1. Ethical Issues Ethical problems arising from psychological research Attempts to address/avoid these problems; success (or otherwise) of these attempts Discussion of these issues in the context of research into social influence (majority & minority influence; obedience) www.psychlotron.org.uk

2. Effects on Participants… www.psychlotron.org.uk

3. Ethical Issues Informed consent Did the pps agree to take part? Did they know what they were agreeing to? Deception Were the pps at any point deliberately misled? Psychological harm Were the pps put at risk of harm e.g. stress or damage to self image? www.psychlotron.org.uk

4. Ethical Issues Asch (1951) Informed consent, deception, damage to self- image Zimbardo (1973) Psychological damage (stress, self image) Hofling et al (1966) Informed consent, damage to self image Milgram (1963) All the above www.psychlotron.org.uk

5. Discussing Ethical Issues Could the outcome have been predicted? Could consent have been presumed? Could another method have been used? Did benefits outweigh costs? Was the damage undone (debriefing)? What did the pps say? www.psychlotron.org.uk

6. Dealing with Ethical Issues Guidelines (e.g. BPS, 1995) Remove ambiguity Make responsibilities clear But Still open to interpretation Still rely on self-regulation Only effective if backed up with action www.psychlotron.org.uk

7. Dealing with Ethical Issues Ethical Committees Active enforcement of guidelines Removes bias in self-regulation More immediate power But Still may be biased towards researcher not pps Mainly in universities – what about commercial or military research? www.psychlotron.org.uk