"Discuss, using relevant examples, why it is important to have ethical guidelines when conducting psychological research."

Investigators must consider the ethical implications and psychological consequences for the participants in their research in all circumstances. The essential belief is that the investigation should be considered from the point of view of all participants.  Foreseeable threats to their psychological well-being, health, values or dignity should be removed. Investigators should recognise that, where investigations involve individuals of different ages, gender and social background, the investigators may not have enough knowledge of the consequences of any investigation for the participants.

In the 1960’s Stanley Milgram did an investigation into obedience to authority.  Milgram did a memory test where by volunteers would be the teacher and an actor would be the learner.  The leaner had to remember pairs of words every time the learner got one wrong the teacher had to administer an electric shock from 0 to 450 volts.  All the participants gave shocks to the learner however some went all the way to 450volts.  The ethical problems with this experiment were that it wasn’t emphasised that the volunteers had the right to withdraw from the experiment anytime, should they wish to.  The problem with this is that volunteers could be come distressed.  They also used deception in lots of different ways for example they thought that the learner was another volunteer when he was an actor and that the electric shocks that they were administering weren’t actually real.  However he did debrief the volunteers so they didn’t go away thinking they had killed the person.  Therefore they could defend the study as they protected the participants by debriefing them at the end.

In the 1970’s Philip Zimbardo did an investigation to see how readily people would behave in uncharacteristic ways when placed in new situations and given new social roles.  He choose 24 participants and randomly divided them into prisoners and guards.  Prisoners and guards conformed behaviour became so extreme it had to end after 6 days rather than the 2 weeks.  The ethical problems with this investigation were that the investigator didn’t consider the psychological consequences for the participants. The suggestion that participants could withdraw from the experiment at any time if they wished to was not emphasised.  Zimbardo also didn’t protect participants from physical or mental harm during his investigation, as he was involved in his own experiment he was playing two roles and didn’t see what was going on it was only when another psychologist came to see the experiment they decided to call it off.  Zimbardo did however also debrief the participants and were able to understand the nature of the experiment.

Another example as to why ethical guidelines are so important is Harry Harlow’s Monkey experiments in the 1950’s, which involved the separation of a baby monkey from her mother in order to study 'the nature of love'. Harlow devised fake 'monkey mothers', one made of cloth and one made of wire. Not surprisingly, all infants showed a preference for the more comfortable, cloth-covered 'mother'.  However the wire monkey had the food but each time the monkey chose comfort over nourishment.  Terrifying as the monster monkeys were, the unfortunate infants continued to return to them, no doubt because they had no other source of comfort. This type of experiment would breach animal ethnic guidelines. The Animal Welfare Act, altered in 1985 governs the care and use of many research animals. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is responsible for enforcing the Act and carrying out regular unannounced inspections of animal research facilities. The IACUC is required to include both a veterinarian and a local community member who is not associated with the establishment. Animals may not be obtained and studies may not be conducted unless the IACUC has approved the code of behaviour for its adherence to Federal guidelines for appropriate and humane use of animals. The IACUC must also maintain records about the use of animals at the institution and conduct periodic inspections of its own.