IB Class Entry - Ethics in Psychology Case Studies

For my TOK Presentation, I focused on the ethical considerations of one specific psychology case study. I chose IBH Psychology because it was closely related to Theory of Knowledge and many case studies are famous for having low ecological validity and ethical considerations. 

We chose Milgram’s experiment (1963) because it is known as one of the most unethical studies in the field of psychology. Even though Milgram had brought profound knowledge and evidence why we comply to authority figures, the participants were found to be distressed and have traumatic after-effects. This caused controversy on whether the knowledge from Milgram’s study, that used unethical methods, is valid for use. Thus, we came up with the question "How valid is the knowledge we gain from unethical psychology studies?" Through our knowledge question we focused on the validity of the unethical psychological studies. 

Ethicsž is an area of knowledge and are moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior. Ethical guidelines of psychology studies include: informed consent from all participants, no deception, debriefing must take place, confidentiality and the right to withdraw. 

Through our presentation I learned that Milgram’s experiment is considered to be an unethical study because participants were deceived and were not allowed to withdraw during the experiment. Whenever a participant would ask to withdraw, the experimenters would pressure them. Even though some deception is allowed for an experiment, the emotions of the participants indicated extreme distress. Through the after-effects of the experiment, many are convinced that a study cannot bring valid knowledge if the ethical guidelines are not followed.