Assignment: Application of Ethical Principles
Prior to the implementation of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, no ethical guidelines existed for using human subjects when conducting research. On December 9, 1946, an American military court prosecuted 23 German physicians and administrators who participated in medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners. Many of these experiments led directly to the death of thousands of prisoners. Others were disabled for life. In the 1950s , individuals were given thalidomide for sleep problems without knowing that the drug was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This led to more than 12,000 children being born with severe deformities. Even as late as 1972, the United States Public Health Service conducted experiments on more than 600 low-income, black males, injecting two-thirds of them with syphilis without telling them they had been injected with a disease. Researchers followed these individuals for 40 years. Even when a proven cure was known to exist, researchers conducting this Tuskegee Syphilis Study denied participants the penicillin needed to cure them. Most appalling was that when physicians who were unaware of the study diagnosed the disease in some of the participants, researchers intervened and prevented the administration of penicillin. Many of these subjects died as a direct result of their unknown participation in this experiment.
You read this week about a very important psychological study, the Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted in 1973, the same year the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was terminated due to its existence being made public for the first time. The Stanford Prison Experiment provided much information about ordinary people and how they respond to roles of authority. However, this study was also controversial because of the way it was carried out and the effects it had on some of its participants.
To prepare for this assignment:
Review the article, Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison. Pay particular attention to the ethical standards followed in the Stanford Prison Experiment.
Review the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code
of Conduct. Think about which APA ethical standards might apply to the Stanford Prison Experiment and about what problems or conflicts might arise if these standards were applied.
Consider whether this study could be conducted today under current ethical standards and why or why not.
Keeping in mind the APA ethical standards you reviewed, notice if there are any ethical issues, problems, or flaws in the research study. If so, think about why they are issues, problems, or flaws.
The assignment (23 pages):
Briefly describe each ethical issue, problem, or flaw you found in the Stanford Prison Experiment.
Explain why you consider each to be an ethical issue, problem, or flaw.
Explain whether the same research, if conducted today, would be considered ethical or unethical and why or why not.
Justify your position citing specific APA ethical codes that apply.
Support your Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are asked to provide a reference list only for those resources not included in the Learning Resources for this course.
By Day 7
Submit your assignment by Day 7.
Submission and Grading Information
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Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as WK2Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension) and click Open.
If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.
sources https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/index
https://www.apa.org/practice/guidelines/forensic-psychology
BOOK IS CALLED
Stangor, C. (2015). Research methods for the behavioral sciences (5th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Chapter 3, Ethics in Research