychologists are expected to make every effort to minimize harm and get informed consent from participants. Deception is allowed but must be minimized, and participants must be informed of it after the experiment is over. Each research organization's Institutional Review Board oversees the process of approving research. Animal research is allowed, but researchers must treat the animals with respect and dignity.

The importance of ethics in psychological research

has grown as the field has evolved. Some of the most famous studies in psychology could not be conducted today because they would violate ethical standards.

Deception

is quite common in psychological research because it allows researchers to design situations in which participants are more likely to act naturally.

research on primates

like in Harry Harlow's famous experiment on love in neglected monkeys, is far more restricted.

Harm can be

physical or psychological. deception is considered a form of psychological harm that is avoided if at all possible.

Most experiments are also now conducted on animals like

rats, mice and birds

If the psychologist is unable to design the experiment without any risk of harm

she must give patients a consent form to sign that clearly explains all of the risks involved in participating in the study.

Ethical principles of psychological research

the careful considerations a psychologist must make with respect to her participants when she designs a test.

Minimized harm and informed consent

underlie the entire process of designing and approving psychological research.