PSY 001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Stanford Prison Experiment, Stanley Milgram, National Institutes Of Health
12 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Class 2 – Research Methods – Psychology is a Science
1/29/18, 2/5/18
What is Research?
- [Research is] A ssteati iestigatio desiged to deelop or otriute to geeralizale
koledge – NIH
- One person can always be biased based on their learning
- Understand the world in general
- Psychological research is to understand human experiences of themselves and the world
Research Ethics
- Stanley Milgram Experiment – 2 people in a room and a confederate (person who is on the
research team but that is not known to others) in another room, if the person gets something
wrong, the confederate gets shocked in higher amounts as the people get more wrong
o the volunteers had to administer the shocks to a person they believed was an important
person
o outcome was that people would commit crimes similar to what the Germans did in the
Holocaust, without thinking twice
- Tuskegee syphilis study – gave syphilis to African American men without antibiotics; many men
died; government funded this too
o Some groups are more vulnerable – toda that is hildre do’t ko hat is happeig
and pregnant women; back then it was minorities
- Stanford prison experiment – (the Lucifer effect) – took students and gave them roles - prisoner
and a guard in a lab room; there was a rebellion, and the guards started doing crazy things like
torturing others; the people knew they were not guard and prisoner but the people in the study
took their roles so seriously that they stayed when they could leave too - depending on contacts
you can bring out the evil in people.
o There are social psychological variables that can make people do things they would never
do. People got caught up in the experiment to where it became life for these people and
they accepted what was happening without any hesitation
o The prisoners were dehumanized with chains on their feet, numbers instead of names,
long gown with no underclothes
o The guards had bats, handcuffs, sunshades, guard uniforms
o When the prisoners rebelled, the guards felt that they were in danger and their behavior
changed
o The guards did’t realize ho their effet o the prisoers eause it as just fu to the.
Actions got worse to the point where they made them do sexual things
o The prisoners started to have breakdowns and it was unexpected, scary, but they were
the real thing.
o The eperiet as shut do after 6 das… 6 das
o Started the concern on having a regulating body
- Things can go too far often when people start to take the experiment very seriously. Someone
ho takes it too far a see it as oral, ut others ho do’t a see it as raz.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
- 1979 - federal government developed regulations of ethical principals underlying the current
regulations and standards that are contained in the Belmont Report.
- Belmont Report - requires informed consent (person must agree to what is going to be done) and
established another commission that formalized and extended the existing peer review system,
which is now called the Institutional Review Board (IRB)
o IRB - protocol form given to IRB to be approved and they monitor you so if something
goes wrong they will question you to make sure you did what you should have done to
help the person
- Confidentiality – have to protect the participant and vulnerable populations (people with mental
illnesses)
- Consent/Voluntary participation
o All participants must provide informed consent (get consent for kids from their parents)
(the person has to really understand not only what will be done but future effects that
could affect them)
- Deception -This is only permitted if the results would be confounded if the participants had too
much information before taking part in the study (doing a study on race but only tell participants
that it is about scholarships and you make slight hints at race). Participants must be fully debriefed
when the study is complete. If you will be deceptive, make sure it is justified because you have to
explain to the person at the end.
- Debriefing - occurs after the completion of the study and participants are told the results and the
conclusions of the study. Participants are informed of the availability of and how to obtain
counselling if they feel they need it. (a person could be deceived but then they have to be told at
the end what happened with the debriefing
- The experimenter must act in a professional manner and ensure that the best interests of the
participants and of society in general are met (treat participants with respect too)
- APA Ethics Committee - publish every year
o Even if you are doing something under a company, you are still the only one held
accountable for following through with what was asked
- Institutional Review Boards (IRB)
o To facilitate research with human participants.
o To ensure the rights and welfare of human participants are protected during research
participation.
o Review research proposals and approve or reject them.
o People getting paid in experiments: they may not care as much when they participate in
the study if they know they are getting paid or if they are not getting paid
▪ Ca’t pay the person all at once, pay them in increments, because say if the
eperiet as o heroi, ou do’t at the to go u lots ore ith the
money
▪ Hae to also ake sure people’s otives are in the right place → perso a’t e
doing a study in schizophrenia unit and in the depression unit
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
