Deception essay‘Should participants ever be deceived concerning the true nature of a psychological experiment in which they are taking part in?’ PDF

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‘Should participants ever be deceived concerning the true nature of a psychological experiment in which they are taking part in?’...

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Maaria Aksar Kauser 1506849

‘Should participants ever be deceived concerning the true nature of a psychological experiment in which they are taking part in?’ Deception is perceived as ‘deliberately causing someone to believe something that is not true especially through personal gain.’ It is common that some Psychologists use deception with their participant’s to achieve the results that they want. This was demonstrated in the studies of Milgram and Zimbardo Throughout this essay we will examine whether participants should be deceived or not. There are two forms of deception. Deception by omission, in which participants are not told about certain aspects of the study, and deception by commission, in which participants are deliberately misled. Whilst deception by omission can be justified, it can be argued that both forms of deception are wrong. There are many issues regarding deception as a whole and one of the main issues that could occur from deception is psychological harm to the participants. This was demonstrated in Milgram’s study were the participants were made to believe that they were administrated electric shocks to a learner which was actually causing them harm. This caused the participants distress as the participants suffered from anxiety; one participant suffered from an epileptic fit, as they genuinely believed the electric shocks was harming the learner. It could be concluded that the form of deception used was deception by commission, as Milgram deliberately mislead the participants to believe that they were harming the learner. From Milgram’s study we found that 65% of the participants who were all male obeyed and administrated the electric shocks at the highest voltage of 650 Waltz. Without Milgram deceiving his participants we would not have achieved these results, as the participants would not give realistic findings. However it could be argued that Milgram went too far with his experiment as it got to the point where the participants were not allowed to withdraw from the experiment as the researcher would just tell them to carry on. This was another ethical issue that Milgram’s study crossed, as the participants were again deceived as they may have thought that they could withdraw at any time. On the other hand, we as researchers have to understand that when Milgram conducted his study it was during the time were McCarthyism was around just after the First World War, so people were more likely to do what an authority figure (Researcher) told them to do, and would be easily deceived, whereas in today’s society we are more aware of the rights we have as participants and to avoid any ethical issues arising Researchers debrief there participants after their experiments so they are aware of the real intentions behind the experiment. Many people may argue and say that participants should be deceived when taking part in an experiment as then it allows the researcher to get more realistic findings, and it avoids demand characteristics occurring during the experiment, rather than the participants changing their behaviour, which they would tend to do if they knew the real reason behind the experiment. ‘Research investigating opinions about deception consistently reveals that faculty members and researchers are more concerned about the dangerous effects of deception on the participants than the actual participants themselves.’ (Collins, Kuhn & King, 1979; Fisher and Fyrberg, 1994; Korn, 1984) (Nicholas Epley, Chuch Huff, Suspicion, Affective response, and Educational benefit as a result of deception in Psychology Research p.759). From this research we can come to the conclusion that psychologists should use deception as long as no major harm comes to the participants. Researchers wanted to find out whether deception had an impact on the study or not. Smith and Richardson (1983) gave questionnaires to students who had taken part in replicate studies involving deception, where some of the participants were deceived and others were not and found that Participants who took part in deceptive research actually ended up enjoying taking part more than those who had not been deceived. 28% of the participants reported feeling harm in the studies, which was alleviated by effective debriefing. (Nicholas Epley, Chuch Huff, Suspicion, Affective response, and Educational benefit as a result of deception in Psychology Research p.760.) This suggests that participants should be deceived in order for the psychologists to get quantative and qualitative data from the research. This also demonstrates that debriefing is successful.

Maaria Aksar Kauser 1506849 This brings us back to our main question if participants should be deceived. Zimbardos’ study also used deception as he deceived the participants and made them believe that they were in a real prison. The participants also were deceived as when the participants who were the prisoners were arrested they were humiliated in front of their friends and neighbours. The participants were also deceived in this experiment as they did not have a clear understanding of what the experiment was going to involve. Deception by omission was used in Zimbardos study as certain information was kept from the particpants. Therefore for researchers to avoid this for future studies they need to ensure that they try to provide as much information to the participants as possible. Milgram’s and Zimbardos study allowed researcher’s to get a more clear understanding of why people conformed and obeyed then they intended. It could be argued that this was only achieved due to the deception. As if they had informed the participants of the real reason behind the research the participants may have used demand characteristics which could have floored the research. There were 38 witnesses to the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese outside her apartment building in New York in an attack which lasted for more than half an hour (Rosenthal, 1964). It was the failure of the witnesses to intervene that was the starting point for a series of investigations by Latane and Darley (1968, 1970; Darley & Latane, 1968). This work culminated in what became known as the "bystander effect"-the finding that people are more likely to receive help when a single bystander is present, than when a group of bystanders are present.( Levine Mark, Human Relations 52.9 (Sep 1999): 1133-1155). This case study was replicated many times by researchers who deceived their participants. This demonstrates deception and could be seen as unethical as this type of research is extreme and puts not only the confederate but all the participants at risk of both psychological and physical harm. However if deception was not used in these experiments then psychologists would not be able to get an unbiased perspective of individual’s behaviour. Overall deception is a delicate matter and it is hard to justify whether it is right or wrong as it has its benefits as well as its limitations. Therefore the BPS have put guidelines in place where debriefing is used to get around the issue of deception so when the participants walk away from the experiment they are well aware of what the intentions of the researchers were.

Maaria Aksar Kauser 1506849 References.

1. Nicholas Epley, Chuch Huff, Suspicion, Affective response and Educational benefit as a result of deception in Psychology Research- retrieved from; http://faculty.chicagobooth.edu/nicholas.epley/EpleyandHuff1998.pdf 2. Levine, Mark. Human Relations 52.9 (Sep 1999): 1133-1155. Retrieved from; http://wk6kg9sd8m.scholar.serialssolutions.com/? sid=google&auinit=M&aulast=Levine&atitle=Rethinking+bystander+nonintervention: +Social+categorization+and+the+evidence+of+witnesses+at+the+James+Bulger+murder+trial&id=doi :10.1177/001872679905200902&title=Human+relations+ (New+York)&volume=52&issue=9&date=1999&spage=1133&issn=0018-7267...