Scientific benefits against Ethical costs

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What is the definition of scientific benefit?
In terms of psychological research scientific benefits are concerned with what we can learn about human behaviour
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What can this information be?
tested and retested in order to provide soilid evidence which intervention and practical applications can be created
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What are examples of benefits?
broard and can include any understanding of behaviour that can help to improve the waulity of people's lives
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What do specific examples include?
social change that prevents undesirable behaviour and explanations and treatments of psychological disorders such as schizophrenia
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What is the definition of ethical costs?
In psychological research they refer to a moral threshold that has been breached
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What could examples include?
failing to protect pps from harm failing to gain informed consent and deception
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Any research that places a psychological pp in what?
a position they would not normally be in could place themat risk of ethical costs occuring
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Example?
Milgram
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What are other types of ethical costs?
misuse of psychological research to presecute or discriminate against certain groups in society
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What is the question?
Whether what scientific psychologists can learn from psychological experiments and what we have to do to gain this information is something that is hotly argued
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What are we questionning?
Whether the individual or animal invilved in research is more important than what we can learn to benefit the wider population
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Or should we be asking what?
Whether the findings of psychological research will really make a difference?
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the ethical cost of the animal or individual in a study can sometimes be?
anticipated and measured accurately but the scientific benefit of such research is harder to measure
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what is one scientific benefit of psychological research?
its potential to prevent undesirable behaviour
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If we can understand the reasoning behind what?
actions then perhaps we can stop them
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What did Zimbardo describe?
the Lucifer effect to explain the evil carried out in Iraq by Abu Ghraib
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In his original stanford Prison experiment he was able to show what?
how well meaning individuals would conform to social roles that conflicted with every day behaviours
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What does he suggest?
taking heed of his research and research of others in the field (eg: Milgram) events and behaviours such as those at Abu Ghtaib could have been prevented
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However, What could be argued?
Zimbardo's study was a role plat it lacked external vlidity and hence this might be why the scientific benefits have not been seen in real life
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What were the ethical costs to pps under Zimbardo's study?
psychological harm was suffered by pps in the study and one prisoner even went on hunger strike
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Perhaps Zimbardo could have forseen what?
the ethical cost to the pp
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but what did Cardwell point out?
the study was halted on the 6th day and passed by an ethical committee
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If he had stopped the study at the first sign of abuse (day 2) what would have happened?
We would have learnt nothing
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What are ethical costs in this study?
essential
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However?
psychological studies can be designed to minimise these ethical costs but ultimately could it be argued that what we learn about human behaviour is jepardised when we remove suh costs
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What is one way of avoiding ethical costs?
to human pps is to use non human animals in research.
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What do researchers who use animals in their studies say?
are ethically justifiable because humans are superior to animes
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What does this mean?
It is possible to use animals in research to gain scientific benefits in terms of applications which will ultimately improve the quality of people's lives
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For example?
Pavlov's classical confitioning research with dogs has led to cures for bed wetting and alcoholism
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What has Seligman's research led to?
Learned helplessness aids understanding of domestic violence and depression
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However, animals are not what? and what?
not humans and hence generalisations are tenuous at best
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in addition by avoiding the ethical costs to humans, we have not what?
we have not found a better balance just passed on human costs to animals
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What would some psychologists sees this as?
specieism
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Who are we to say that animals are what?
less important than humans and use them in order to minimise ethical costs to humans
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It is clear that there are still ethical costs in regards to what?
animals that are used in research
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Why?
they are poorly protected from harm by laws such as the Animals act that only cover limited species and legalise the use of methods
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such as what?
electrocution and gassing
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Howver, does this matter when what?
we consider the greater good (ultilitarianism)
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What is one measurable benefit of research?
success created by treatments
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For example?
chemotherapy aims to use anti-depressant drugs to change the chemical or neurotransmitter activity in depressives' brains
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What are these examples?
serotonin and noradrenaline
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What did Sane find out?
75% success rate for such drugs such as Prozac
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If this kind of benefit can be sought perhaps what?
animal and human trials should be essential to imprvoe the lives of many other sufferers (utilitarian view)
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However?
what about the remaining 25% who do not respond
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Such applications what?
ignore individual differences and do not solve the root cause of the depression, thus making the benefit of such research questionable
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What about the ethical costs to human pps during clincial trials of drugs used in therapy?
Even if we assume that using animals can minimise the risks to humans, testing creates an ethical cost at 2 levels
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What is the first level?
when the new treatment doesnt work or causes negative side effects meaning the pps are not protected from harm (e.g. tardive dyskinesia
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What is the second level?
the problems arising in the placebo group
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These pps face deception and what is the inevitable outcome?
that they will not benefit from potentially effective treatments
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However what?
would such scientific benefits be possible without such potential ethical costs
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What is the answer?
no we have to decide on the lesser of the two evils
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Card 2

Front

What can this information be?

Back

tested and retested in order to provide soilid evidence which intervention and practical applications can be created

Card 3

Front

What are examples of benefits?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What do specific examples include?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

What is the definition of ethical costs?

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