Ethics- emotion and cognition Flashcards
Ethics- emotion and cognition
When dealing with how emotion affects our cognition, participants are often asked to recall events that evoke strong emotions. As these emotions can be negative, its important for researchers to take extra care we handling ppt, and making sure they dont feel any long lasting distress or harm as a result of the experiment
Flashbulb memories are memories that are especially vivid. They are usually of a shocking or traumatic event. AS SUCH, if flashbulb memories by definition are traumatic. ppt need to think about shocking events that might cause them distress in studies
Ppt may feel distress in studies about emotion and cogntiion due to having to recall traumatic/ shocking events
brown and kulik
- asked them abt death of a loved one/ friend/ personal event. Distress.
they asked them abt the deaths of important figures like JFK and martin luther king. since this would have been national news, there is risk of demand characteristics where ppt feel like they need to pretend they remember. might feel pressured to say they do remember the event clearly. feel awkward and distressed
Sharot
- asked them about 9/11. would have been traumatic/ scary event for ppt as they were all in NY at the time
fmri is loud n claustrophic
Reductionism - reduce explanation to simplistic faster e.g “intelligence is only based on genetics” reduce complex problem into simple explanation by isolating single variables and repeatedly testing variables
Otani
asked ppt about accident in japan
some ppt were asked about the accident only 3 weeks after it had occurred. may be parituclarly distressing as it is still too soon
HOWEVER, it could be said that the nature of how FBMs are formed means that shocking events are involved. If we want to investigate the formation of FBMs and how the strong emotions associated with them affect our cognition, we will invariably need ppt to recall these events.
If researchers check up on ppt and offer additional support after study, the ends should justify the means
Privacy and confidentialtiy may also be an issue as FMB’s may be formed as a result of shocking personal events. When investifating these events, researchers may have to ask ppt about personal life events
brown and kulik
They asked ppt about a personal life event, such as the death of a friend or a closed love one, to see if an FBM was formed
Researchers dealing with sensitive topics, they might share info thats personal
afterwards, ppt might feel regret about sharing this info
Added care needed
Should not leave study in worse state than when they came in
SHarot
they asked them to write down their personal memories when testing for FBM’s using cognitive subtraction
