Stanford Prison Experiment
First, the researcher did not provide the participants with any training or guidelines on playing their roles. This led to the guards making up their rules and using their control methods, often abusive. Second, there was no oversight of the study, which allowed the guards to get out of control and use whatever tactics they wanted to control the prisoners (Zimbardo, 1999). Finally, the researcher failed to debrief the participants after the study, which could have helped them understand the study’s psychological effects and how to deal with them.
“Gender Is Learned” Research Study
It was unethical for the researcher to perform unnecessary surgery on an infant who could not speak for themselves in a personal matter. Lying to the family about the purpose of the surgery marked another point of unethical trait of the researcher. Dr. Money, the researcher, used the child as a guinea pig in the experiment without the family’s knowledge or consent. The doctor did not follow up with the child after the surgery to see how he was doing, and he later committed suicide when he knew what had happened at 38 years (BBC Science & Nature, 2014). Being honest as a researcher could have avoided these occurrences.
“Behavioral Study of Obedience” Research Study
The study was unethical because the participants were not made aware of the true nature of the experiment. The researchers lied to the participants and told them they administered electric shocks to a learner when no actual shock was delivered. The study was also unethical because the researchers used coercion to get the participants to continue the experiment (Milgram, 1963). The teachers should have known that they were not harming the learners and avoided using coercion to push them through the experiment.
References
BBC Science & Nature. (2014). Dr. Money and the boy with no penis. Web.
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience.The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. Web.
Zimbardo, P. G. (1999). Stanford prison experiment. Web.