4.6 issues and debates Flashcards
i&d What ethical issues are there in learning theories
Learning theory research tends to involve observations. These observations may be covert and therefore participants may not have the right to withdraw if they do not know that they are part of a research study
Research on this approach tends to involve the use of animals. Labre Tori read animals have been used extensively, which raises the ethical issue concerning the nature of using adverse to me life. For example Skinner electrified the floor of a box that would only be turned off and the animal press the lever. This procedure deliberately exposed animals to adverse stimuli. Also conditioning a rat press the lever to dispense food at a signal also has ethical concerns as it can mean that the animals food may be restricted before the conditioning trial, which is food deprivation and contravenes ethical guidelines
There are also many ethical issues with Bandaris study. The major issue is home and the well-being of participants. The children may have been distressed by the aggressive behaviour they witnessed an aggressive behaviour they learned from study may have stayed with them, going on to become a behavioural problem. Participants are supposed to leave study in the same state that they entered it, which may not of happened here and this is an example of what the bps code of ethics call normalising unhelpful behaviours
Although the children could not give a valid consent to take part, the nursery teachers agreed and it is assumed the children’s parents agreed to and this is presumptive consent nonetheless the children could not withdraw from the study and no effort seems I’ve been made to debrief them afterwards by explaining that the aggressive adults were only pretending
i&d in terms of ethical issues by classic studies, what are the issues in the watson and rayner study
The ethical considerations are one of the biggest issues for this study. Little Albert was not protected from harm, this is especially the case because Watson and Rayner did not have the opportunity to decondition little Alberts fears. The little Albert experiment could not be conducted by today’s standards because it would be unethical. What is an arena what unsure about whether they had caused excessive fear and Albert e.g. they purposefully caused fearful little Albert, and prevented him from comforting himself, when he sucked his thumb because it lessens the effect of conditioning. Watson and Rayner did believe that little Albert fear would continue, because they had been unable to decondition
Little Albert because he was suddenly removed from the experiment and this suggests that the child’s mother was also not fully informed and this issue should’ve been prevented in the beginning
However what is an arena felt the harm that they could’ve done would’ve been no more serious than what he wouldn’t actually had a moreover Albert’s mother did give presumptive consent and was present the whole time
