The Tea Room Study: Mr. Humphreys

The Tea Room study was a study conducted by Mr. Humphreys in 1970. Humphreys (1970) studied the homosexual encounters of men in public restrooms. The various men’s participating in such activity came from different social backgrounds and they had different personal motives for seeking homosexual. The researcher study questioned some of the stereotypes associated with the anonymous male-male sexual encounters in public places. That demonstrated that many of the participants lived conventional lives as family men and respected members of their communities (Humphreys, 1970).In other words, the participants was living an secret double live in which their family members and friends did not know about. Also, Mr. Humphreys played a big role in the …show more content…
Humphrey Tea Room Study was an unethical study based on numerous reasons as discussed previously. This study may have been unethical but he did not have any physical harm towards the participants but he did have some potential harm toward the participants. The facts clearly show Humphreys was absolutely committed to the protection of his subjects and did not allow harm to befall them through his actions. The researcher of this study also admirably upheld that tenant, “one ought not to harm,” and he successfully protected his subjects identities (Desroches, 1990). Although, the participants were conducting their activities in a public place and that the deceit was harmless, since Humphreys designed the study with respect of not harming his participants. On the other hand, Lakendra believes that there was potential harm to the participants because Mr. Humphrey did not get his subjects’ consent, he used their license plate numbers to track them down, and interviewed them in disguise without revealing the true intent of his studies. The researcher also betrayed the participants trust by lying to them about who he actually was and what he was doing. Furthermore, by Mr. Humphreys not getting the consent of the participants he did risk the participant’s suing him and or the American Psychological Association if the participants found out that they was in a study that they did not give an approval for. Another potential harm was that Mr. Humphrey didn’t initially protect the participant’s privacy. Just hypothetical speaking if the names and the identity of the participants did get leak out then those participants will risk having their family and the community finding out that they was homosexual, their reputation being running, and the possibility of them losing their jobs which could be an potential harm. Lastly, the risks did outweigh the experimental benefits because it is unethical due to the fact that you are misleading the participants