Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

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ETHICAL ISSUES IN
PSYCHOLOGY
Dr Fenja Ziegler

The Bystander Effect

2

Put volunteers in a situation where

someone is in distress and needs help
Number of factors
influence whether
people help
How would you feel
if you didnt help?
Is it ethical to put you into this situation?
Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Landis Facial Expressions

(1924)

Are facial expressions universal (e.g.

shock, disgust)?
Paint peoples faces with lines and make
them do stuff:

Smell ammonia
Watch porn
Hand in bucket of frogs
Decapitate rat (2/3 complied eventually). 1/3
Landis did himself
Nothing universal (but note obedience)
Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Monster Bully (1939)

4

Do children stutter innately, or do we

make them stutter?
Take some orphaned children and split
into two groups:

Criticise every mistake

Praise for speech

Effects on children?

Loss of self-worth
Enduring speech problems
Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Ethics and Morals - Issues

5

Ethics (professionals) Morals (common

standards)

Cost-benefit analysis

Psychology:

Animal experiments, developing nuclear/

chemical weapons, stem cells
Human and other animals (care and respect)
Socially sensitive (e.g. IQ testing)
Exploitation of results (e.g. stress factors)

Deception, consent, protection from harm

Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Deception
6

Full information on Research

All deception harmful?

Asch: full information no research

Deception or distraction? (e.g. implicit
learning)

< damaging > acceptable

> important > acceptable
? alternatives > acceptable
Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Ditching Deception?
7

Role playing

As real behaviour?
Still stressful?

Debriefing

Told purpose of experiment

Withdraw data
Leave as sane as on arrival
Does not justify unethical methods
Might not reduce distress
Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Informed Consent
8

Informed on:

What will be required

Purpose of research
Your rights (confidentiality, withdrawal, etc.)

Give consent

Children and learning impaired

Some experiments (incl. field experiments)
Retrospective; in public domain (e.g. Kitty Genovese
bystanders)

Presumptive consent (from similar sample)

Prior general consent
Withhold data (damage done)
Participants (subjects)
Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Protection from Harm

9

Physical Harm:

e.g. anxiety (seizures, sweating, etc.)

Psychological Harm:

Psychological safety (of pp)

Confidentiality
Privacy (observing in public or private
places)

Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Milgrams study of Obedience

10

Milgram (1965) Study of Authority: the way in

which subjects are prepared to follow instructions
to shock another subject
study of memory at Yale
Subject, Actor and Experimenter,

Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Stanford Prison Experiment

Zimbardo, 1973

11

Dispositional/ situational
Guards and prisoners
Power structure
Terminated
Behaviour change

Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Difficult Research Issues

12

Language
Violence
Stress
Personality
Drugs
Conformity
???

Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Reading
13

Eysenck, M. (2005) Psychology for AS

level, (3rd ed.). Chapter 7, Section 19

All lecture slides on www.fenjaziegler.org

Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP

Would you take part in

14

1.

2.
3.

4.

Research on brand recognition of

commercial products
Research on product safety
Research in which you will be misled
about the purpose until afterwards
Research involving group standards

Lecture 4 | Social Psychology | C80FIP