Question

Looking at one of the topics that will be on your Week 1 assignment, protecting the subject from harm is an important part of informed consent, which is a required component of all research studies as discussed on page 67 of chapter 2 (Spielman, Dumper, Jenkins, Lacombe, & Lovett, 2014). There are many studies that we have gained much useful information from that could never be replicated today. While the results of the research with Little Albert, the results from Milgram's study on obedience, and the results from the Stanford Prison Experiment, and numerous others were monumental, they were clearly unethical by today's standards.

Class - Do ethical standards hinder our ability to gain significant results or are ethical considerations always more important than the potential findings?

Answer 1

Hello, thank you for your question! :)

Ethics are a code of conduct that researchers have to abide to protect the rights of others as well as to be fair and honest in research.

The APA and other regulatory bodies have developed a Code of Ethics for Psychologists and researchers that includes not plagiarizing other researchers data, falsifying data, misrepresenting data,

There are also guidelines for conducting researchers for human and animal subjects. Some of the include informed consent, protecting the rights of human beings in terms of respecting their privacy, not sharing personal data, not harming anyone physically, mentally or emotionally, allowing them to discontinue the research if they choose to, informing them about what the research is about and debriefing them, providing basic facilities such as food, water, toilets etc. Making sure that the research doesn't cause any stress, excess fatigue or mental strain on the participant and not prompting any responses that can lead to biases

Though Milligrams experiment, Stanford Prison Experiment, Little Albert studies did bring about groundbreaking research it still wasn't its limitations. One such area that it lacked was the violations of basic ethics.

Ethics are important because psychological research is not meant to be done for selfish reasons, it is meant to help and promote the understanding of human behavior and in large contribute toward society in large. Violating basic human rights and ethics means you lack what is necessary to be human. In the past there was no such ethics, people were treated as pawns and lab rats. So many experiments were performed on slaves. Now as times have changed we have come to realize that nobody should be treated in some an inhumane manner to get results. You might become successful but the scars of your research will always remain with the participant and it will get carried forward to future generations. For eg the strain and emotional disturbance, a small baby like little Albert went through is also a reminder of how if not controlled and checked how inhumane we can be. The harmful effects of slavery are a reminder of how the scars never heal even in future generations.

Even though the researches above were unethical they did have its limitation, so no research is actually perfect.

Ethics in fact do not limit research because there is no right way to research. In fact this tap into the creativity and knowledge of the researcher to be able to use a variety of methods to get the same result. There were so many other ways to test classical conditioning and phobias. For eg, there are so many researches about phobias and the treatment of phobias that have achieved the same conclusion as Wattson did on the Little Albert study.

Also since research is meant to benefit society and the people it is important to build trust and cooperation. Participants are not obligated to be in your research, you need them not the other way around. So you have a moral responsibility to treat someone who is taking the time and making an effort to help your research. It, therefore, is a team effort with the goal to obtain the results

Research that is falsified, deceiving, misused, plagiarized violates the rights of other researches who have put in the effort as well as is a misuse and mistrust of the public funds and research community. It outa bad light on other genuine researchers.

Ethics also promotes equality and fairness so that all research can be judged based on the findings and not because someone had a better advantage.

It allows others to question you and your methods to obtain the results. You are no more accountable to yourself but are now accountable to the public, the institutions that are funding your research, the research community and the legal and judicious laws of society and your country

Lastly, it grounds us to be human. Over the years we saw how in the name of power, money, science, and discovery we lost all qualities of being human. Therefore ethics are a reminder of how we can be if there are no rules set in place. It also teaches us to be respectful, kind, and honest with our work.

In conclusion, there are no single ways of conducting research and no research can be truly perfect without any limitation so ethics don't really hinder any research or discoveries.

I hope this was informative and helpful! :) Do like and give me feedback! :)