3.4: Controversies

Respect, Competence, Responsibility, Integrity

RCRI: The main four sections of ethical principles.

Sieber and Stanley

Drew attention to socially sensitive research and negative impact it can have.

Deception, right to withdraw, informed consent, privacy, psychological harm

DRIPP: 5 main issues that should be considered during experiments.

Replacement, reduction, refinement

The 3Rs: Consideration points in animal experimentation.

Ethological

Type of animal study that investigates non-human animals in their own environments, with a lesser focus on comparison. Has external validity issues.

Comparative

Type of animal study that aims to compare humans to non-humans, has internal validity issues.

Goodall

Investigated chimpanzees using ethological psychology, showing they could make tools and were omnivores.

Animal assisted therapy

AAT: Term for animal therapy. Animals are referred to as ‘co-therapists‘ and help in stress reduction and social skill improvement.

Singer

Coined the term ‘speciesism‘, which means discrimination on the basis of species, such as a rat being viewed as more important than a dog. Believes animal studies can be justified if the suffering is lesser than the benefit to society. A utilitarian stance.

Dunayer

Believes animal experimentation laws are akin to laws on slavery as they permit the abuse of animals.

Kilkenny et al

Found that UK and US animal studies do not/incorrectly track animal numbers and are poorly designed. Not only psychological studies, and done in partnership with NC3Rs, who are biased towards a dislike of animal studies.

Triangulation

Use of multiple sources of information to reach conclusions, for example observations and self-reports.

Heather

Believed lab experiments were artificial representations of human behaviour - only shows you how humans react in a fake situation.

Rogers

Believed only non-reductionist and idiographic approaches were the only way to get deep insight into behaviour. Part of the humanist movement.

Androcentrism

Term for the centring of men and male norms, and viewing female experiences as abnormal and different.

Wilkinson

Argued that androcentrism excludes and devalues women. Supports feminist psychology, claiming it can bring recognition of bias, increase critical thinking and broaden research to female perspectives.

Kitzinger

Argues that male and female differences have been used to oppress women using asylums and limitation from higher education, and research comparing could therefore be seen as political.

Alpha

Bias that assumes there are differences between two groups. Highly present in sexism and cultural biases.

Tavris

Argued that female behaviour is often pathologized (PMS), while there is no evidence female behaviour is linked to hormones. Also argued women’s behaviour is attributed to innate mental instability, while male behaviour is attributed to upbringing.

Beta

Bias that ignores genuine differences between groups, and forces theories developed using one group onto the other.

Gilligan

Argued against Kohlberg’s research as it only studied males and was applied to both sexes, leading to the conclusion women do not reach higher reasoning. She argued that women value care over justice in their moral principles.

Maccoby and Jacklin

Found only 4 genuine differences between males and females; girls have better verbal ability, boys have better visual, spatial and math (math only in adolescence) ability, and girls are less aggressive from around 2 years of age.

Rosenthal

Found that researchers treated female participants differently, being more encouraging, honest and friendly. This could alter any results from experiments.

Heterosexism

Assumption that heterosexuality is the default sexuality, ignoring homosexuals, bisexuals, asexuals and polyamorous people.

Peplau

Found that homosexual and heterosexual relationships last longer if they have similar backgrounds and commitment levels.

Stanford-Binet

Intelligence test that gave a mental age of participants. Was used by the Virginia government to forcibly sterilize women, mainly unmarried mothers, prostitutes and those considered ‘feeble-minded‘.

Smith and Lloyd

Found that mothers would select baby toys based on gender - dolls for girls and hammers for boys. They also responded more actively when boys showed increased motor activity. In the study, the babies gender was randomised and only identified by clothing.

Masculinist

Can be argued psychology has this bias, as male achievements are more published and it assumed psychologists are men.

Nahm et al

Found that therapy dogs in ER departments made patients and doctors feel better, and there was low concerns about cleanliness, getting in the way and fear of dogs.

Kamioka et al

A meta-analysis which looked at AAT’s effectiveness in the treatment of mental and behavioural disorders. They concluded that it can be effective in addiction, depression and schizophrenia, but that the studies done were generally of poor quality and more research was needed.