In addition you have to be aware that it isn’t just how the Participants are treated that make a study unethical but as well as the wider ethical implication of the research. For example Gould’s study tells us that the results that Yerkes collected were used to support racist views, restraining immigration policies and even the eugenics movement.
The ethical guidelines lay down by the BPS (British Psychological Society) are consent, debriefing, harm to Participants, privacy, discretion, withdrawal and terms governing observational research.
The advantages of conducting ethical research are to improve human life. Psychology should be humanitarian if it’s going to improve human life. If we don’t care for Participants then we are acting in ways which are completely opposite to one of the intentions of psychology; to improve human welfare. Still it might be disputed that the ends justify the means.
If we want the public to take participate in any psychological research we should treat them in a civilized way, or otherwise people will eventually not volunteer.
Every great form of scientific enquiry uses codes of conduct to standardize the ways of research that are carried out and control how it’s done, this is to guarantee that human rights are not broken and so that the investigation is conducted sincerely by other professionals.
Including guidelines in any investigation will make sure that no further extremely unethical research takes place, which was the case for Zimbardo’s experiment which has harmed and frightened Participants.
Sticking to the guidelines means that some of the most appealing and extremely useful studies ever conducted in psychology will never be imitated. Meaning that additional research into this experiment that has already been carried out will not enhance it any further.
We will only end up with reasonably boring investigation that tells us little, especially in if we were to look at social behaviour. If we desire to understand a little of the more controversial and personal characteristic of behaviour we might not discover much if our research doesn’t disobey a lot of guidelines.