Experimental Social Psychology - Strengths and Weaknesses

Ethical Guidelines that are Broken in Milgram's Study on Obedience The ethical guidelines suggest that debriefing the participants after the experiment is essential, which Milgram has done it thoroughly in order to reveal the aim and the true purpose of his study. Although he did not expect the out come of his research, but his ethics shows that the research is beneficial of understanding the welfare of World War II.

There are many research studies conducted in the past that would not be considered ethical today. This essay will review two research methods, whilst taking into account the ethical standards of modern psychology. The focus of this essay will be; ‘Landis’ Facial Expressions Experiment 1924’ carried out by Carney Landis and ‘’Milgram’s Obedience Experiment’ carried out by Stanley Milgram. Both experiments were carried out under immoral circumstances and perhaps should never have been allowed to take place. Nowadays, neither would be considered acceptable.

The participant was not given full disclose about the details of the experiment, making the research untruthful. Freedom was another principle that was violated since the participants’ ability to withdraw from the experiment was highly discouraged. Even though it was possible to withdraw, not much power was given to the participant. Lastly, Milgram was neither altruistic nor giving of dignity to the participant. Participants showed signs of stress and possible psychological damage due to the process of harming another individual, but that did not stop the experiment. Milgram instructed the participants to continue the study until the very end. In order to make this experiment more ethical, Milgram should have set up the experiment in a way that did not give the illusion of causing harm to another human being. Also, participants should have been able to withdraw from the experiment without questioning. Lastly, Milgram should have known to stop the study once he saw the participant showing signs of distress and pain. This is to cause less harm to the participant and promote

Ethical dilemmas are one of the many sensitive issues that come with doing psychological research with human participants. As seen in several famous psychology studies such as the Stanford prison experiment, Milgram experiment, and Tuskegee experiment, ethics in psychological studies are important to protect both the individuals being subjected to research and the researcher. While these specific experiments did not include children, it does bring up an important conversation regarding ethics in research. There are several guidelines put in place by the American Psychological Association to protect humans during research. However, special considerations and guidelines are put into place when working with

One of the guidelines for experiments is to give participants informed consent. This means that they should be fully aware of the nature of the experiment, and any risks which the participants may be subjected to. In Milgram’s study, he told participants that the experiment was to test human learning through a memory game, which was partially true. In reality, however, the focus point was on obedience to authority figures, and the extent to which people would inflict pain on another individual simply because they were told to. This immediately breaches one of the guidelines, as participants were deceived and the true nature of the experiment was hidden. An issue with deception, however, is it cannot be avoided in all cases in order to provide the results in which the experiment is looking for. For example, if Milgram told

Looking at the history of human research experiments necessitates investigation into the background; why is it not sufficient to simply to undertake an experiment merely to broaden scientific study and understanding? Are not the psychologists and scientists ethical and professional? The answer is quite simply, not always. While many psychologists may have started their experiments with the best of intentions, there were a number that merely seized opportunities that were in their grasp. Hence, there came the need for the Belmont Report and the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Code of Ethics in direct response to testing on human subjects.

The ethics of the study were however called into question (Banyard, 2012). One protestors among many was Diana Baumrind (Banyard, 2012). Baumrind (1964) argued whether the ‘welfare of the participants’ was considered Banyard (2012, p.79). Baumrind (1964) further criticised the experiment for the damage it could do the public’s perception of psychology (Banyard, 2012). In Milgram’s (1963) defence, he was not ignorant of the potential harm caused to participants, (Banyard, 2012). In fact, he was

Almost all human beings agree that everyone is different and that there is a need to experiment to better understand the differences within the human race. The role of scientific experiments in psychology is an attempt to better understand the mental process of humans and the possible discovery of something in human makeup that has not been noticed by past scientists and psychologists. Experiments can change the permanent thinking of psychologists and scientists. If one psychologist theorized an idea and every other generation agreed with that view, no one voicing an opposition to the idea, then psychologists would get nowhere in understanding the human mind, failing the innate purpose of psychology- to study and answer questions about actions, thoughts, and emotions. Thus, to fulfil the need of psychology, psychologists experiment and refer back to past psychologists for ways to expand.

In her article, “Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience”, psychologist Diana Baumrind criticizes Stanley Milgram’s experiments on obedience to authority, stating that not only were Milgram’s experiments unethical but so was the scientist himself, claiming that he did not take appropriate measures to properly ensure his subject’s wellbeing post-experiment and therefore, experiments such as these should not be repeated. Baumrind does address an important point in her review and that is the responsibility of psychologists to ensure that their subjects are treated fairly and ethically but this is overshadowed by the fact that Baumrind’s argument is one rooted in pathos with little evidence to support her claims while being

One might think that this experiment will stimulate the new research in the area of human obedience, but this did not occur. Despite the difficulties and the courage of Burger to conduct a partial replication of the original study, it did not produce any different outcomes and did not spark any new ideas in psychology (Burger, 2009). Instead, the researcher had to deal with an enormous amount of different commentaries and controversy. My main rationale for disapproving the Burger’s study is ethical characteristics of the Milgram paradigm. More specifically, now we have the Ethical Rules of the APA, which tell us that researchers should honor rights of participants to privacy, confidentiality and the right to withdraw the experiment. However, Milgram’s paradigm clearly challenges these fundamental rights and creates even more ethical dilemmas. Another rationale that I can include is the infliction of increasing pain on an unwilling participant, a characteristic that is unacceptable in modern psychological studies. Therefore, I would disapprove such experiment, because of ethical non-compliance and little contribution to the field. As for me, I view following ethical practices in my dissertation project work as a crucial element for success. It will allow me to produce reliable, meaningful and relevant scholarly data that would not be a subject to ethical

Psychology is an applied as well as an academic field that studies both the human mind and behavior. The research in psychology attempts to explain and understand behavior, emotion and thought. The subject of psychology was created when Wilhelm Wundt opened up the very first psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany. Wilhelm Wundt believed that individuals who are appropriately trained would most likely be able to recognize the mental processes that are accompanied with feelings, thoughts and sensations (Wagner , 2009).

Psychology is a scientific application of behaviourism. It evolved from three key areas of research, philosophy, biology and physics. In 1879 a man named Wilhelm Wundt created the first laboratory with the sole

Both critical and experimental social psychology form the modern social psychology, due to their important historical context. Experimental-social psychology is argued to have been derived from the American tradition, and a critical-social psychology is argued to have been derived from the European tradition. Although this has formed two distinct approaches in the use of methodology within psychology, there are still on-going debates over psychology as a science or not.

Psychology is a study of mind and behavior. Psychological research is mostly focused on the relationship between thought, behavior and emotion; how one influences the other and what are the consequences of such interaction. Put simply, psychology is a field associated with the drive to understand the way human mind works. The topic is slightly enigmatic, but at the same time very challenging and complicated. Where representatives of the exact sciences depend on data, facts and figures, psychologists tend to rely on behavior. Seeing that the majority of work done by psychologists is

The roots of psychology date back to Egypt and the Egyptian mystery system. Psychology has evolved from philosophy, medicine, theology, and science. Psychology evolved out of coalescence of natural science, and also the branch of philosophy which is known as epistemology, which is also known in the theory of knowledge. Psychology in its early times was devote and mainly focused to understanding the mind, as well as measuring it. After this later on in time, psychology focused on understanding behavior.