Concerning Ethical Case Studies and the APA Ethical Guidelines
First take a look at the 3 Case Studies below.
Study 1, concerns Watson’s famous Little Albert. Although we all know the story of Little Albert, we may not have read Watson and Rayner’s original 1920’s study. Take into consideration the context and spirit of the times or Zeitgeist, if you will, when analyzing this study and the next one. http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/emotion.htm
Study 2 tells the story of Wendell Johnson, or more specifically, Mary Tudor’s study of children in an orphanage in Iowa. It’s called the Monster Study for a reason as you will see. The Monster Study
Study 3 concerns Seligman and Maier’s (1967) Learned Helplessness study. Again, it helps to read these original studies when possible, so we can form our own judgments. http://psych.hanover.edu/classes/learning/papers/seligman%20maier%201967.pdf
Your assignment: Please read over these studies and select one to analyze.
You will need to first review APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. You will find ethical considerations to current events and historical studies and understand more fully the reason why we need the ethical principles.
Next, in your analysis, give some background information and then tell us which of the General Principles and/ or which Ethical Standard was violated, and explain why. Do you think that the study you choose would be approved by an IRB today? Why do you think the study was allowed or tolerated at the time?
Minimum 400 words.