Ethical Principles Of Research: Darley And Latané's 1968 Studies

“If the focus of Psychology is to promote human welfare, harming another would not only prevent achieving this goal, it would thwart it.” (Kitchener & Kitchener, 2009, p.13). When researchers do not follow the ethical principles of research then their studies become unethical, and hold a poor standard. Ethical principles are based on basic social principles, but have really only been defined in the last 15 years of research. Many researchers such as Darley and Latané did not have these guidelines to follow, which is evident in the way in which their studies do not follow these ethical guidelines. This essay will examine Darley and Latané’s 1968 studies and discuss how they are not considered to be ethical.

In 2009 Kitchener and Kitchener firmly

This means that persons have the right to make fully informed decisions about what they do with themselves, as long as that does not take away the same choice for another person. In the seizure study (Darley & Latané, 1968) the participants were 59 female and 13 male university students, who were told they were taking part in a general discussion as part of their class requirement. The participants had no choice in what they were going to be subjected to, and even then, they did not know what they were actually getting themselves into because of the lack of fidelity by the researchers. Participants did not receive the respect they should’ve because participants did not have a choice of whether to participate and they did not know fully what they would be subjected to, this is unethical. In the smoke study (Latané & Darley, 1968) the participants were 58 male university students who were invited by phone interview to discuss problems involved in urban university life. Whilst participants were able to make a choice of whether to participate, due to the lack of fidelity, participants did not have the knowledge to make a fully informed decision. This was not respect for persons, as participants were not being treated as autonomous individuals. This was unethical and certainly did not follow Kitchener and Kitchener (2009) ethical

In the seizure study (Darley and Latané, 1968) almost all of the participants believed that the seizure was real. It caused them discomfort and distressing concern for the victim. This harm, though not physical, caused emotional harm to the participants. The Researchers, may have dealt with these emotions when the true nature of the study was revealed but they did not know the lasting effects that this would have on the participants, or even their initial reaction to it from participant’s previous experiences. This disregard for the participant shows a poor standard of ethics in the Darley and Latané (1968) study. The smoke study (Latané & Darley, 1968) showed even more maleficence. This study lead to stress and discomfort for the participants who had to sit in the room with the smoke. Stress came from the potential threat of emergency, which at the time participants believed was real. Discomfort was caused through the inhalation of the titanium dioxide smoke. The titanium dioxide, which was used to produce smoke, has now been classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as an IARC Group 2B carcinogen meaning it was potentially carcinogenic to humans (CCHOS, 2006). While at the time Latané and Darley (1968) would not have suspected titanium dioxide to be carcinogenic, and believed it to be safe, the smoke would have been dangerous to