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Importance of ethics in psychology
Importance of ethics in psychology
Importance of ethics in psychology
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How can research done in the past, teach psychologists anything that we can use today? Today therapists know more, and are more intelligent than past psychologists, right? Therapists learn by building on what past psychologists have taught us. The studies began long ago and each time we go back to the past to understand more of what we are learning in the present. Some experiments that psychologists have learned about ethics is John Watson’s tests on Albert, Mary Cover Jones and her test on Peter, and The Monster Study, these research tests teach us about some bad ethical decisions and what needs to be done to change the outcome of these violations.
Albert was chosen for the experiment because he was a healthy, normal 8 month old baby. Prior to the experiment the child was shown a white furry rat, rabbit, mask, burning newspapers and other items to see if they caused a reaction from the child. The child showed no fear at the sight of these objects. John Watson then started using a hammer on a bar, behind the child’s back, and caused a loud noise to happen whenever he presented one of these objects to the child. First the child was startled, then upset and the third time the loud noise was heard the baby burst into tears. Soon the child did not need to hear a sound and showed fear whenever an object was presented to him. This experiment showed how we can learn to fear and how it can be taught. What are the ethics of teaching a child be afraid of simple things. The child was only taught to fear and not taught to be unafraid after the experiment concluded. Ethically this experiment did not help the child.
Mary Cover Jones heard about the experiment that was done on Albert. She wondered if she could teach a child n...
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...is a core consideration to most research. This is especially true for research that involves children where there will have to be a balance between the researcher's aims and the protection of any participants ("Conducting safe and," 2014).”
From these research experiments psychologists have learned that children need someone to speak for them, whether it be parents or a guardian, children need to be aware of the test and what is going to happen, the experiment needs to benefit the child not hinder or hurt the test subject.
Works Cited
Schultz, D.P. & Schultz, S.E. (2012). A History of Modern Psychology. Tenth Edition.
Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/1133173624/pages/94910147
Conducting safe and ethical research with children. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/briefings/ethical-research-factsheet_wda97712.html
Born to a wet nurse and raised in a hospital environment for most of his life, Albert was considered healthy, normal and well-developed. Albert’s stability was cited by Watson and Rayner as one of the main reasons for his involvement in their study, because they felt his pre existing development would impede them from causing him major harm with their experiment.
Looking at a story, the key word, story, we looked at the little albert study. Albert B, or Little albert was a boy who back in 1920, that was studied by a behaviorist John Watson. It was study in which a loud noise, like a loud bang on a bar, happened behind Little Albert, when he was given some type of small furry object or other objects. Watson showed that the research went very well, when in reality, that may not have been the case, and the identity of Little Albert is not fully known.
There are many famous psychologists that have changed the way psychology is viewed today. These psychologists developed everything from theories, perspectives, mechanisms, biological and environmental influences to behavior, treatments that have saved the mentally ill community and has given psychologically disturbed individuals a different view into the world of their disorders. Sigmund Freud, Abraham Maslow, and John B. Watson are three psychologists that have helped develop a science and have developed three different theories.
Zajac, R. & Hayne H. (2003). I don’t think that’s what really happened: The effect of cross-examination on the accuracy of children’s repots. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 9, 187-195.
The Little Albert experiment (Watson and Rayner 1920) was a controlled classical conditioning study on phobias, conducted on a nine months old infant. Little Albert was put through a series of emotional tests to see how he would react to various stimuli. He was presented with a variety of animals, however, on the whole, Little Albert showed no fear. Again, Little Albert was presented with an animal, this time a white rat. As before, Little Albert showed no sign of fear at the initial sight of the rat, however, when a sudden loud noise occurred, Little Albert would become hysterical. This continued as Little Albert got older, this time, he’d repeatedly be presented with a rat followed by a loud noise, by now all it took was for Little Albert
Deb Roy, who is a MIT researcher, decides to do an experiment with his infant son; from the time the child came home from the hospital until the age of three. The experiment contains almost 250,000 hours of recorded video and audio of his son. However, 70 percent of Roy’s son’s waking hours were devoted to Roy’s research of language development. Therefore, one may wonder if this research can be bias if the researcher’s son is the subject. Also, could Roy separate the role of a parent from the role of a scientist while conducting this experiment?
