Ethical implications of Milgrams study
Conducted his obedience research to answer the question ‘Are Germans different?’ Milgrams participants were deceived as they were delivering electric shocks to another participant
Asking this question following the Second World War, when there was already prejudice against German people. This is given scientific credibility.
Deception as the participants believing that they were delivering electric shocks led to high levels of stress and in some cases seizures.
Ethical implications of Bowlbys theory of attachment
It suggests that children form one special attachment bond, usually with their mother, which must take place within a critical period.
Bowlbys also suggested that this attachment bond affects their future relationships through internal working model.
Bowlbys theory has contributed to the development of childcare practices, it has also encouraged the view that a women’s place is at home with her children, which could make some mothers feel guilty for returning to work following childbirth.
Ethical implications of burts research into intelligence
Used identical twins and found a heritability coefficient of 0.77 for intelligence, suggesting a strong genetic basis for intelligence.
These conclusions influenced the Hadley Report (1926), which led to the creation of the 11+ exam for entry into a selective grammar school. Generations of children were affected by 11+ exams even though there had been huge controversy regarding whether Burt had falsified some of his research data.
Ethical implications of research into race and IQ
Robert Yerkes conducted flawed reeearch with American soldiers during the First World War which found that black Americans had lower IQ scores in comparison to white Americans
The findings of such research have been used to justify new (and often unwarranted) forms of social control. For example, between 1907 and 1963, over 64,000 individuals were forcibly sterilised under eugenic legislation in the United States. And in 1972, the United States senate committee revealed that at least 2,000 involuntary sterilisations had been performed on poor black women without their consent or knowledge.
Evaluation point: not all socially sensitive research has negative consequences
Some socially sensitive research is desirable and beneficial to society. For example, research examining eyewitness testimony, especially the use of child witnesses (eg. Flin et al.) has found young children can be reliable witnesses if they are questioned in a timely and appropriate manner. In this area, socially sensitive research has resulted in a good working relationship between psychologists and the legal profession to help improve the accuracy and validity of child eyewitnesses. Scarr
1988) argues that the studies of underrepresented groups may promote a greater sensitivity and understanding of such groups, which can help to reduce prejudice and encourage acceptance.
Evaluation point: current ethical guidelines are inadequate
Psychologists typically deal with ethical issues in research by following the ethical guidelines for the conduct of their studies. However, the current ethical guidelines focus on protecting the immediate needs of research participants, but do not deal with all the possible ways in which research may inflict harm on a group of people or section of society. For example, at present ethical guidelines don’t ask researchers to consider how their research might be used by other people or institutions to form and/or shape public social policy. Therefore, even though Sieber and Stanley (1988) raised their considerations some time ago, they have not yet permeated into professional practice.
Evaluation point: Reserschers should be free to carry out whatever research they feel it’s important, even though it might be socially sensitive
Because if governments start passing laws to prohibit certain kinds of research (e.g. ethnicity-related research), then there is a real danger that research would be stopped for political rather than for ethical reasons. According to Sieber and Stanley (1988), simply ignoring socially sensitive research is not a responsible approach to science. They suggest that avoiding controversial topics, simply because they are controversial, means psychologists are also avoiding responsibility. Therefore, psychologists have a duty to conduct such research. However, there is some evidence that socially sensitive research lat least in the US) is more likely than non-sensitive research to be rejected by institutional ethical committees. For example, Ceci et al. (1985) found that the rejection rate was about twice as great, which suggests that university ethics departments are mindful of socially sensitive research, and measures are put in place at an institutional level to protect individuals and the wider community from socially sensitive research.
Evaluation point: psychologists need to take responsibility for what happens to their research findings
In order to reduce the likelihood of misuse of data, psychologists should be energetic in taking responsibility for what happens to their findings. They should be aware of the possibility that the results of their research might lead to abuse and discrimination. The British Psychological Society has a press centre which aims to promote evidence-based psychological research to the media. But individual researchers should also consider it part of the research process to promote their research in a socially sensitive way, as opposed to the neutral position that some scientists take. Another solution might be for psychologists to engage more actively with policymakers after the publication of their findings to help reduce the likelihood that data is misused and to ensure that evidence-based research is used in socially sensitive ways.
Discuss one or more ethical implications of research in psychology. Refer to at least one topic you have studied in psychology in your answer
Possible content
effects of research on participants effects of publication on wider public
potential use of the findings, e.g. allocation of resources
potential use of the findings, e.g. political consequences - changes in legislation potential bias against people of certain cultures/ socioeconomic backgrounds potential influence on moral attitudes towards individual / social and ethnic groups economic implications, eg. for further psychological research, e.g. funding etc
Discuss one or more ethical implications of research in psychology. Refer to at least one topic you have studied in psychology in your answer
Possible applications to topic
Migram’s obedience research and attitudes to people of different nationalities
Bowlby’s research and the effects on child-rearing / working mothers diagnosis of depression, schizophrenia, etc labelling, e.g. gender identity
biological research into addiction/ aggression / offending - issue of who is to blame, eg. if offending / aggression/ addiction is inherited
Implications of relationship counselling based on research into relationships
How research into gender might affect parenting/ education practices.
Discuss one or more ethical implications of research in psychology. Refer to at least one topic you have studied in psychology in your answer
Possible discussion points
use of evidence to explain / elaborate / analyse the implications how researchers have dealt with the implications
cost / benefit discussion, e.g. consideration of whether the benefits of publication outweigh the costs
• short-term cost (at time of publication) versus long-term gain (in years to come and for future generations)
issues of reflexivity - the influential position of the researcher and researcher responsibility.
Describe the family dysfunction explanation of schizophrenia
. Schizophrenia is due to family experiences of conflict, communication problems, criticism and control.
. Double bind communication (Bateson 72)- child Recieves mixed messages and cannot do the right thing- results in disorganised thinking and paranoia
. High expressed emotion where family shows exaggerated involvement , control, criticism which increases the likelihood of relapse.
. Schizophrenogenic mother- typically cold, controlling and rejecting which leads to excessive stress which triggers psychotic thinking; father in such families is often passive
Torrey- support for neural coorelates explanation of Schizophrenia
Compared the brain structure of people with schizophrenia with people with healthy brains.
Torrey found that people with schizophrenia had 15% larger ventricles than those in the control group
Torreys study supports the neural coorelates explanation of schizophrenia
Name the researcher that criticized the dopamine hypothesis, by pointing out that not all people with schizophrenia experience positive symptoms because of high dopamine levels
Noll (2009)
Briefly explain the top-down approach to offendor profiling
. Conceptual categories/ templates of organized and disorganised offendor are pre- existing in the mind of the profiler.
. Evidence from the crime scene and other details of the crime/ victim/ context are then used to fit into either of the pre existing categories and determine the offendor as one type or the other
One method of offendor profiling involves categorizing offendors as either organized or disorganised offendors. Briefly explain one limitation of this method of offendor profiling
. Based on a restricted sample of 36 Serial sex offendors (therefore cannot be generalized to a wide population)
. Based on self reports from this sample (which cannot therefore be relied on for validity)
. Distinction is an oversimplification (difficult to categorize some offendors as one type or another so is of questionable validity/ usefulness)
. Research (Canter 2004) shows evidence for the organized type only (suggesting that organisation is a characteristic typical of most serial killers)
