Chapter 3 Flashcards
What was milgram studying?
obedience to an authority figure.
How did milgram recruit participants and what did he say he was studying?
he placed an add in the local newspaper offering to pay $4.50 to men participate in a scientific study of memory and learning.
What was Mr. Wallace in the the milgram experiment?
a confederate
What is a confederate?
A person posing as a participant in an experiment who is actually a collaborator of the experimenter.
What was the explanation provided to participants in the Milgram study? How were Participants assigned?
scientists explained that the study would examine the effects of punishment on learning. One person would be a “teacher” who would administer the punishment, and the other would be a the “learner”. Mr. Wallace and the volunteer participant then drew slips of paper to determine who would be the teacher and who would be the learner. The drawing was rigged, Mr Wallace was always the learner and the volunteer was also the teacher.
What did the scientists do to Mr. Wallace? How did the scientist set up the teacher? What was the set up of the shock machine?
attached electrodes to him and placed the teacher in front of an impressive-looking shock machine. The shock machine had a series of levers and the individual was told that when these levers were pressed, they would deliver shocks to Mr. Wallace. The first lever was labeled 15 volts, the second 30 volts, the third 45 volts and so on up to 450 volts. These levers were labelled “slight shock”, moderate shock” and so on up to “Danger: severe shock” followed by red Xs above 400 volts.
What was Mr. Wallace instructed to learn in the Milgram experiment? What happened in the experiment?
a series of word pairs. Then he was given a test to see if he could identify which words went together. Every time Mr. Wallace made a mistake, the volunteer was to deliver a larger shock as punishment. the first mistake was supposed to be punished by a 15 volt shock, the second by 30 volt, and so on. Mr wallace made mistake after mistake.
Did Mr. Wallace aver actually recieve any shocks in the milgram experiment?
no. but the participants didn’t know that.
What were Mr. Wallace’s reactions at different levels of shock?
When the volunteer shocked him with about 120 volts, Mr. Wallace began screaming in pain and yelled that he wanted out. If the volunteer wanted to quit, and this definitley happened with participants becoming visibly upset with Mr. Wallace’s pain. the experiemnt told the participant that he could quit but urged him to continue. These encouragments followed a set series of verbal prods that stressed the importance of continuing this experiment.
Althoug the experiment was purportedly about memory and learning, what was milgram actually interested in?
Milgram was actually interested in whether participants would continue to obey the experimenter administering ever higher levels of shock to the learner.
What were the results of Milgram’s study? What happened after this study was completed?
approximately 65% of the participants continued to deliver shocks all the way to the maximum possible 450 volts. This study (and milgram’s many extended replications) recieved a lot of publicity and the results challenged many of our beleifs about our ability to resist authority/
What do the milgram study results have implications for? What have recent replications shown?
understanding obediencei n real-life situations, such as the holocaust in Nazi germany and the Jonestown mass suicide. Recent replications of these studies suggest that many people in contemporary society continue to be vulnerable to a dangerous obedience to authorities.
What did Milgram’s work shape in terms of ethics?
common practices we use in psychology to protect our participants.
At what point did researchers debate whether Milgram’s studies were ethical?
immediately after they were published.
What do researchers and institutions adhere to fo ethics?
Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans
What does the Tri-council refer to in the Tri-council policy statement?
refers. to three federally funded research grant agencies: The Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), the Social Natural Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the natural sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
When was the tri council policy first published?
1998
what is the tri-council policy responsible for?
became the first standard canadian ethics code to guide all research involving humans; this replaced all prior guidelines.
When was the tri-council policy statement’s first major revision?
TCPS2 in 2010
What must all institutions who receive funding from the tri-council must have? Why?
a research ethics board that reviews each study to ensure it adheres to the TCPS2 ethical guidelines.
What did the nuremberg code emphasize?
the concept of informed consent.
What does the TCPS2 remind people to do?
consult and follow the laws and jursidicions in which the research is conducted.
In addition to the TCPS2 what do Canadian researchers have comply to?
the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, canadian privacy of information laws, and relevant provincial laws,
What is the aim of research ethics codes around the world?
to ensure that research si conducted in a way that respects the dignity and inherent worth of all human beings.
What are the 3 ethical principles that express the value of ensuring human dignity and are specified in the TCPS2? What are their definitions?
(1) respect for persons
to show respect for persons, researchers must respect the autonomy of research participants and protect those who have “developing, impaired, or diminished autonomy”. Respecting autonomy means enabling people to choose participation freely and without interference.
(2) Concern for Welfare
to show concern for welfare, researchers must attempt to minimize risks associated with participating in research, while maximizing the benefits of that research to individual participants and to society. When coupled with respect for persons, participants must be free to choose whether the balance of risk and benefits is acceptable is acceptable to them.
(3) Justice
to show justice, researchers must treat people fairly and equitably by ditributing the benfits and burden of pariticpating in research. Demonstrating justice includes recruitment methods that offer participation to people from a diverse range of social groups, and excluding groups only when scientifically justifiable.
