Social and Developmental Flashcards
(16 cards)
Overview of ethics in psychology
Ethics are central to the practise and research in psychology
The primary goal of ethical guidelines is to protect ppts from harm while advancing our understanding of human behaviour
The British Psychological Society and America Psychological Association both set out stringent ethical codes of conduct that must be followed by researchers
Social psychologu in particualr raises significant ethical challenges due to the nature of the experiments, which often involve human interaction, manipulation and sensitive social dynamics
- for example, a lot of the studies we are looking at are looking to explain why the Nazi soldiers behaved the way that they had in the Holocaust and WW2, which is bound to bring up ethical issues
Why study ethics in social psychology?
Social psychology has given us profound insights into human behvauiur but not without ethical controversies
Understanding the ethical dilemmas and mistakes of past reserach is key to avoiding them in the future
By analysing key studies we can identify the ethical issues they faces and how these have shaped modern ethical guidelines
Allows us to protect researchers, the researcher ppts and the field of psychological study (Sheldon Skidmore and Ryan Villard, 11/21/2023)
Milgram Obedience Study (1963)
Stanley Milgram’s study was designed to investigate authority figures
Ppts instructed to deliver increasingly servere electrical shocks to a “learner” (an actor) to each incorrect insert
The shocks were fake, but ppts were u aware of this, believing they were causing real harm
Controversial series of experiments examining obedience to authority, conducted at Yale University (Encylopaedia Britannica, April 8 2025)
Ethical issues raised:
- Deception - ppts were misled about the true nature of the experiment, believing they were administering actual shocks
- psychological harm - many ppts experienced extreme stress, anxiety and emotional turmoil, some event sweating, trembling or showing signs of distress
- lack of informed consent - ppts were not fully informed about the procedure or its potential consequences (viable insights blog, June 30 2023)
Ethical lessons:
- importance of informed consent - modern guidelines require that ppts be given a clear understanding of the procedures and potential risks
- debriefing - today a thorough debriefing is considered essential to help ppts understanding the true nature of the study and alleviate any potential distress
- minimising harm - ethical guidelines now emphasise that researchers must avoid causing undue stress, anxiety or harm to ppts
Impact of ethical guidelines:
- this study led to the establishment of stricter guidelines regarding informed consent, the use of deception and the protection of ppts from psychological harm (and physical harm)
Institutional review boards now play a crucial role in safeguarding ppt’s rights, ensuring informed consent, minimising psychological harm and implementing thorough devised produced (viable insights blog, June 30 2023)
The Stanford prision experiment (1971)
Philip Zimbardo’s experiment aimed to investigator how social roles and perceived power affect behaviour
Ppts were assigned to roles as either guards or prisoners in a simulated prison environment
The environment quickly spiralled out of control, with “guards” becoming abusive and “prisoners” experiencing emotional breakdowns
- people had to be removed due to mental breakdowns, guards forced prisoners to clean toilets with a toothbrush, prisoners started to break out in hives
Intended to measure the effect of role-playing, labelling and social expectations on behaviour over a period of two weeks (Encyclopaedia Britannica, April 15 2025)
Ethical issues raised:
- informed consent and deception - ppts did not fully understand the potential risks of the experiment nor dud they anticipate the emotional trauma that could result from their assigned roles
- lack of protection from harm - Zimbardo, who was acting as both researcher and prison superintendent, failed to intervene when ppts were showing signs of severe psychological distress
Role confusion - Zimabrdo’s dual role compromised his objectivity an he allowed the abuse to continue for too long
Ethical lessons:
- the necessity of research objectivity - Zimbardo’s involvement in the experiment compromised the sfateyt of the ppts. researchers must maintain a clear distinction between their roles as scientists and any other roles they might play
~ Zimbardo’s want to gain knowledge and answer the nypothesisi clouded his judgment when it came to terminating the study - was ended early lower there were very clear signs of distress much before this decision was made
- early termination of harmful studies - this study should have been terminated as soon as signs of psychological harm emerged. Ethical guidelines noe emphasis that researchers must intervene when ppts are at risk
- indepdent ethical oversight - institutional review boards (IRBs) or ethics committees must monitor experiments to protect ppts’ wellbeing
- The Stanford Prison Experiment has become one of psychology’s most dramatic illustration of how good people can be transformed into perpetrator’s of evil, and healthy people can being to experience pathological reactions - traceable to situational forces (APA, 2004)
Impact on ethical guidelines:
