MK-Ultra Ethical Effects

I have used and taken many psychological assessments and measurements in my career. Most of these have been conducted in the military. “A psychological test is essentially an objective and standardized measure of a sample behavior (Murphy and Davidshofer, 1988).” In the Army, these tests are used for various reasons. The Army is slowly expanding their use of psychometric testing to help identify who is best suited to join the military's force. It becomes an expensive issue when mentally disqualified individuals are placed in the military. The force is continuously developing additional psychological assessments and measurements in order to weed out potentially risky Soldiers. A person cannot be simply judged because of their appearance;

Personally, researching this experiment made me extremely uncomfortable just because I do not believe in causing unnecessary harm to someone who does not deserve it. In this case, harm is the unnecessary stress since the accomplice of the experiment was not actually shocked, he just acted like it. I think that the moderators of the experiment, especially Milgram, should have been upfront in the ad placed in the newspaper over what was going to actually be happening to the people who volunteered. The way the readings and the video made it sound was that it was just a surprise over what actually happened to the subjects. It is shocking to me that he thought that this was something that was morally and ethically right.

The prisoners were emotionally and mentally harmed during the experiment. The prisoners started to lose their identity, and instead started identifying themselves as their number. One participant even went on a hunger strike for the time that he was in the prison. Another participant had to leave the study because he became excessively disturbed as time went on. After the study was done, people had trouble separating what the people did in the study to how they were in real life, which caused a problem when they all had to meet after the trial was over. This ethical violation is very apparent because Dr. Zimbardo did have to end the study before the two weeks was done.

A new wave study on hallucinogens, and other mind-altering substances, was organized to address whether these

Throughout the history of psychological studies unprincipled violations have constructed ethical standards that are essential in today’s research. These moral dilemmas created established professional and federal standards for performing research with human and animal participants, known as, psychological ethical codes. The Tuskegee syphilis study and the Stanford prison experiment highlighted a psychological study without proper patients’ consent and appropriate treatment, resulting in a research disaster with unethical incidents.

Since the 20th century, many medical professionals and researchers have been attempting to utilize psychedelic drugs in psychological illnesses treatments. In many testing cases, these psychedelic drugs were having hallucination effects on the patients. For examples, psychedelic drugs such as LSD and methoxamine are capable of changing a person’s moods, feelings, or even behaviors in either positive or negative ways. However, after decades of restriction on psychedelic drugs in 1960s, hallucinogens have been researched constantly in order to find a proper ways to utilize them in medicine. In other words, medical experts have been testing these drugs occasionally on patients, raising questions about medical ethics as a result. For instance, various patients reported to experience drug addiction, violent or suicidal thoughts, and physical syndromes such as coma, seizures, or loss of muscular coordination. Therefore, not only the testing of psychedelic drugs causes ethical debates, but the use of these drugs in general also questions whether they should be used in medicine at all.

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

Project MK Ultra was first brought to public attention by anonymous tips (“Id,”2016). Because of those tips, in 1975 the Church Committee of the U.S. Congress and Gerald Ford began to investigate CIA activities within the United States (“Id,”2016). Investigative efforts were initially hampered by the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MK Ultra files destroyed in 1973; however, the Church Committee and Rockefeller Commission investigations relied on both the sworn testimony of direct participants and on the relatively small number of documents that survived Helms ' destruction order (“Id,”2016). “One 1955 MK Ultra document gives an indication of the size and range of the effort; this document refers to the study of an assortment of mind-altering substances” (“Id,”2016). Obviously enough information survived or else we still wouldn’t know about these experiments today.

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

Mark Zepezauer’s article, “MK-Ultra from the Book the CIAs Greatest Hits” discusses the psychology experiment conducted by the CIA, MK-Ultra. The MK-ultra conducted a study that used mind control on their participants. Zepezauer recounts the events of the CIA tries to defend their stance by claiming they used the method in response to the brainwashing from the Chinese that was happening in the fifties. He says that mind control practices took place prior to 1953, but became popular after the experiment. He continues to explain how the CIA would use drugs, including LSD, and test them on their patients that were unaware of what tests were upon them. Zepezauer reveals that multiple suicides also took place in response to the given substances. He deliberated how the CIA rented out apartments and used prostitutes in their study. They used them to slip the drugs into their client’s pockets and the CIA would look through one-way mirrors to see the client’s response. Once the auditors discovered this, the MK-Ultra shut down and renamed the MKSEARCH. Mark Zepezauer

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

The Milgram experiment is one of the most controversial psychology experiments of the past century. I was familiar with it prior to accessing the simulation on the elearning site from an ABC television Four Corners episode on the nature of torture. So when I participated in the simulation, I stopped administering the shock at the first sign of distress from the subject at thirty watts. If I was in the actual Milgram experiment I would like to believe that I would have behaved in the same way. Human nature dictates that we believe that only abnormal people are capable of sinister behavior. This belief that internal attributions cause certain behaviours assures us of some stability and security in our day-to-day lives and yet the

Project MK/Ultra was a mind control experiment by the US Government. The CIA decided that using Lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD for short, was a smart idea. So they decided to try and make people to be easier to “suggest” by getting them hopped up on the drug so that it would emotionally cripple them. Though this might seem a little stupid, it does make some logical sense, but not ethical sense. If you can damage, or destroy someone’s mind to the point in which it reverts to a more suggestible state you can change the way they listen to you. Sort of like hypnosis, but with more drugs. MK/Ultra was dedicated to programming the perfect sleeper agent. A sleeper agent is someone who is secretly a spy. The sleeper agent was used by the Russians

Between the Milgram experiment and all the other little experiments ended up raising a lot of eye brows and controversial discussions about the ethics of doing such research. Subjects were exposed to emotional stress, psychological stress and physical stress while being in the experiment (Cherry). Milgram wanted to answer questions which plagued society for a long time, such as “Was human nature inherently evil or could reasonable average people be coerced by authority into performing unnatural actions?” Many believe the study to be unethical due to the fact that the subjects were not fully aware of what it was Milgram was doing. The subjects were deceived into believing they were causing pain and suffering to another human being, when in reality the victim was not in any suffering or pain at all. The fact that they believe they were causing pain to someone else could have caused the

Throughout the history of the human species, we have been always wanted to know three basic questions: why we are here, where did we come from, and where do we go after this life? Whether we were created from an omnipotent being as in many religions, we happened by chance and made it to where we are through evolution, or maybe even something else. Whatever the case may be, humans have always been curious and wondered about our existence and consciousness. Along with these age old questions, also came the use of psychoactive drugs and other mind altering substances. In order to try to understand these questions, humans have experimented with drugs that alter their state of consciousness.