Read each of the following summaries of famous studies in psychology. After each one, examine the research for ethical violations. Discuss whether or not each study could be conducted today in light of modern ethical guidelines governing research, and why or why not. How each study could be redesigned to eliminate or minimize the ethical problems. Example 1: Little Albert. Watson and Rayner (1920) taught a young boy named Albert to become afraid of a gentle white rat. At the beginning of the study, Albert was unafraid of the white rat and played freely with the animal. While he was playing with the rat, the experimenters frightened the child by making a loud noise behind him. Albert was startled and began to cry. Thereafter, he avoided the rat and would cry whenever it was brought close to him. Once this fear was learned, Watson and Rayner found that fear could also be elicited by showing Albert any furry object. He became frightened of many other furry objects such as a fur coat, a dog, a rabbit, and a furry face mask. Example 2: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Six hundred low-income African American males, 400 of whom were infected with syphilis, were monitored for 40 years. The purpose of the study was to examine the long-term effects of syphilis. The subjects of the study were the 400 African American males with syphilis, who were primarily poor sharecroppers. They were unaware that they had syphilis. They were also unaware of the true nature of the experiment. The most horrifying aspect of the experiment was that, even in the 1950s, when penicillin was proved to be effective at curing syphilis, the researchers did not treat the men’s syphilis. They even prevented other doctors who saw the participants from treating the syphilis. As many as 100 men may have died from complications of their untreated syphilis. Example 3: NIH-Funded Studies. In the period of time between 1945 and 1966, the U.S. National Institutes of Health funded 2,000 research projects, and none of them used informed consent. An article written by Henry Beecher that appeared in the June 16, 1966, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine exposed many clinical research trials that had been funded by the government that were highly unethical. One of the examples concerned mentally retarded children at a state school who were infected with hepatitis virus. The researcher who carried out this experiment eventually became head of the pediatrics department at New York University. He felt that the experiment was justified, because finding a cure for hepatitis would help many more people. In each of Beecher’s examples, clinical trials were done on what some may consider “marginal” members of society, such as the poor, developmentally disabled, and senile. These “marginalized” members of society were unable to decide for themselves whether or not to participate in these trials.

Read each of the following summaries of famous studies in psychology. After each one, examine the research for ethical violations. Discuss whether or not each study could be conducted today in light of modern ethical guidelines governing research, and why or why not. How each study could be redesigned to eliminate or minimize the ethical problems. Example 1: Little Albert. Watson and Rayner (1920) taught a young boy named Albert to become afraid of a gentle white rat. At the beginning of the study, Albert was unafraid of the white rat and played freely with the animal. While he was playing with the rat, the experimenters frightened the child by making a loud noise behind him. Albert was startled and began to cry. Thereafter, he avoided the rat and would cry whenever it was brought close to him. Once this fear was learned, Watson and Rayner found that fear could also be elicited by showing Albert any furry object. He became frightened of many other furry objects such as a fur coat, a dog, a rabbit, and a furry face mask. Example 2: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Six hundred low-income African American males, 400 of whom were infected with syphilis, were monitored for 40 years. The purpose of the study was to examine the long-term effects of syphilis. The subjects of the study were the 400 African American males with syphilis, who were primarily poor sharecroppers. They were unaware that they had syphilis. They were also unaware of the true nature of the experiment. The most horrifying aspect of the experiment was that, even in the 1950s, when penicillin was proved to be effective at curing syphilis, the researchers did not treat the men’s syphilis. They even prevented other doctors who saw the participants from treating the syphilis. As many as 100 men may have died from complications of their untreated syphilis. Example 3: NIH-Funded Studies. In the period of time between 1945 and 1966, the U.S. National Institutes of Health funded 2,000 research projects, and none of them used informed consent. An article written by Henry Beecher that appeared in the June 16, 1966, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine exposed many clinical research trials that had been funded by the government that were highly unethical. One of the examples concerned mentally retarded children at a state school who were infected with hepatitis virus. The researcher who carried out this experiment eventually became head of the pediatrics department at New York University. He felt that the experiment was justified, because finding a cure for hepatitis would help many more people. In each of Beecher’s examples, clinical trials were done on what some may consider “marginal” members of society, such as the poor, developmentally disabled, and senile. These “marginalized” members of society were unable to decide for themselves whether or not to participate in these trials.

Ciccarelli: Psychology_5 (5th Edition)

5th Edition

ISBN:9780134477961

Author:Saundra K. Ciccarelli, J. Noland White

Publisher:Saundra K. Ciccarelli, J. Noland White

Chapter1: The Science Of Psychology

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 1TY

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Question

Read each of the following summaries of famous studies in psychology.
After each one, examine the research for ethical violations. Discuss whether or not each
study could be conducted today in light of modern ethical guidelines governing research,
and why or why not. How each study could be redesigned to eliminate or minimize the
ethical problems.
Example 1: Little Albert. Watson and Rayner (1920) taught a young boy named Albert to
become afraid of a gentle white rat. At the beginning of the study, Albert was unafraid of
the white rat and played freely with the animal. While he was playing with the rat, the
experimenters frightened the child by making a loud noise behind him. Albert was
startled and began to cry. Thereafter, he avoided the rat and would cry whenever it was
brought close to him. Once this fear was learned, Watson and Rayner found that fear
could also be elicited by showing Albert any furry object. He became frightened of many
other furry objects such as a fur coat, a dog, a rabbit, and a furry face mask.
Example 2: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Six hundred low-income African American
males, 400 of whom were infected with syphilis, were monitored for 40 years. The
purpose of the study was to examine the long-term effects of syphilis. The subjects of the
study were the 400 African American males with syphilis, who were primarily poor
sharecroppers. They were unaware that they had syphilis. They were also unaware of the
true nature of the experiment. The most horrifying aspect of the experiment was that,
even in the 1950s, when penicillin was proved to be effective at curing syphilis, the
researchers did not treat the men’s syphilis. They even prevented other doctors who saw
the participants from treating the syphilis. As many as 100 men may have died from
complications of their untreated syphilis.
Example 3: NIH-Funded Studies. In the period of time between 1945 and 1966, the U.S.
National Institutes of Health funded 2,000 research projects, and none of them used
informed consent. An article written by Henry Beecher that appeared in the June 16,
1966, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine exposed many clinical research
trials that had been funded by the government that were highly unethical. One of the
examples concerned mentally retarded children at a state school who were infected with
hepatitis virus. The researcher who carried out this experiment eventually became head of
the pediatrics department at New York University. He felt that the experiment was
justified, because finding a cure for hepatitis would help many more people. In each of
Beecher’s examples, clinical trials were done on what some may consider “marginal”
members of society, such as the poor, developmentally disabled, and senile. These “marginalized” members of society were unable to decide for themselves whether or not

to participate in these trials.

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