Watson and his team opened the experiment by questioning if a loud noise would cause a fear reaction. A hammer struck against a steel bar was an abrupt sound causing Albert to throw his hands in the air. By the third and last strike, the child was crying; this was the first time an emotive state (in the lab) produced fear, causing Albert to cry. The sound conditioning led to Watson and his team questioning whether they could condition an emotion while presenting a white rat to the child at the same time they strike the steel bar.
Albert was exposed to a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, and a burning newspaper and showed no signs of unusual reaction. It involved manipulating a baby to get a specific result that Watson tried to achieve. This is similar to Walster's manipulating self-esteem experiment, which he manipulated his clients. Walster got several girls and gave them a personality test that purposely said "you're amazing" or "you're bad" to the participants, to see how they will behave.
“The end justifies the means” is the famous quote of Machiavelli (Viroli, 1998) which puts the emphasis of morality on the finale results rather than the actions undertaken to achieve them. Is this claim true in the field of the natural sciences? Whether atomic bombings, as a mean used to end World War II, justifies the death of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? What is moral limitation in the acquisition of knowledge in the natural sciences? How is art constrained by moral judgment? Is it applicable to various works of art? Oscar Wilde claimed that “There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.” (Wilde, 1945). Does it mean that writers should have complete freedom? Or should ethical considerations limit what they say and how they say it?
Our country was founded on certain moral principles. The moral principles which guide our lives are referred to as ethics. These ethics have an impact on how we interact with the world around us and shape our personalities; this happens even if we do not realize their immediate impact. It is for this very reason that ethics in psychological research became necessary. “One may also define ethics as a method, procedure, or perspective for deciding how to act and for analyzing complex problems and issues” (Resnik, 2011). We are expected to behave or be treated a particular way in society, therefore we should be granted certain ethical treatments in regards to research.
Ethics is the study of moral values and the principles we use to evaluate actions. Ethical concerns can sometimes stand as a barrier to the development of the arts and the natural sciences. They hinder the process of scientific research and the production of art, preventing us from arriving at knowledge. This raises the knowledge issues of: To what extent do moral values confine the production of knowledge in the arts, and to what extent are the ways of achieving scientific development limited due to ethical concerns? The two main ways of knowing used to produce ethical judgements are reason, the power of the mind to form judgements logically , and emotion, our instinctive feelings . I will explore their applications in various ethical controversies in science and arts as well as the implications of morals in these two areas of knowledge.
Parental permission has been verbally granted in order to perform this study and in line with the code of ethics and conduct of the British Psychological Society (BPS), with regard to safeguarding the subject in this study will be referred to as Child A. (British Psychological Society, 2009)
in said children. A study that can be used to explain the effect parents have on their
The main idea of psychology is one of the most misunderstood areas of modern study. The history of psychology is very rich and important for modern day treatment for people with mental disorders. Modern day psychology is based on understanding why people feel and act how they do. Psychology is on the most interesting and different areas of study and people should give it more credit than it already has.
Ethics is a system of moral principles and a branch of philosophy which defines what is acceptable for both individuals and society. It is a philosophy that covers a whole range of things that have an importance in everyday situations. Ethics are vital in everyones lives, it includes human values, and how to have a good life, our rights and responsibilities, moral decisions what is right and wrong, good and bad. Moral principles affect how people make decisions and lead their lives (BBC, 2013). There are many different beliefs about were ethics come from. These consist of; God and Religion, human conscience, the example of good human beings and a huge desire for the best for people in each unique situation, and political power (BBC, 2013).