socially sensitive research

• Research question


  Asking certain questions e.g. are their racial differences in IQ? May be damaging to members of a particular group
• Double obligation dilemma


  The more important the issue is, the greater the potential benefit to society, the more likely the individual is to experience distress and discomfort
• Mannucci's study


  • Asked 192 people about ethics and found that deception was thought to be a minor issue and that it was the quality of research that was important
• Aronson's cost vs benefit analysis


  Allows psychologists to justify their reasons
• Protecting the individual


  Psychologists responsibility to protect participants from physical and mental harm, however the social group that they belong to may be harmed as a consequence of the research findings, potentially limiting what can be studied
• Protecting the individual


  Psychologists prevented from using deception as it can be distressing and affect the wellbeing of the participants. However, to investigate issues such as obedience in a valid way then deception is necessary
• Institutional context


  How is the research going to be used?, what are the reasons for the study?, where is the funding for the research coming from?
• Interpretation and application of findings

  Need to consider how others may use their findings as there may be misuse e.g. by governments seeking to control people
• By gaining better understanding of issues such as gender, race and sexuality we are able to gain a greater acceptance and reduce prejudice
• Eyewitness testimony is flawed and shouldn't be the only evidence to convict someone
• Scarr argues that we need studies to inform us of what we need to do to help underrepresented people to succeed in this society
• Flawed research has been used to dictate social policy and put certain groups at a disadvantage
• Research has been used to discriminate against groups in society such as sterilisation of people in the USA because they were of low intelligence or criminals
• Research may present issues which offend people by identifying group specific problems, make worrying predictions or evoke strong feeling
• Cultural differences in social research, ethnocentric results in old research e.g Milgram carried out studies to see if germans were different (potentially dangerous research question)
• Socially sensitive issues around obedience and prejudice e.g. social identity theory implies that society is negative and formation of an ingroup and outgroup alone can cause prejudice
• Studying sensitive topics such as the holocaust may impact the people who suffered from this event
• Realistic conflict theory says that competition can cause prejudice
• Milgram and Sherif's studies were socially sensitive
• Stressful for participants being studied
• Groups may become labelled negatively
• Shows that human nature isn't good e.g. social identity theory
• May lead to people questioning authority figures
• Removal of stereotypes e.g. germans are different hypothesis
• Understanding of blind obedience and origins or prejudice
• Ways to reduce prejudice e.g. superordinate goals (sherif)
• Explanations for past events e.g. the holocaust and rwandan genocide so we can prevent this from happening again
• Memory loss related to dementias is socially sensitive for the individual and the carers e.g. the impairments are emphasised
• Confidentiality in case studies, may not be able to give fully informed consent, longitudinal studies (are they being abused by researchers as 'human guinea pigs', are their lives now only 'worthy of study')
• If memory is found to be unreliable then families of convicted offenders may be affected and victims may become concerned that their recollections may not be taken seriously
• Baddeley's research may discredit previous teaching practices regarding learning and remembering information
• Positive applications for dementia patients and carers - therapies have been formed on the back of knowledge of memory
• HM case study informed us about the role of the hippocampus - informed treatments of dementia and brain surgery
• May prevent wrongful convictions - links to the devlin report and innocence project
• Baddeley says that revision should be done by making semantic links e.g. using mind maps
• Raine had to be careful how he reported the results of his research
• Aggression is anti social behaviour so researching it is socially sensitive
• Raine found murderers pleading NGRI had brain abnormalities which leads to labelling, may cause them to have their sentence reduced, could be used as a scapegoat, effects the families of victims
• Heston found a genetic heritability of Sz - labelling of those with Sz family remembers
• Bredgen found children labelling peers as physically/socially aggressive - children may then be stereotyped which could lead to SFP, blame may be placed onto parents for aggression levels