2. Individual Participants

Point:

Ethical costs in research can cause lasting harm to the individual participants, whose welfare is sacrificed to benefit society

Evidence:

• Watson and Rayner used a nine-month-old infant to demonstrate classical conditioning; the procedures induced fear and anxiety

• Similarly, Milgram (1963) caused participants extreme humiliation and psychological stress to investigate obedience to authority

Explain:

• Through this research, society gained invaluable insights into behaviour and phobias, and the individual "paid the price" through emotional trauma

• Modern psychology = informed consent and the protection of vulnerable groups

• Pursuit of scientific knowledge can lead to research where the ethical cost to the individual is far from ‘minimal’

Link:

Therefore…

Psychologists strive to minimise harm, but the history of the discipline suggests that advances in knowledge have frequently come at an unjustifiable cost to participants