Module 1 Ethical Issues in Psychology Research

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1 Ethical Issues in Psychology Research Kelsey Horn Rasmussen University G148/PSY1012: General Psychology Ms. Gail Sabo February 11, 2024

2 Ethical Issues in Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context (Oxford Dictionary). There are three landmark studies in the field of psychology (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). Those studies are Solomon Asch’s, which is a group think study, Stanley Milgram’s, which is an obedience study and Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison study (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). For all three of these studies there is going to be an understanding and involvement with what is thought to be ethical and unethical. Before touching on these topics, what first needs to be established is the American Psychological Associations Code of Ethics; with this information there can be educated decision making and discussion involving what is ethical and unethical. Code of Ethics The code of ethics is something that was published by the American Psychological Association, which is what maintains the code of conduct, ethical principles, and standards for the practice of psychology (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). It is a code that pertains to everything regarding psychology, including research, education, clinical practice, etc. (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). The general principles are what establish a broad and basic framework for ethical conduct within the field of psychology (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). It’s with these principles that provide a set of foundational values providing a basic framework from which to reason ethically (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). The first principle is principle A: beneficence and nonmaleficence (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). The meaning is nonmaleficence, “do no harm”, and beneficence, meaning that it charges the psychologists to engage in work that provides a positive benefit to others (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). The next principle is principle B: fidelity and responsibility (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). These stand for that psychologists must remain aware of both their clients individual

3 vulnerabilities, hold themselves fully accountable for their work and be able to make every effort to resolve dilemmas, as well as be willing to take on action if they observe unethical behavior by colleagues (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). The next principle is principle C: integrity, where psychologists should be honest and accurately represent their endeavors (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). While the use of deception in research is necessary and ethically justifiable, psychologists should make every effort to repair any mistrust by these techniques (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). The next principle is principle D: justice. Justice is when the psychologists are to treat others fairly and equally (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). The last principle is principle E: respect for peoples right and dignity, where psychologists should recognize the inherent worth and dignity for all people and to promote their individual autonomy (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). There are ethical standards as well. One example of an ethical standard is resolving ethical issues (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). This standard is one that deals with how to resolve ethical situations in the work setting, including when to report the ethical violations (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). Another ethical standard is competence. Competence is practicing within the boundaries of one’s area of training and expertise, only in emergency situations can one provide services outside the bound of one’s competence (Ethical Issues in Psychological Research). Studies in the Field of Psychology The first study to be discussed is Solomon Asch’s group think study (Three Landmark Studies in the Field of Psychology). In the 1950’s, Solomon Asch was interested in understanding more about conformity, more specifically he researched the degree to which a person would go to ignore reality to conform to group norms (Three Landmark Studies in the Field of Psychology). For example, he would have a group of people come together, three of them would be confederate, meaning they are aware of the experiment, while one is the naïve subject (Spielman et el., 2020). In this experiment, they naïve participant had to choose a line that most closely correlated to a line that was shown to them (Spielman

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4 et el., 2020). The confederates would purposely choose the wrong answer to determine whether the naïve participant would go with the group or disagree and choose their own answer (Spielman et el., 2020). Solomon Asch found that 76% of the participants conformed to the group pressure at least once (Spielman et el., 2020). The first ethical principle is beneficence and nonmaleficence, which I believe this study does, it is only to learn, and it does not hurt others. The next ethical principle is fidelity and responsibility, which I do feel that if they were not monitoring correctly could have been at risk depending on how the naïve subject interprets the experiment. But if this experiment is monitored correctly between confederates and control group then these boundaries could be respected. Then, the other principle is integrity, which I feel this experiment does not have. This whole experiment is about lying to the singular person about the experiment. It does not protect or hold their integrity. The other principle is justice, and this experiment is on the fair side. They are treating every naïve person for their experiment the same. Lastly, respect for people’s rights and dignity, I feel like this experiment does just that. The whole point of this experiment is to see if you will believe in yourself or follow what the group is doing. So, I believe this experiment is ethical. I think the ethical standard that this touches on is human relations and education and training. The second study that we are going to discuss is Stanley Milgram’s obedience study. In 1961, Stanley Milgram was curious of how far an individual would go to follow an authority figures orders (Three Landmark Studies in the Field of Psychology). Milgram was wanting to investigate whether Germans were particularly obedient to authority figures, as this was a common explanation for the Nazi killings in World War II (Mcleod, 2023). The experiment was he would pair one person with another, one person would be the learner and the other person the teacher (Mcleod, 2023). It was always fixed to where the participant was always the teacher and the learner was on of Milgram’s confederates, pretending to be a real participant (Mcleod, 2023). The learner was taken into a room and had electrodes attached to their arms and the teacher and researcher went into a room next door that

