Ethics in Psychology

Ethics in Psychology Why we need ethical guidelines

Little Albert (1920) • Watson and Rayner wanted to know if children react to noises with fear and if fear is an unconditioned response • Albert B. was chosen from a hospital. • Little Albert was given and passed baseline emotional tests. • In a lab, a white laboratory rat was placed near Albert and he was allowed to play with it, showing no fear. • Later, Watson and Rayner made a loud sound behind Albert's back by striking a suspended steel bar with a hammer when the baby touched the rat. • Little Albert cried and showed fear as he heard the noise. • After repeated exposure, Albert was again presented with only the rat. He became very distressed as the rat appeared; crying, turning away, and trying to move away. • The boy had associated the white rat with the loud noise and was producingthe fearful or emotional response of crying.

Facial Expressions (1924) • Carney Landis designed an experiment to study whether emotions evoke characteristic facial expressions (i.e., is there one expression used to convey shock, and another commonly used to display disgust?). • He painted lines on participants faces so that he could more easily see the movement of their muscles. He then exposed them to a variety of stimuli designed to provoke a strong psychological reaction. • As they reacted, he snapped pictures of their faces. He made them smell ammonia, look at pornographic pictures, and reach their hand into a bucket containing slimy frogs. • The climax of the experiment arrived when he carried out a live white rat on a tray and asked them to decapitate it . • 2/3 comply • What he discovered was that facial expressions are not universal – individual differences are too wide.

Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1932-72) • The U.S. Public Health department wanted to know if syphilis sufferers were better off receiving no treatment over the toxic treatments that were available at the time. Also, they wanted to know what happens to syphilis sufferers as the disease progresses. • 399 mostly illiterate black sharecroppers from the south were enrolled and denied treatment or the ability to receive treatment elsewhere. • Then, they were watched • When penicillin became available in 1947, they were prevented from obtaining it • Only 74 survived. 28 died of syphilis, 100 more died from related diseases, 40 wives were infected as were 19 children

The Monster Study (1939) • Interested in determining what causes children to stutter, Johnson had 22 orphaned children split into experimental and control groups and told their caregivers they were going to receive treatment for speech impediments. • A grad student, Tudor, gave positive speech therapy to half of the children, praising the fluency of their speech regardless of ability, and negative speech therapy to the other half, belittling the children for every speech imperfection and telling them they were stutterers. • Many of the normal speaking children who received negative therapy in the experiment developed speech problems and suffered negative psychological effects. Some retained speech problems during the course of their life. • All of the children who received negative therapy saw their grades in school fall • The experiment was kept hidden for fear Johnson's reputation would be tarnished.

MK-ULTRA (1950s-60s) • Run by the C.I.A.'s Office of Scientific Intelligence researchers were curious to know about the effects of various drugs on the mind and whether the mind could be wiped clean and reprogrammed. • Many patients who entered university affiliated institutes complaining of minor anxiety and depression were placed in drug induced coma's for days, weeks, or months or were administered drugs such as LSD, amphetamine, and barbiturates. • Some deaths, notably overdoses and suicides have been attributed to experiments conducted under MK-ULTRA • Major issues surrounding the consent of the participants surfaced. Although many participated under universities they were likely deceived about the nature of the experiments • The program was allegedly stopped in the late 1960s and all records kept by the CIA were ordered destroyed in 1973

The Pit of Despair (1960s-70s) • Harry Harlow wanted a greater understanding of the effects of social isolation and loneliness. • He separated monkey's and placed them in chambers devoid of contact with other living things for 30, 60, 180 and 365 day periods. • Within days the infants had stopped moving about and were huddled in the corners of the boxes. • They showed psychotic behaviours and could not be resocialized. Two of the affected monkeys refused to eat and starved themselves to death • They were bullied when reintroduced to a group and when they were forced to become parents, they either ignored, harmed or tried to kill their offspring. • Many believe that the animal rights movement was sparked, in large part, by Harlow's various studies.

The Obedience Study (1963) • Milgram, sparked by Nazi war crimes trials in which defendants claimed they were only following orders, wanted to know how blindly people obey orders. • He recruited participants for a "memorization" task in which a teacher, under an experimenter's supervision, would be required to shock a learner whenever they failed to correctly repeat a memorized sequence. • With each mistake, the strength of the shock was raised to a maximum of 450 volts (enough to kill). • Although they protested at having to administer the shocks, they continued if verbally prompted by the experimenter. • Remarkably, the majority of participants shocked their learner to the point of death. • What they didn't know was that the learner was a confederate who wasn't hooked up to the shock apparatus. • Questions about the mental health of participants who thought they killed the learner was a major issue

Learned Helplessness (1967) • As an extension of their interest in depression, Seligman and Maier wanted to know if attitude affected susceptibility to the illness. • They divided dogs into three groups: Group one was harnessed and later released. A two and three were harnessed and wired together. They were shocked but Two could press a lever to end the shock. Three had to wait until Two pressed the lever to stop the pain. • Then each was placed in a shock box. Ones and twos successfully tried to escape by jumping over a partition. Most Threes simply laid down and whimpered. • The conclusion was the Threes learned there was nothing they could do to end the pain so they waited.

The Bystander Effect (1970) • After reading of the murder of a woman in full view of many witnesses, Latané and Darley are concerned with why no one sought to help in that emergency. • They conduct an experiment in which a participant is brought to a room where he/she can have an intercom conversation with other participants. Their mic is only turned on when its their turn to speak. • A participant in another room (really a recording) begins to have a seizure. The researchers measure how long he/she takes, if at all, to go get help. • The participants show high levels of stress about the emergency situation • When the participants are debriefed they are shown to have remaining stress and feelings of guilt about not obtaining help. • They anticipated someone else would help.

Stanford Prison Experiment (1971) • Philip Zimbardo recruited 24 mentally healthy graduate students to participate in a simulated prison study. Half were guards, the other half were prisoners. • His question was whether there are inherent personality traits in prisoners and guards that lead to the abusive relationships prevalent in many prisons. • Prisoners and guards rapidly adapted to their roles, stepping beyond the boundaries of what had been predicted and leading to dangerous and psychologically damaging situations. • One-third of the guards were judged to have exhibited "genuine" sadistic tendencies, while many prisoners were emotionally traumatized and two had to be removed from the experiment early. • Prisoners went on hunger strikes and were too demoralized to rebel or leave the experiment. • After sensing that everyone had been too absorbed in their roles, including himself, Zimbardo terminated the experiment after six days.

Canadian Code of Ethics for Psychologists • Participants must be able to give informed consent • A risk/gain assessment must be concluded. The knowledge gained must outweigh the risk to the participant • Eliminate intentional deception where possible. • Provide debriefing to the participant

Other issues • The use of animals for research continues to be controversial • Where possible, animal research is minimally invasive and concluded in natural or semi-natural settings

Homework: • If your last name starts with a letter from A-N, go to www.cpa.ca and find the "code of ethics". Summarize the four principles found there. • If your last name starts with a letter from M-Z, go to www.apa.org and find the "APA Ethics Code". Summarize the five principles found there.

Canadian Psychological Association's Ethical Guidelines • Principle I: Respect for Dignity of Persons • Principle II: Responsible Caring • Principle III: Integrity in Relationships • Principle IV: Responsibility to Society

American Psychological Association's Ethical Guidelines • Principle A: Beneficence and Nonmaleficence • Principle B: Fidelity and Responsibility • Principle C: Integrity • Principle D: Justice • Principle E: Respect for People's Rights and Dignity

Ethics in Psychology