- this study reinforced the need for clear ethical oversight, indecent monitoring of studies and clear guidelines for the treatment of ppts in studies involving high levels of stress or social manipulation
- every study conducted needs an ethic review, which is highly detailed, before it is carried out (a person independent from this study)
The Bystander Effect and Darlene and Latané’s Studies (1968)
Conducted a series of experiments to explore the phenomenon of the bystander effect, where individuals are less likely to offer help in an emergency when others are present
One of their experiments involved staging emergencies to observed whether ppts would intervene to help a victim
Carried out in response to a murder in New York in the street, and no one stepped in to help
The bystander effect, the reduction in helping behaviour in the present of other people, has been explained predominantly by situational influences on decision making (Hortensius R, de Gelder B, August 2018)
Ethical issues raised:
- deception with minimal harm - while the studies involved deception, the potential for harm was relatively low compared to other experiments (e.g. Milgram). However the use of deception must be justified with the benefits of the study outweighing the risks
- post-experimental debriefing - a thorough debriefing is crucial to explain the deception and receive any emotional discomforts, ppts may feel about their actions during the experiment
- right to withdraw - ethical guidelines now ensure that ppts are clearly informed of their right to withdraw at any point without penalty - unaware that they are taking part in a study, so also no consent
Impact of ethical guidelines:
- these studies contributed ti discussions about the ethical use of deception in psychological research, stressing the need for it to be used sparingly and justified
The role of ethical guidelines today
Informed consent - today, ppts must be fully aware of the nature of the study, the procedures involved, and any potential risks. consent must be voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time
Debriefing - researchers are required to provide ppts with a full explanation of the study’s purose and methods after ppts, particularly if deception was used
Confidentiality - ppt’s data must be protected and their anonymitiy prevented unless they give explicit consent for their information to be used
Minimising harm - researchers must take every precaution to minimise physical ir psychological harm to ppts, stopping studies if any such harm becomes evident
BPS emphasises importance of conducting ethical practised, and have 4 primary ethical principle focuses: respect, competence, responsibility and integrity (BPS 2021)
The role of ethical committees
Institutional Review Boards and ethics committees play a key role ij reciting research proposals to ensure ethic standards are met
Studies must be scrutinised for potential risks, and any potential mental harm to ppts must be justified by the likely scientific benefit
BPS ethics committee aims to promote the ethical practise of psychology and are responsible for the Code of Ethics and Conduct and other ethical guidelines
Lessons learned
The ethical issues in these studies highlight the tension between the pursuit of knowledge and the responsibility to protect ppts
Modern ethics in social psychology strive to balance these goals by prioritising ppt wellbeing
Future ethical challenges
Online and Digital research - with the rise of internet-based studies, new ethical questions arise regarding piracy, consent and data security
Cross-cultural research - when conducting research across different cultural contexts, researchers must endure hat ethical guidelines respect local norms while still protecting ppts
Forseeable social and technological changes will force us to reevaluate our thinking about ethically appropriate ways to fulfil our mission of using psychology
- increasing patterns of delivering services over substantial distances by electronic means
(Koocher, July 2017)
Conclusion
Ethical guideline shave evolved significantly as a result of lessons learned from classic social psychology experiments
Today, ethics are foundational to the field, ensuring that research can progress without compromising the welfare of ppts
It is critical for current and future psychologists to adhere to these guidelines and continuously reflect on the ethical implications of their work
Ethical dilemmas in developmental psychology -> what to consider when carrying out developmental research
Informed consent - parents/priamry caregivers - opt in and opt out methods (but still the p[arents giving you the consent, not the child)
Informed assent - gaining a child’s agreement to ppts in the study
How do you convey this conformation to a child? - how do you explain that a study might make them sad, uncomfortable, irked and that they can ask for a break or to stop at any time - could use visualise to help to do so (e.g. cartoon strips) - you van try and model the study and the behaviours - make up stories and change the language yo make it more appropriate - however the child may take issue with researchers due to the, being a stranger and therefore it is important to build up a rapport with them in order to do this
Protection of ppts (esp vulnerable groups)
- withdrawal at any point
- minimise deception - in a normal way and by ensuring that they understand what they are doing too, in an age appropriate way (because if they don’t it would still be considered disception)
- appropriate debriefing
- distress beyond every day?
