ethical implications a03

• socially sensitive research could lead a difference in how these groups are percived/treated-for example socially sensitive reserach looking into biological abnormalities in the brain which pre-dispose individuals to violence and murder, which could lead to unfair discrimination/and also people thinking they are destined to become murderes and are not accountable for their behaviour if they have a specific brain stucture
• One example of ethical issues in a research study Milgram not ethically correct to conduct research due to being decieved , so no way obtained informed consent, not protected from harm not aware the shocks were artificial believed they were causing potentially fatal harm- psychological impacts causing potential guilt, however when interviewed participants said they did not have long term effects. those impacted stopped earlier- showing some right to withdraw however felt pressured by the researcher, therefore had their rights abused and is not likely to be passed in an ethics committee
• Bowlby's critical period need to be attached otherwise it will form irreversible damage. on one hand it has

  it can be applied successfully to ensuring women arent sent back to work quickly after childbirth and have time to be able to form an attachement, by recognisng the importance of the critical period it improve the quality of child and the mother’s life, however lead to mothers being negatively steretoyped, burden of responsibility to form sufficient attatchment lead to psychological effects of guilt when child in childcare and be blamed for negative aspects of a child's later life.
• Strength- socially sensitive research can have benefits for the people studied

  ie. the kinsey report- based on anonymous interviews w/ over 5000 men and 6000 women about sexual behaviour- concluded that homosexuality was a normal variant of sexual behaviour- contributed to being removed from the DSM - as a sociopathic, personality disorder'

  Counter- sometimes negative consequences
• COUNTER- may have negative consequences sometimes

  Raine found a range of differences in brain activity in areas such as the prefrontal cortex and amygdala between murderers and matched controls

  • concluding that there seems to be abnormalities in the brain that predispose these individuals to violence and murder.
  • This gives rise to discrimination or lack of moral responsibility for criminals down to it being inevitable from their brain chemistry.
• SHOULD SOCIALLY SENSITIVE RESEARCH BE CONDUCTED AT ALL?

  one way of dealing with ss research may simply be to just not do it

  • 2001- American psychological association reported that 95% of non sensitive research topics were approved whereas only 50% sensitive research approved
  • many governing bodies making choices to halt socially sensitive research
• COUNTER....

  • others suggest shouldn't shy away from his type of research despite problems
  • aronson - responsibility to investigate important topics despite uproar they may cause
  • maybe ssr not bad if conducted in the correct manner
  • psychologists should find ethical ways of conducting socially sensitive research.