PSYC217 Chapter 3 - Ethics Milgram's Experiments - Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments to study obedience to an authority figure. " Placed an ad in a local newspaper in Connecticut > offered to pay $4.50 (approximately $46 2018 CAD) to men to participate in a "scientific study of memory and learning" conducted at Yale. · Participants met a scientist dressed in a lab coat and another participant in the study, "Mr. Wallace" a confederate (accomplice) · Scientist explained the study would examine the effects of punishment on learning. " One would be a "teacher" administering punishment, and the other is the "learner." · Mr. Wallace and the volunteer participant drew slips of paper to determine who would be the teacher and who would be the learner (drawing was rigged > Mr. Wallace was always the learner) - Scientist attached electrodes to Mr. Wallace and placed teacher in front of a shock machine > series of levers would deliver "shocks" to Mr. Wallace. · Mr. Wallace was instructed to learn a series of word pairs then given a test to identify which words went together. · If Mr. Wallace made a mistake, volunteer had to deliver a larger "shock" as punishment. · At around 120 volts, Mr. Wallace screams in pain and wants to leave > the experimenter told the participant urged him to continue. · Encouragements followed a set series of verbal prods that stressed the importance of continuing the experiment. - The study purportedly was about memory and learning -> Milgram was interested if participants would obey the experimenter, administering high levels of shock and pain to the learner. · Around 65% of participants delivered shocks to the maximum possible: 450 volts. - This study (& Milgram's extended replications) received a great deal of publicity · His results challenged many of beliefs about our ability to resist authority. " Results have implications for understanding obedience in real-life situations (e.g., Holocaust in Nazi Germany, Jonestown mass suicide) · Recent replications of these studies suggest that many people in contemporary society continue to be vulnerable to a dangerous obedience to authorities Ethical Research in Canada Tri-Council Policy Statement - In Canada, researchers and institutions adhere to the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans · Tri-Council refers to the three federally funded research grant agencies: 1. Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) 2. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) 3. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). - 1998 -> Tri-Council published the first Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS) · TCPS: the official statement of ethical conduct for research involving humans; researchers and institutions are expected to adhere to this document to receive federal research funds.
· TCPS became the first standard Canadian ethics code to guide all research involving humans > replaced all prior guidelines. . 2010 -> Tri-Council published the first major revision of the TCPS (TCPS2) " Institutions/researchers who recieve funding from the Tri-Council must be reviewed by the Research