Groupthink Theory

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was an unethical prospective study based on the differences between white and black males that began in the 1930’s. This study involved the mistreatment of black males and their families in an experimental study of the effects of untreated syphilis. With very little knowledge of the study or the disease by participants, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study can be seen as one of the worst forms of injustices in the United States history. Even though one could argue that the study was originally intended to be for good use, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was immoral and racist because only poor, uneducated black males were used in experiment, the participants were not properly informed of their participation in the

There are a multitude of constituents that could be modified to make these unprincipled studies ethical for subjects. The Tuskegee syphilis study was an unscrupulous experiment that illustrated the significance of morality in human experimentations. A noteworthy alteration that would be made is guaranteeing that every participant in experiments are given a full assessment of the dangers that can arise from the experiment. Consent was an element that was fundamentally nonexistent in the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, resulting in the study being expressively immoral. In addition, a momentous ethical and legal issue involved in the Tuskegee study were the counterfeited information given to the subjects and the community. David Smolin, the author of the “Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Social Change, and the Future

This study was a symbol of unethical conduct and racial discrimination in medicine primarily because of two reasons. First, the subjects were never told that they had syphilis and thus, informed consent did not play any role in this experiment. Secondly, the subjects were told that they were being treated for “bad blood”, a term used in the local language for various illnesses such as anemia and fatigue. In reality, however, the officials never treated the subjects for syphilis. The subjects were only provided free medical exams, free meals and burial insurance in return for their participation in the study. The only permission which was taken from the subjects was that to autopsy their body after death as also paying for their burial. Thus, the Tuskegee experiment can be described as non therapeutic experiment that lasted for a very long duration of 40 years. (Reverby, S.M., 2009)

When reviewing the concepts of groupthink, it is important for one to realize that not all group based decisions are necessarily bad decisions. The concept of groupthink and the negative results that arise are based on the reality that group decisions are made without regard to alternative measures, validity of information, or risks and consequences associated with such decisions. Groupthink seems to dispatch the critical thinking skills of the individuals in the process and decisions made can have disastrous results. The following essay will discuss the results of groupthink decisions made by the United States government that lead to Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, as well as critical errors made by US command that greatly increased the impact

A statement in an unsigned article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, gives the prejudicial idea: “‘Virtue in the Negro race is like angels’ visits—few and far between”’ (Brandt 21). Nearly seventy years after Lincoln abolished slavery in the United States, racism and prejudice still flowed through the veins of many Americans and their views corrupted medical research studies with bribery, prejudice, and flagrant disregard for ethics, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis case in 1932. This blatant disrespect for African-American life left only seventy-four men alive of the three hundred and ninety-nine men who participated in the study. These men were chosen as

In “The Rise of the New Groupthink,” Susan Cain argues that working independently stimulates ingenuity. Some of the most innovative people are generally reserved (14).

The theory of “groupthink,” developed by Irving Janis in 1972, was evident in military personnel’s apathy in intervening to higher ups regarding the violent interrogation practices (Post & Panis, 2011). Post and Panis cited three signs of Janis’ (1972) groupthink theory: “overestimation of the group, closed-mindedness, and pressures towards uniformity” (p. 60). The researchers cited evidence of “overestimation of the group” in military personnel when the personnel began to view themselves as almighty and immoral towards other groups that had different ideologies and beliefs (Post & Panis, 2011). These grandiose beliefs then influenced “closed-mindedness” in military personnel since they carried the stereotype of all Islamic people representing Al Qaeda (Post & Panis, 2011). The researchers then cited President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s critical need for information from the Abu Ghraib prisoners as “pressures of uniformity” (Post & Panis, 2011). It is unfortunate that the Army Air Force psychologists, such as James Mitchell, failed to eliminate the groupthink within the CIA and military personnel. Instead, the Army Air Force psychologist participated under an $8 million private contract with the CIA to re-enforce, implement, and

“The Rise of the New Groupthink” mainly offers the benefits of solitude and its impact on creativity. The need to allow people to have the ability to switch off their interaction with coworkers and teammates is also discussed. Susan Cain determines that privacy and association are both important to the modern workplace.