Is interpretation an issue with research ethics?
yes
What does the principle of concern for welfare refer to? What does this relate to?
The ethical principle that research should maximize benefits and minimize harm. In order to do this we need to calculate potential risks and benefits that are likely to result. This is called risk-benefit analysis.
What is risk-benefit analysis?
An evaluation of the potential hazards of conducting a study, weighed against the potential benefits to participants and to society.
What are some expample of some benefits that participants may experience from research?
education about scientific process, acquisition of a new skills, treatment for a psychological or medical problem, money, a gift, the possibility of winning a prize, points towards a course grade.
Less tangible benefits may include satisfaction from contributing in scientific investigation that could yield benefits for society, the knowledge gained through the research may also improve future educational practices, psychotherapy, or social policy.
Is it important to think about the cost of not not conducting the study? When is this especially true? Exmaple?
yes.
if the proposed research is the only way to collect potentially valuable data.
Ex: studying people’s experiences of traumatic events may upset some participants, yet failure to study this topic can lead to misguided treatments and care.
What do we need to think about more so than the risk-benefit analysis?
Importantly, although benefits and costs to society at large have a place in risk-benefit analysis, they are typically considered secondary to considering the ethical treatment of participants.
What is the most obvious or salient risk to participants that we need to consider? What are examples of types of research that pose these risks? When do we go ahead with them?
the potential for physical harm to participants.
Asking participants to consume alcohol or depriving participants of sleep. For us to do this, there needs to be clear benefits of the research that outweigh potential risks.
What is an important risk to consider aside form physical harm? How does milgram’s experiement fit into this?
psychological distress.
In Milgram’s experiment, participants were shown protesting, sweating and nervously laughing.
In what principle do we consider the risks of psychological distress? What do we ask?
concern for welfare.
We ask whether subjecting participants to stressful experiments is justified, and whether the experience might have long-term consequences for the participants.
Could the use of deception cause distress for participants?
yes.
What are the risks involved with research? (3 main areas)
- physical harm
- psychological distress
- risk of losing privacy or confidentiality
What must researchers take care to do in regards to privacy?
protect the privacy of individuals, which includes “the right to control information about oneself.
Why are definitions of privacy and confidentiality changing?
because of the digital age
At a minimum, what should researchers do to protect privacy?
keep all paper data locked in a secure place and encrypting all electronic data.
In the digital age, what about privacy should we keep in mind?
We should be aware that using data for purposes other than what was agreed to during informed consent process may breach participants privacy and confidentiality, adding risk to the participants in the form of loss of trust in researchers and the institutions they represent.
When does confidentiality become particularly important?
when studying sensitive topics such as sexual behaviour, divorce, family violence, or drug abuse.
What is the definition of confidential?
The ethical principle that information is kept private, with disclosure limited to the minimum number of people necessary.
What is the definition of anonymous?
Protecting the identity of participants by making them unidentifiable based on the data collected; with anonymous data, it is impossible to identify which participant provided what data.
When can data be anonymous? not anonymous?
when questionnaires are adminsitered to groups of people, and no information is asked that could be used to identify an individual.
when is it virtually impossible to guarantee complete anonymity?
personal interviews or in online studies for which participants enter an email adress. The researchers must carefully design ways of coding data, storing data, and explaining procedures to participants, to protect confidentiality of responses and to ensure anonymity, when possible.
Is there ever a need to be able to identify individual participants?
yes.
When people are studies on multiple occasions over time, or when specific personal feedback, such as an accurate test score, must be given to individual participants. In such cases, a researcher should create a code to identify the individuals, but should separate this code from the actual data. Thus, if the questionnaires or data files were seen by anyone, the data could not be linked to specific people.. In these cases, anonymity cannot be guaranteed, and researchers must take extra precautions to safeguard confidentiality of all data.
How can privacy laws in the US affect research conducted using internet in Canada? What do REB boards say about this? When is there a similar issue?
the Patriot Act in the US allows the government to access records of internet service providers. Therefore, online studies that are hosted by servers located in the US risk privacy and confidentiality of Canadian participants. For this reason, the REBs may require that online studies are conducted using companies whose servers are located in Canada or outside of the US
A similar issue is when research is conducted over text messages or e-mail with servers hosted in the US.
What must researchers who conduct studies online do?
must develop or seek services that provide safeguards such as encryption to protect participants’ data from interception by unauthorized parties.
What is the privacy issue concern for concealed observation of behaviour?
in some studies, researchers make observation of behaviours in public places. Observing people in malls, or sidewalks etc. This does not seem to presnet any major ethical problems, as there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in these public spaces. However, what if a researcher wishes to observe a behaviour online, in a more private setting, or in ways that may violate individual’s privacy like rummaging through their trash?
What must researchers seek to do if they wish to uphold the principle of concern for welfare?
seek to minimize risk and maximize benefits to participants.
