- Psychology and ethics: friends or enemies?
- What have been the most disturbing psychological experiments?
Ethics is a point of high importance for scientific research. Particularly, the field of psychology is especially prone to generating moral dilemmas The development of research and the application of interventions on people's behavior can be especially complex, because it is not always easy to respect the margins of ethics.
Although today all research must pass the filter of highly demanding and rigorous ethics committees, this has not always been the case.The truth is that, just a few decades ago, researchers could freely design numerous studies that, although they have led to interesting conclusions, have used methodologies that today would be heavily punished for their lack of ethics. Fortunately, awareness in this regard has increased remarkably in recent years and it has been determined that the end does not always justify the means.
Psychology and ethics: friends or enemies?
When we talk about ethics, we are referring to a set of rules that determine what is correct and what is not The objective of These standards is to ensure that no intentional harm is inflicted on research participants and that, therefore, their mental he alth is not put at risk by the study they are part of.
In order that all psychology researchers are well advised about the insurmountable limits that they have to respect, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has produced an exhaustive guide that includes the way to proceed when faced with certain ethical or moral dilemmas.The APA, as a reference body worldwide, tries to establish minimum standards that ensure the rights and dignity of all people who voluntarily agree to take part in psychological research.
Although the advances achieved through research are of great value and make it possible to improve the lives of the population, it is not an achievement that can be achieved at any price. It is useless to move forward and learn more about our behavior if it is at the cost of harming people. For all these reasons, it is essential to comply with basic ethical standards when doing science
As we have been saying, psychology has a dark history in its beginnings as a scientific discipline, since these ethical margins have not always existed and actions have been carried out that today would be labeled despicable and inhumane. Because knowing the history is a good first step to avoid repeating the mistakes made, in this article we are going to compile the cruelest psychological experiments that have been carried out to date.
What have been the most disturbing psychological experiments?
Psychology in its beginnings has not been characterized, precisely, for being a rigorously ethical discipline. The lack of clear standards and ignorance, together with the desire to know more, have left the development of investigations to free will, many of them being considered authentic atrocities from today's perspective. Let's review the most popular ones.
one. Harlow's Monkeys
The experiment carried out by Harlow is among the best known in psychology, due to his contributions to the field of attachment and bonding. For Harlow, it was interesting to know how a group of Rhesus Macaques formed their attachment bond based on the different scenarios to which they were exposed. The researcher opted for this species because its way of learning is very similar to that of human beings.
In particular, Harlow selected some macaques that she separated from their mothers, in order to compare their development and adaptation in relation to those that remained attached to themWhat Harlow did with the macaques he separated was to place them in a cage where there were two artificial monkeys. One made of wire, which had a bottle of milk, and another made of plush, which offered no food.
What the researcher observed was that, although the macaques went to the wire to drink their milk, they immediately returned to the plush to get heat. Lacking a flesh and blood mother, the macaques ended up establishing an affective bond with an inert object such as plush fabric. The texture gave them the feeling of protection, care and affection that had been taken from them.
In addition, on occasions threatening stimuli were introduced into the cages, whereupon the macaque quickly clung to the cloth monkey to take refuge.The macaques were also removed from the cages where they had grown up and reintroduced at a later time, at which point the macaques ran back to their plush mother, indicating that an affective bond had indeed been established.
The essential conclusion drawn from the study is that the macaques prioritized the need for care over food, so they spent much more time with the plush monkey than with the wire monkey.
Harlow decided to go further and also opted to place some of his macaques in an empty cage, without even artificial mothers. These monkeys lacked any affective bond and when a threatening stimulus was presented to them they were only capable of cornering themselves in a disconsolate corner, since they had no attachment and protection figure. As we can see, although this experiment is recognized as a classic of psychology, it is not exempt from cruelty to animals
2. Little Albert
If in the previous case we were talking about animal abuse, in this case it is a cruel act towards a child This experiment was carried out in order to obtain an empirical demonstration of the classical conditioning procedure. It was developed by John B. Watson, with the support of his collaborator Rosalie Rayner. The study was conducted at Johns Hopkins University
To achieve the objective, an eleven-month-old child with adequate he alth status was selected. First, the prior existence of fear of the objects that were going to be presented as stimuli in the experiment was examined. The boy did not initially show fear of furry animals, although he did show fear of loud sounds. Essentially, the experiment consisted of presenting Albert with a white rat (which he was not initially afraid of), along with a loud noise.
After repeating several trials with this dynamic, Albert began to cry at the mere presence of the rat That is, the association between both stimuli, so that the rat became a conditioned stimulus. In addition, fear was generalized to many other stimuli following the same procedure. This experiment allowed empirical confirmation of the classical conditioning procedure in humans. However, the way to achieve this was at the cost of the suffering of a baby, so it must be recognized as one of the most unethical studies carried out to date.
3. Milgram and extreme obedience
Psychologist Stanley Milgram, from Yale University, set out to carry out an experiment to find out to what extent people were capable of complying with rules and orders even though they cause harm to others.The event that motivated this study was the death sentence of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann for his involvement in the Nazi genocide as the ideologue of the systematic plan to exterminate the Jewish population during the Third Reich.
During the trial to which he was subjected, Eichmann defended himself by claiming that he "was only following orders", assuring that the Nazi Government had taken advantage of his obedience. Milgram considered the possibility that Eichmann's words had part of the truth, thus being able to explain his involvement in heinous crimes against humanity.
To carry out the experiment, Milgram began by posting posters at bus stops, where he offered volunteers four dollars to participate in a supposed study on learning and memory. The researcher accepted people between the ages of 20 and 50 with the most diverse profiles.
The structure of the experiment required three figures: the researcher, a “teacher” and a “student or apprentice”Although a lottery was drawn to see which role each volunteer should play (master or apprentice), this was manipulated, so that the volunteer was always the teacher and the apprentice an actor.
During rehearsal, the teacher is separated from the student by a glass wall. The student is also tied to an electric chair. The researcher tells the teacher that his job is to punish his student with electric shocks every time he makes a wrong answer. It is clarified that the discharges can be very painful, although they do not cause irreparable damage.
What Milgram observed was that more than half of the teachers applied the maximum shock to their apprentice despite the pleas of the apprenticeAlthough the teachers might feel puzzled, distressed, or uncomfortable, none stopped administering the shock. The role of the researcher was to insist that the teacher continue in case of doubt (“Continue, please”, “The experiment requires you to continue”, “You must continue”…).Thus, the researcher's pressures were increasing more and more. Although some considered the usefulness of the experiment or rejected the money, no one stopped.
What Milgram concluded is that a very large percentage of people simply do what they are told, without rethinking the action itself and without weight in their conscience, as long as when they perceive that the order received comes from a legitimate authority. This experiment was a milestone for psychology, although for obvious reasons its ethics were questioned and it has been harshly criticized for it.