The ‘Tuskegee Study’ violates everything in the medical ethics that doctors should think of or believe in, with the men that tested positive for syphilis not being told what they had specifically and being denied treatment that could’ve saved their lives. The study was conducted in 1932 with the United States Public Health Services (USPHS) to study syphilis in African American men (CDC, 2016). In 1947 a law called the Nuremberg Code was passed after the Nuremberg trials that stated informed consent had to be required for all experimentation on humans. Because the Tuskegee Study was still occurring at this time and would continue to do so for another 25 years, the

The A Team presented numerous arguments that revolved around symptoms equaling a direct correlation to groupthink. This viewpoint alone is false. If one or two symptoms of groupthink are present within a group, we can’t come to the conclusion of groupthink being present. The A Team assumed correlation implies causation, which is a fallacy. As our text for this semester explicitly states “…the presence of cohesion is not enough. Rather three sets of antecedent conditions all of which are important to learning groups must accompany cohesion.”(Myers & Anderson, p.120) In other words cohesion alone will never be the sole cause of groupthink occurring in a

It was noted that many ethical issues may arise, relating to eligibility and criteria in identifying the subjects to be used for testing. It was also noted that laws and regulations were formulated based on unethical principles that took place in the past. The most obvious ones were the Tuskegee syphilis study, where the black male were used for the experiment. This study comprised of 600 African- American men, about 400 with syphilis cases and 200 men without syphilis, in other words, the control group. And many of them died due to the study. It was discovered that none of them were informed about the possible cure, neither were they treated with antibiotic (http://phrp.nihtraining.com). Also, another unethical research practice conducted was the Nazi Medical War Crime, in this experiment, thousands of prisoners were tortured by injecting them with gasoline and live viruses, immersing them in ice water and forcing them to ingest poisons. Based on the information gathered from the reading, I have realized that before an individual become part of a research study, there has to be an informed consent. Informed consent promotes autonomy, which brings about respect for the person's dignity. Therefore, in order to protect the participants in research, the ethical principles have to be followed. Such

As a Psychologist there are several standards used in a professional environment. Being familiar with current laws and regulations are important to insure you don’t stumble and lapse. There are general principles with intent to guide and inspire psychologists toward the ideals of the profession. Even the best psychologist can mistakenly and forcefully fall into ethical problems when they fail to see both the benefits and risk in their own decision-making. I will use The APA Ethics code as the must and must-nots that govern the actions of the psychologists in the essay “Psychologists’ Involvement in Torture.”

The main argument of the group theoretical perspective deals with groups of people and social classes, as well as the conflict that arises between the groups. This conflict occurs because of inequality of wealth and power within a society and creates different groups. In the Graham article, the society was composed of different groups, the white students, who were seen as elite over the few black students. They often did not interact with each other, except for Larry. Larry did this as a way to climb the ladder to achieve a better social status. He created the life he wanted, while always wearing the outfit of his elite peers, associating with the honor, white students. He wanted the best of the best, which is why he chose Princeton, because

Author Janis suggested that the main defect of groupthink is processing information ineffectively, which would mean that the group decision will be of a low quality. Janis argued that groupthink leads to an inability to arrive at a high quality decision, which means that groupthink through the decision-making defects leads to bad group decisions. Janis then contradicts herself by suggesting that some groups will arrive at a good decision even in the face of groupthink, especially if the leader advocates a good decision. I would try to justify the notion that there is low probability for a high quality decision because there has to be some reference to either low or high when discussing outcome of a decision. Author Janis did state that groupthink

Groupthink is the tendency for high cohesive teams to lose their evaluative capabilities. Teams will strive hard to reach agreement to avoid disagreement that they end up making bad decisions. Teams will tend to engage in disconfirming data, stereotyping competitors as weak, and assuming they are too good for criticism. Two symptoms of groupthink are mind guarding, members protect the team from hearing disturbing idea or outside viewpoints, and self-censorship by members, which is refusing to communicate their own personal feelings/concerns to the whole team. One remedy that will help the team is by having an outsider sit in on a meeting to observe and participate. They can offer their opinions and thoughts on the team's thought process and