5 contained the electric shock generator (Mcleod, 2023). The electric shocks were not real, the learners were actors who were part of the experiment and did not actually receive shocks (Mcleod, 2023). The first ethical principle is beneficence and nonmaleficence. So, while we know that Milgram was not actually electrocuting anyone, he makes them think he is and going to, in a torture setting. I believe that can cause psychological issues within, whether shocks are happening or not. So, I believe that this experiment did not ethically follow the first principle. The next principle is fidelity and responsibility, I believe this experiment again was unethical. I do not feel it was appropriate or ethical to scare people into thinking they were getting electrocuted. The next principle is integrity, which again I do not feel like they had for this experiment. They were not honest with the people that they were conducting the experiment with and even in my opinion, psychologically tortured them. The next principle is justice, where they did treat every one of the experiment the same, they all had the same experiences with it. The last principle is respect for people’s rights and dignity, I feel again that they did not follow this. They had no respect or dignity for these people. The ethical standard I think this touches on is therapy and research and publication. The last study that we are going to talk about is Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison study. The purpose of this study was to examine the causes of the conflict between prisoners and guards (The Landmark Studies in the Field of Psychology). The point of this experiment was to examine situational forces versus dispositions in human behavior (Mcleod, 2023). The experiment was randomly assigning psychologically normal men to be assigned either prisoners or guards (Mcleod, 2023). After only six days it had to be terminated due to the extreme and pathological behavior emerging between both groups (Mcleod, 2023). The experiment ended up demonstrating the power situations to alter human behavior dramatically (Mcleod, 2023). For the first principle beneficence and nonmaleficence, I do believe that this experiment was trying to follow that and do good. However, it was the nature of the experiment that made it turn bad. For the next principle, fidelity and responsibility, I feel that this experiment

6 followed this as well, and that they even took the responsibility to stop the experiment when it started to do ill will towards the people. Then there is the integrity principle, which I believe this experiment had as well. They randomized the people to where they did not know who they would be, whether it be a prisoner or a guard. The next principle is justice, where I feel they did follow this as well because it was all randomized and the participants new it would be randomized. The last principle is respect for people’s rights and dignity, which I do believe this experiment followed as well. It was randomized between prisoner and guard, kept an eye on all of them and when the experiment started to turn into something that was not good, they stopped it. The ethical standards I believe that are touched on in this experiment are human relations and education and training.

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7 References Rasmussen University. (2024). American Psychological Association Ethical Principles and Standards. https://learning.rasmussen.edu/ultra/courses/_148650_1/outline/edit/document/ _15476965_1?courseId=_148650_1&view=content Rasmussen University. (2024). Three Landmark Studies in the Field of Psychology. https://learning.rasmussen.edu/ultra/courses/_148650_1/outline/edit/document/ _15476966_1?courseId=_148650_1&view=content Spielman, R., Jenkins, W., Lovett, M. (2020, April 22). OpenStax. Psychology 2e. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/12-4-conformity-compliance-and- obedience#CNX_Psych_12_04_Asch Mcleod, S. (2023 November, 14). Simply Psychology. Stanley Milgram Shock Experiment: Summary, Results, and Ethics. https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html Mcleod, S. (2023 November, 17). Simply Psychology. Stanford Prison Experiment: Zimbardo’s Famous Study. https://www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html

Module 1 Ethical Issues in Psychology Research

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