Ethical issues in obedience research

Question 1

Participants were decieved

Answer 1

• They didn’t know what the study they were partaking in was really about
• They were deceived into thinking they were administering real electric shocks
• However he needed to deceive participants to get true reflections on how people would act

Question 2

Debriefed

Answer 2

participants were thoroughly debriefed

Question 3

why did milgram not protect participants adequately from emotional stress etc?

Answer 3

Because the results he obtained were not as expected

Question 4

How was it known that there was no evidence of psychiatric harm or traumatic stress after the experiment?

Answer 4

An independent psychiatrist interviewed 40 of the participant

Question 5

right to withdraw

Answer 5

• Milgram told the participants that the money was theirs whether they completed the experiment or not
• However the prods lead the participants to feel that withdrawal was not allowed
• If the experimenter had continued to remind the person of their right to withdraw it would have been more ethical

Question 6

Why was Milgram not in trouble because of the ethical issues

Answer 6

• Because there were no ethical guidelines created to be breached at the time of his research
• could be argued that his researches contribution to society outweighed the ethical issues

Question 7

Who was Adolf Eichmann

Answer 7

High position in the Nazi regime selected to separate women Jews etc in the holocaust were they were mistreated and murdered.
-he was caught charged and hanged however agency theory would have argued he was just an ordinary man carrying out orders not a monster he was made out to be therefore would have given these people an excuse for the monstrosities they committed.