First draft
Psychology
Grade 11D
Discuss ethical considerations related to research studies at the cognitive level of analysis
There are plenty of ethical considerations connected to research studies at the SCLOA, for example the right to withdraw, deception, knowledgeable agreement and excessive stress or harm.
For example, Festinger’s “When Prophecy Fails” observation of a doomsday cult has ethical invasions of deception as well as knowledgeable agreement. Festinger and his group of researchers invade a doomsday cult that thought that the world would come to an end on December 21st and aimed to see how they would react when it wouldn’t end. By pretending to be one of them, Festinger violated the ethical thought of asking for their authorization and consequently, since it was a secret observation, he also cheated them. They were incredibly upset when he said who he really was; to be an undercover researcher. It is most likely that Festinger would not have been able to earn a full understanding of the cult’s behaviour and how it played into the social recognise theory if he had not cheated them, as he was observing them on their normal day without any effects influencing their behaviour. However, he cheated on ethics. This is a matter with other observations at this level of analysis as being secret that tricks them and is unethical if they aren’t in a public place, during undisguised influences their natural behaviour that is precisely what you are trying to study.
Milgram’s study on people’s willingness to do authority also is an invasion of ethics in terms of cheating, but also with excessive stress or harm and even the right to withdraw. Members that participated were asked to ask a number of questions to someone they were only able to hear and to give a number of electric shocks every time the other person, who was normally only a tape recording, would give an answer to the question incorrectly. The voltage of the shock would be