Essay Example on Ethical issues is Zimbardo 1971

The participants had been told that they were going to participate in research on memory and learning and therefore consented to take part based on this knowledge so fully informed consent was not gained by Milgram as the participants did not know the true nature of the study that it was actually a study into obedience However arguably informed consent was gained after the participants were debriefed The participants were necessarily deceived in Milgram s defence because if the participants knew the aim of the study before or during there would have been demand characteristics which would have messed up the results of the study Participants right to withdraw was arguably breached due to prods that the experimenter gave including please continue which could have caused participants to carry on even though they didn t really wish to do so Also many participants showed distress for example three participants had uncontrollable seizures Both the British Psychological Society BPS and the American Psychological Association APA give ethical guidelines which researchers must adhere to for their research to be accepted as ethical The BPS Code of ethics and conduct was published in 2009 It includes standards of respect which ensures researchers value the dignity and worth of all participants competence which ensures researchers are aware of their capabilities and limits of their training knowledge and experience responsibility which ensures researchers understand the responsibilities they have to participants the public and psychology and integrity which ensures researchers are honest accurate and fair 

Therefore in Burger s study if participants went to continue past 150V the experiment would be stopped and it was assumed that they would carry on to 450V preventing them from experiencing high levels of distress Also in Burger s study participants were told at least three times that they could withdraw from the study at any time However this was not done in Milgram s study The participants were therefore made more aware of their right to withdraw in this study than in Milgram s Also in Burger s replication the participant only received a 15V sample shock as opposed to the 45V sample shock given to participants in Milgram s study these were done to give a taste of what the shocks felt like for the learner therefore meaning that there was less physical harm done to the participants in Burger s study as the shock they received was lower To conclude we can see that there have been many issues in past with ethics However due to these issues being addressed and solutions being created such as the ethical codes research is now not allowed to be conducted if it breaks the guidelines that these codes set out Deception however is still necessary in much research conducted by psychologists as it is the only way to reduce demand characteristics in certain circumstances but it is only acceptable so long as participants are fully debriefed and consenting after data has been gathered