It is also very important to understand non verbal cues of not wanting to continue, especially in pre verbal children
How do you decide this for developmental populations?
Do the benefits outweigh the costs?
Note that children are copsndiered a vulnerable population, so as soon as you start to use people under the age of 18, any study goes from low risk to considered high risk
Children in locked fridges - Bain et al (1958)
Attempt to reduce the number of accidental deaths in fridges
- test different kinds of internal release devices
- aims to determine what children do under more realistic conditions
Methods:
- 201 children, 2-5 years old
- demographics collected: name, sex, birthdate, height/wegiht, years in school, occupation of parents
- behaviours recorded: sounds made by children in test enclosure, comments on behaviour by observer, film recording of some
Procedure:
- play with guardian then taken by experimenter to test area
- child ‘lured’ into ‘playhouse’ with cartoon
- door closed, playhouse becomes dark outside, sound excluded
- the experimenter determined when o let them out based on amount of effort exerted and degree to which they appeared to be disturbed
What did they find?:
Three classes of response
- inaction - 24%
~ a few knocked politely saying ‘please let me out’
~ sat quietly for 15 minutes
- purposeful attempt to escape - 39%
~ most of the children called “mommy” or mother, even though she was well out of ear shot
- violent action - 37%
~ some panicked to the degree that no purposeful effort was apparent
Conclusion:
- children generally push on door or use door knob to release
- age, size and behaviour related to success
Do the benefits outweigh the costs?:
- probably not
- risks in the study primarily distress, but was a small chance of lasting psychological damage, such as claustrophobia (David Hunter, June 14 2013)
Famous developmental studies
Waston and Raynor (1920) “Little Albert” study the development of phobias through conditioning
Harlow (1958) “the nature of love” the development of attachment in infant macaque monkeys
Bandura et al (1961) “the bodo doll” the transmission of aggression
Little Albert
Carried out by John B Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rauner at John Hopkins University in 1920
Behvaiorusim: a child can be emotionally conditioned to fear through association
Albert presented a white rate -> natural stimulus, nosing of fear
- white rabbit, white dog, Santa Claus mask - no fear
Albert is startled/cries - unconditioned response
Result - Albert cried at the sight of a rat with no loud noise
The neural stimulus is not the conditioned stimulus
The conditioned repose to other furry objects - stimulus generalisation
Did the benefits outweigh the costs?
lack of informed consent
- was Albert’s mother fully informed about the nature f the study?
Psychological harm
- deliberate fear induced, without any pan to reverse the effects
Lack of debriefing or desensitisation
- no attempt to reverse the fear response
Exploitation of a vulnerable population
- Albert wad an infant - informed assent?
Lack of confidentiality
- info surrounding the hospital, his name, his mothe,r videos of him
Harlow
Infant monkeys separated from their mothers hours after birth
“raised” by two kinds of surrogate monkey mother machines
- bare wire mesh vs soft Terry cloth surrogate
Monkeys who has choice of mothers spent more time clinging to the Terry cloth surrogate, despite nourishment coming from the wire surrogate
Infants separated into two groups - what happened?
- behavioural differences between the 2 groups of monkeys. Those who have softer surrogate develop emotional attachment
Did the benefits outweigh the costs?
Emotional trauma
- separation from their biological mothers during a critical bonding period is very stressful
lack of animals welfare considerations
- monkeys raised in isolation, wire mesh cause physical discomfort
Long-term psychological impact
- some developed emotional anorexia and had to ve force fed to be kept alive, had no normal development, many died and attacked other monkeys
The bodo doll
Social learning of aggression
Children observed male or female model (or no model) acting aggressively or not towards a bodo doll
Mode then left the room and children could play with the doll
Children obeyed an aggressive model imitated aggressive actions more than children who observed non-aggressive model or no model
Boys were also more physically aggressive than girls (but not verbally)
Do the benefit outweight the costs?
Psychological harm - exposure to aggression
- potentially teaching children violent/aggressvie bhevaioyr
lack of informed consent
- were parents fully informed about what their child was participant in?
Lack of de-briefing and follow-up
- no attempt to undo the learned aggressive behaviours
Deception and lack of autonomy
- did the children fully understand the purpose of the study
