Human Ethics and Animals Ethics

Question 1

What are the Human Ethics?

Answer 1

• Respect
• Responsibility
• Competence
• Integrity

Question 2

Respect

Answer 2

• Psychologists value the dignity and worth of all persons of all cultural background with particular regard to people’s rights including privacy
• Informed consent and the right to withdraw should be followed

Question 3

Integrity

Answer 3

• Should be honest and accurate in all their research
• Includes accuracy when results are publish and conflicts of interests are open and transparent

Question 4

Competence

Answer 4

• Should be able to carry out the work assigned to them and place high value on their own professional work
• Should have awareness of their ability and limits and work within them

Question 5

Responsibility

Answer 5

• Psychologists have responsibility to themselves participants and the general public
• Ensure research doesn’t damage the reputation of psychology
• Ensure participants are protected from harm and always debriefed at the end of research

Question 6

Social Psychology (Ethical or not)

Answer 6

Milgram:
- Participants were under high levels of distress and thought they had electrocuted someone to unconsciousness
- Some participants were noted to bite and lips and some had seizures
- This violates the principle of protection of harm
- Showing that social psychology is unethical
Burger:
- Burger did pre-screening to excluded participants who may find the study over distressing and also had a clinical psychologist to end the trial if someone seems overly distressed
- He also stated that the participants can leave the study at any point
- Showing that social psychology is ethical

Question 7

Cognitive Psychology (Ethical or not)

Answer 7

HM:
- HM didn’t give consent to being in a study, HM would not remember being informed of the study or giving his consent due to his short memory span
- His real name was revealed and his case was revealed to the world of psychology
- HM was not debriefed however due to his short memory spam, he would not know he is in a study and wouldn’t desire debriefing
Schmolck:
- Participants already had brain damage, therefore she didn’t cause the brain damage to her participants, and using their existing conditions in her study of brain scans and semantic knowledge task
- The tasks were harmless
- Protected from harm as the kept participant’s name confidential and participants gave consent

Question 8

Biological Psychology (Ethical or not)

Answer 8

Brain Scans:
- The use of Brain scans go against from protection of harm
- CAT scan involves X-rays to create an structural image of the brain on a computer, X-ray lead to potential risks of radiation
- PET scan involves injecting a radioactive substance which bind glucose molecules, the long terms of this is not clear and radioactive tracer has potential to damage cells and tissues in the body
Raine
- Prisoners gave consent to participate in the study
- Raine’s procedure was harmless as a CPT task was used
- The study helped the prisoners to give evidence of proof for the insanity defence

Question 9

Learning Theories (Ethical or not)

Answer 9

Watson and Rayner:
- Distressed Little Albert
- No debriefing
Becker et al:
- Becker didn’t change the girl’s eating behaviour due to the study being a natural study as she had no control of Western culture becoming popular in Fiji