1.6 issues and debates

Question 1

i&d What are the ethical issues in social psychology

Answer 1

1. Milgram failed to protect participants from harm because participants well-being was ignored as they were deceived and did not give informed consent, especially in experiment 13
2. diana baumrind 1964 presented a scathing attack arguing that just because someone volunteers for a study does not take away the researchers responsibilities towards them. She felt that the level of psychological harm was unacceptable. Milgram claimed to have debriefed his participants, which goes some way to mitigating the harm. However Perry claims that some of Milgram‘s participants left the study believing the learner may have actually died. These are critical issues as deception could leave the general public to lose faith in authority and could also jeopardise the reputation of psychological research and the University at which the experiment took place

Question 2

i&d ethical issues by classic studies

what are the ethical issues in the 1954 robbers cave experiment by sherif et al

Answer 2

Participants were deceived as they did not know the true aim of the study I’m not protected from physical and psychological harm. The boys did not give a valid consent to be in the study and do not seem to have been debriefed afterwards. They never realise they will be experimented on. This certainly fails to respect their autonomy because they had no choice and dignity because they were tripped and put through some upsetting conflicts

They were deceived about the broken water pipe being an accident and the food truck breaking down. They will also subjected to risk because there was vandalism, theft and nearly a serious fight, which the experimenters did little to mitigate. However, the research is dropped their professional detachment when a serious fire nearly broke out and intervene to prevent it and this is an example of scientific integrity

However the boys his parents were whether this camp was some sort of psychology project and they did give presumptive consent on their sons behalf. However they were asked to not visit the camp and check up on the sons, so they couldn’t be informed about everything that was going on

and the boys could withdraw from the study and in fact to them did go home in the first

It’s debatable whether the boys were harmed by the study they were raising food fights one boy had his comics stolen. A fight with weapons nearly broke out. However these might be typical event in American some accounts, especially in the culture of the 1950s. The boys seem to enjoy themselves, which suggests the harm they were exposed to was no greater than what they would’ve been exposed to in their normal lives. However gina perry 2014 argues that the boys had unhappy experiences because the camp counsellors did not intervene to protect and guide them and at some of them still are back on the time and robbers cave with bad feelings