The Milgram experiment is a research that was conducted by Milgram in 1963 at Yale University laboratory with the aim of determining if most people obey the authorities without considering how their actions could be harmful. The experiment was carried out in response to the World War II Nazi criminals who claimed that they were just obeying the authorities. Milgram had interest in the extent to which people would go to commit atrocities in defense of being obedient to the authorities ( McLeod, 2007). The experiment involved men who volunteered to participate in the lab experiment which they were told was to investigate to impacts of administering punishment in learning. There were 40 participants ranging between 20-50 years of age. Both professional and unskilled people participated.
Milgram introduced a fake participant who was supposed to take the role of a learner in the experiment while the others played the role of a teacher. There was also an administrator. The experiment was set in two rooms whereby the learner with electric chair occupied one room while the teacher with the electric generator occupied the other. The learner was supposed to learn some words and the teacher would test if the learner remembers the words. The learner got most answers wrong and the teacher was ordered to administer shock on the learner for every wrong answer and the shock would be increased every time. The administrator would order the teacher to continue administering the shock anytime the teacher wanted to stop. Milgram carried out another experiment and compared the results.
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It would be devastating to take part in a psychology research with other people that you think they are also participants but they are fake participants who are aware of what to expect. There arose ethical issues in Milgram’s experiment. These issues include informed consent and deception. Informed consent refers to willingly agree to be part of a research. This involves making the participant understand the research subject and methods to be used fully before giving consent. Before conducting a research, all participants should be informed and should participate in the research willingly (Knapp & VandeCreek, 2012). Conducting a research without informed consent is unethical. The participants were not told that the experiment was about the extent to which people can go to obey authorities but they were made to believe it was about the impacts of punishment in learning.
It was unfair having some participants who already know the aim and expectations of the experiment and other participants who are in the dark. The learner and the administrator knew that they were fake participants but the other participants were made to believe that they were part of them. Most people regard it as demeaning or even insulting to use them to participate in a study they know nothing about and they are not given an opportunity to participate willingly. Not informing the participants about the methods that will be employed in the study or the purpose of the study may make them agree to participate but if they later realize, they may not be willing to participate but since they already agreed, it may be difficult to withdraw. Milgram should have informed the real participant about the experiment and the methods used for the research. The research participants took part without knowing the real objectives of the study.
Deception refers to giving incomplete or false information about the research subject and methods to the participants. Most psychological researchers used deception in order to get accurate results for the research subject (Knapp & VandeCreek, 2012). Deception leads to issues of informed consent since participants participate without proper knowledge of the study . Today, deception is unethical. Milgram deceived the participants about the objective of the study. They were made to believe that the fake participants were part of the real participants. Milgram misled the participants deliberately in order to achieve his research objectives. He should have told the participants that they were operating with confederates, perhaps, they would have behaved differently. The experimenter kept on giving orders to the participants to continue and made it difficult for them to withdraw, although, some of them withdrew. Participants regard deception as demeaning since they are made to operate based on lies. Moreover, deception causes psychological stress to the participants. The participants that agree to the deception may end up feeling angry and foolish when they later realize they were deceived leading to a psychological harm.
Both deception and informed consent ethical issues may pose a risk to either long-term or short-term psychological damage to the participants. This may happen through stressing or damaging the self-image of a participant (Knapp & VandeCreek, 2012). Moreover, the participants may suffer from PSTD and poor self-esteem. Causing psychological damage to a research participant is morally unacceptable for every psychologist.
The Milgram experiment can be redesigned by changing some aspects that are unethical and expose participants to psychological stress. I will change some of the details in the experiment to make it ethical. I would inform all the participants about the real objective of the experiment and the methods that I intend to use so that they agree to participate with the knowledge. I would let all the participants choose who is to act as a learner and teacher instead of having some fake participants. In the redesigned experiment the shock will be up to 150 volts so as to reduce exposing participants into psychological harm. All the participants would be allowed to withdraw at any time but still be paid the participation fee.
References
Knapp, S. J., & VandeCreek, L. D. (2012). Practical ethics for psychologists: A positive approach . American Psychological Association.
McLeod, S. A. (2007). The milgram experiment. Simply Psychology .
