Social Influence Research - Do the Ends Justify the Means? Essay

Social Influence Research - Do the Ends Justify the Means? To what extent does the importance of social influence research, justify the methods used in its investigation? The debate about ethics in psychology focuses on two areas: protection of participants and benefiting society. This is a double obligation dilemma as if some psychologists are not allowed to do certain experiments because of ethical restraints; this can cause problems with validity. In social psychology, these psychologists have an obligation to use their research skills to advance our knowledge of human behaviour, for the ultimate aim of human betterment. Milgram’s study into obedience involved participants becoming a ‘teacher’ and applying an electric shock to the ‘learner’ (who was a confederate) when they answered a word association question incorrectly. The participant was not aware that the shocks they administered were false and some believed they may have killed a man. In this instance therefore, the code of conduct and ethical guidelines published by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and American Psychological Society (APS) in 1993 were broken in more than one way. The participants’ right to withdraw was disabled as the prods given by the experimenter (such as â€Å"please continue† etc) made the participants feel that they had no choice but to continue. The were also involved in deception as they thought they had administered real shocks and were not informed of the confederate being present. This study, however, was conducted in the 1950’s and the ethical guidelines were not in position and therefore this study may be published in modern day t... ...very case. For example, there was only one prisoner who tried to resist and went on a hunger strike. When he was put into solitary confinement the others were allowed to release him by means of giving up their blankets. They refused. They saw they situation as every man for themselves. Another benefit to society was also the impression this experiment left on the prison system in America at the time, and some aspects of this were changed as a result. Therefore in conclusion, in these two experiments alone, the unethical methods used can be justified as they have helped to profit humanity by providing insight into how humans behave when put into certain social situations. Without these ethical guidelines being broken, both experiments would have lacked ecological validity and the results would not be legitimate.