Analyzing Ethics in Research Worksheet

Instructions

Use the five General Principles from the American Psychological Association (APA) to analyze the ethical issues in the Stanford prison experiment.

Completeeach section below. Enter each response on a new line. Ensure that your responses are:

• Thorough and complete
• Accurate and logical
• Carefully edited for grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors
• Cited according to course-level APA guidelines (where applicable)

Principle A: Beneficence and Nonmaleficence

1. How did the Stanford prison experiment fail to incorporate beneficence or nonmaleficence? Provide 2-3 examples.
2. What impact did a lack of beneficence and/or nonmaleficence have on the participants or the outcome of the study?

Principle B: Fidelity and Responsibility

1. Did Zimbardo establish fidelity with the study participants? If yes, was the established trust effective? Why or why not? If not, how did Zimbardo break trust?
2. Did Zimbardo take responsibility for the outcome of the study? If yes, how did he do so? If not, what could/should he have done?

Principle C: Integrity

1. Did Zimbardo exercise deception in his experiment? If yes, how did he justify the deception? If not, how did he demonstrate honesty and truthfulness?

Principle D: Justice

1. What steps could Zimbardo have taken to promote justice in the study? Provide 1-2 suggestions and explain the positive effect each might have had on the experiment. Note: You may wish to review sections 1-10 of the APA Ethics Code for suggestions.

Principle E: Respect for People's Rights and Dignity

1. Were the participants of the study a vulnerable population? Why or why not?
   1. Although the Stanford prison experiment has been criticized for using unethical research procedures, some researchers believe the research results are still beneficial to the scientific community. Do you agree or disagree? Justify your response.

Summarize with a Reflection as well!