Summary WJEC Psychology Unit 3 Controversies Section

ETHICAL COSTS OF CONDUCTING RESEARCH
BENEFITS TO SOCIETY AND THE ECONOMY
Treatment of mental health
 via research into psychoactive drugs
 McCrone report (2008)
- Estimated direct costs of mental health in England £22.5 billion a year
- Found number of people receiving medication provides greater economic
gain than physical therapies
 Thus, research reduces costs & helps people return to work

Emotional care
 Bowlby’s research into attachment displayed importance of emotional care in
early childhood development
- Foster care to give children individual attention instead of large-scale
orphanages
- Paternity leave
 UNICEF
- Deprivation eg abuse, is just as detrimental in effect on brain development
as a lack of food
 Ensures children grow into productive members of society so they then
contribute to the economy
 Emotionally secure individuals can form secure attachments & are less likely to
require NHS mental health services in the future


INDIVIDUAL PARTICIPANTS
 Welfare of individuals worthy of equal consideration to potential benefits to
wider society
 Conflict between needs of researchers to produce good research & needs of
participants to have right to fair treatment
 Participants should experience no more psychological or physical risk as they
would in everyday life

Watson and Rayner’s study
 Showed emotional could be learned, so feelings could be shaped through
psychotherapy
 Systematic desensitisation
- Saves economy money, Rothbaum 93% agreed to take a trial flight after SD
for fear of flying
 High cost to baby Albert
 Systematically frightened, thumb sucking forcibly removed
 Moved away before counter conditioning, valid consent issues due to power
imbalance
 Powell suggests lifelong aversion to animals

, Milgram’s study
 Impacted views on obedience
 Clear stress, 3 pps had seizures & learnt something negative about themselves
 84% glad to have taken part
 1 year follow up showed no longterm psychological effects
 Can’t always predict ethical impact as he sought advice from colleagues before
 Participants said it taught them important life lessons
- Slater: you can never really debrief someone after an experiment like that
- Reevaluated his life, realised vulnerability to authority, came out as gay
 Costs to participants may not be justified as they are unlikely to receive the bulk
of the ethical costs, only experiencing suffering side effect



POTENTIALLY NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES FOR SOCIETY
 Some research could be damaging to groups when asking a question that looks
scientifically credible eg ‘are there racial differences in iq?’
 Increased potential for indirect impact on participants family, co-workers or
group that the pps represent eg addicts
 Hernnstein & Murray ‘The Bell Curve’
- Used psychological research to argue
 Blumstein & Schwartz
- 43% of lesbians and 94% of gay men reported having an additional sex
partner
 Sieber & Stanley
- Producing peer reviewed research into such areas provides “scientific
credibility to the prevailing prejudice”
 Raine’s research into differences in brains of murderers has many implications
(freewill/determinism), removes blame from government & society
 Forced sterilisation & eugenics

Solution
 Not carrying out research could result in negative outcomes for society,
 Can’t avoid research that may have negative consequences eg gender, as it
would leave psychologists with nothing to important to examine
 Sieber & Stanley
- Avoiding controversial topics simply because they are controversial is an
avoidance of responsibility
- Psychologists have a duty to conduct research
 To reduce the misuse of data, psychologists should take responsibility for what
happens to their findings & be aware findings may lead to abuse &
discrimination



RISK MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES USED BY
PSYCHOLOGISTS
Guidelines of BPS