Animal ethics

• Thorndike used a hungry cat in a puzzle box then put food just out of reach to see how long it would take to pull the string in order to get it. The cat became progressively better.
• Harlow used monkeys (baby rhesus) to show the attachment of mother and child
• Van den oever 2008 used rats to show the neurobiology behind a herion addiction
• Animals have Similarities to humans as humans are just complex animals. So it makes sense to do tests on animals then generalise them to humans
• Scientists argue that rats are too different to humans as they aren't self aware and have more survival instincts
• Animals are good participants as they do not try to understand the experiment and are more controllable. They also are easily replicated due to their breeding
• Theoretical knowledge says that animals have added to all of our studies
• The guidelines for psychologists working with animals (2012)
• 1. legislation is to familiarise themselves with the laws regarding animals welfare and conform to it
• 2. Replacing the use of animals is to try and seek alternatives to a living organism
• 3. Choice of species is to choose an ethically and scientifically suitable animal
• 4. The number of animals used must be kept as small as possible
• 5. Procedure says that any pain, long lasting distress, suffering and harm implicated on animals is avoided
• 6. Procurement of animals is that any animals must come from the head office
• 7. Animal care is to ensure the conditions animals are kept in is to a high standard
• 8. Disposing of animals is if an animal has been used it can be reused or if it must be killed it must be done in a humane way
• Replacement is to use alternatives to animals when possible
• Reduction is to use the least amount of animals
• Refinement is to minimise the animals suffering
• You must have

  • A personal license (for each person)
  • A project licence (for the specific experiment)
  • An establishment licence (the place where its carried out)
• Ethical Advantages of using animals

  • Legislation protects animals that are unable to defend themselves
  • Adhering to society's moral standard means people are comfortable with research on animals
  • Having guidelines means research can be carried out to benifit humans without too much harm
• Ethical disadvantages of using animals

  • We cannot use endangered species (bonobo apes that are closest to us anatomically) which causes problems as they are best to generalise
  • Must use the smallest number so reliability is questioned
  • Licenses are expensive and difficult to acquire
  • Replication may be prevented so is not very reliable