This essay will explore the importance of psychological studies maintaining ethical standards in psychology, using examples from studies such as; Landis’ facial experiment (1924) and homosexuality aversion therapy (1935). The British psychological society (BPS) has stated that “no code can explore the need for psychologists to use their professional and ethical judgement” (British Psychological Society, 2009). Psychologists have a code of ethics and conduct because it is essential to clarify the circumstances for which any piece of psychological research can be done. It was 1954 when the BPS created a draft of ethical guidelines, but these codes were not official until 1974 when it was approved by the professional affairs board. It took an
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Which brings us to the topic of the first experiment Landis’ facial experiment (1924) this piece of work was done before there was any form of ethical guidelines within psychology. It was done by a psychology student Carney Landis to see if certain emotions evoke emotional characteristic facial expressions. His test subjects were made up off his fellow grad students, he took these subjects to his lab and painted black lines on their faces so he could see the movement of their muscles with the help of a camera. He then proceeded to give them different stimuli which was aimed to provoke strong emotions, the tests consisted of making them smell ammonia, putting their hand into a bucket filled with frogs and the penultimate test of having them decapitate a white rat. Most declined to do the last test, but with some persuasion two thirds of the group did what they were asked, with the additional third refusing Landis himself decapitated it in front of …show more content…
This experiment had many ethical issues including those for the human participants and the animal test subjects. In accordance with the current ethical codes for animals in research this experiment would never have been approved by an ethics committee, for many reasons including the fact that multiple animals were mutilated in the most heinous way. Although according to speciesism, we’re morally obligated to inflict pain on animals in order to reduce potential human suffering. Landis used a thirteen-year-old boy in this experiment as a test subject which goes against the code of human ethics, because he imposed psychological harm on a minor, both, discomfort and stress.
The guidelines for ethical conduct in the care and use of nonhuman animals in research has stated that research done with animals should only be used where there is a clear scientific purpose with the expectation that there will be an increase in any significant knowledge or any benefits to health and welfare of humans and other animals (APA, 2012).
The results of the experiment were inconclusive so the rat’s deaths were for
Which brings us to the topic of the first experiment Landis’ facial experiment (1924) this piece of work was done before there was any form of ethical guidelines within psychology. It was done by a psychology student Carney Landis to see if certain emotions evoke emotional characteristic facial expressions. His test subjects were made up off his fellow grad students, he took these subjects to his lab and painted black lines on their faces so he could see the movement of their muscles with the help of a camera. He then proceeded to give them different stimuli which was aimed to provoke strong emotions, the tests consisted of making them smell ammonia, putting their hand into a bucket filled with frogs and the penultimate test of having them decapitate a white rat. Most declined to do the last test, but with some persuasion two thirds of the group did what they were asked, with the additional third refusing Landis himself decapitated it in front of …show more content…
This experiment had many ethical issues including those for the human participants and the animal test subjects. In accordance with the current ethical codes for animals in research this experiment would never have been approved by an ethics committee, for many reasons including the fact that multiple animals were mutilated in the most heinous way. Although according to speciesism, we’re morally obligated to inflict pain on animals in order to reduce potential human suffering. Landis used a thirteen-year-old boy in this experiment as a test subject which goes against the code of human ethics, because he imposed psychological harm on a minor, both, discomfort and stress.
The guidelines for ethical conduct in the care and use of nonhuman animals in research has stated that research done with animals should only be used where there is a clear scientific purpose with the expectation that there will be an increase in any significant knowledge or any benefits to health and welfare of humans and other animals (APA, 2012).
The results of the experiment were inconclusive so the rat’s deaths were for