Psychology essay-Discuss ways in which ethical considerations affect research in the Cognitive perspective

Ethical guidelines and the Animals’ Act have gotten stronger and enforced strict rules which are against certain experiments being conducted since both animals or humans can suffer. Some laboratory studies on animals lack ecological validity which make it unnecessary for animals to suffer since only inaccurate research would be obtained. Psychologists do say that there are qualitative differences, both mental and physical differences, between animals and humans and so animals suffer unnecessary and only invalid findings are obtained. Research done on animals also have to be ethically considered as there are various reasons why animals shouldn’t be experimented on including the fact that humans are mentally, qualitatively different from animals and obtaining research through animals can lead to faulty over-generalization. So if psychologists are going through with experimenting on animals, it is important that they follow the ethical guidelines set to cause the minimum amount of pain and discomfort to the animal studies.

The fact that ethics have to always be in mind can limit the experiments that are necessary to advance in the cognitive approach. When considering research in the cognitive perspective that involves humans, the ethical guidelines have to be strongly imposed and participants have to be consented before the experiment. Deception plays a big role in these ethical considerations as leads participants to believe something other than the truth-this can also be a limitation when experimenting. Confidentiality is important in case studies as data gained is part of a client-patient relationship and should be respected. Participants have to have the opportunity of withdrawal but this can lead to incomplete research which can be a problem. Another problem could be debriefing the participants in the cognitive perspective as they might think in a certain way after being debriefed which is not ideal for the experiment but at the same time, the participants should be protected with their rights. It is quite a conflict and can affect research making it more difficult.

Many experiments that are categorized under cognitive is quite difficult to conduct experiment successfully  as all the participants have to be debriefed and not deceived and this can create some unwanted biases which could affect the experiment.

There are various ethical issues not only when experimenting on animals but also when changing behavior in humans. Certain questions about behaviour should be answered such as should behaviour be controlled? Who should do the controlling and also what behaviour and how it should be controlled. These ethical considerations can be applied in all aspects of psychology including the cognitive perspective.

In conclusion, there are many ethical issues that need to be considered that can affect the cognitive perspective as it limits the amount of research because of qualitative differences between humans and animals and invalid findings. There are many examples given of experiments which were considered unethical although they were still carried out. Today participants’ and animal’s rights have gotten stronger which can limit the amount of research done on both humans and animals. There are some arguments why animals shouldn’t be tested on anyway whether they suffer or not but equally there are some valid arguments for testing on animals for example they can breed faster than humans and the results can be seen quicker. In this case, the cognitive will suffer as there are many restrictions for conducting experiments and they will either have to be altered or not done at all.