Ethical Issues and NonHuman Animals
Harlow’s Monkeys
• Watch the following film, how would you
decide if this experiment should be
allowed in 2010?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O60TY
AIgC4
Cost-Benefit Analysis?
• That’s what an ethical committee would
do….
• BUT
• How do you decide which costs and which
benefits are relevant?
• Try and do one with a partner.
Examples of research 1
Harlow(1959)
• Harlow(1959) – The Origins of Love
• Aim: to investigate the importance of
contact comfort versus feeding in the
healthy development of infants
• Method: kept young rhesus monkeys in
isolation to see if they preferred a “wire” or
cloth mother. The monkeys were all
psychologically damaged – unable to
relate to other monkeys as adults.
Examples of research 1
Harlow (1959)
• Findings: that contact comfort was much
more important than previously thought,
which affected parenting practices
significantly (eg babies were no longer left
to cry at night)
• SO – were these findings enough to justify
the suffering of the monkeys?
Examples of research 2
Gibson & Walk (1960)
• Gibson & Walk (1960) The Visual Cliff
• Aim: to investigate if depth perception is learned or
innate.
• Method: Used babies and young animals to see their
reaction on being placed on the “visual cliff” as a control,
some rats and kittens were reared in the dark.
• Findings : most human infants cab discriminate depth by
the time they can crawl. They were unable to
conclusively answer their research question
• SO – were the findings worth the sensory deprivation
experienced by the young rats and kittens
Examples of research 3
Dian Fossey (1983)
• Dian Fossey (1983) on Gorillas’ social relationships
• Aims to find out how gorillas organise themselves in
groups
• Method: Naturalistic Observation – she lived with the
gorillas, fitting in with their background and carefully
noting what happened
• Findings: detailed information about gorilla hierarchies
• SO – were the findings worth the gorillas having to put
up with Dian Fossey hanging around for years?
Examples of research 4
Jouvet (1967
• Jouvet(1967) REM Sleep deprivation
research on cats
• Aim: to discover the importance of REM
sleep for animals (including humans)
• Method: cats placed on upside-down
flowerpots in a pool of water. If the went
into REM sleep they would fall into the
water. They learned to stay awake, but all
animals eventually died.
Examples of research 4
Jouvet (1967)
• Findings: REM sleep is essential for
survival in cats.
• SO – was this research worth the deaths
of these animals?
SO WHY USE ANIMALS?
• There are two main types of argument:
• PRACTICAL REASONS – It is much
EASIER to use animals than people.
• ETHICAL reasons – these arguments
focus on RIGHT and WRONG.
• For exam purposes we will focus on
ETHICAL reasons
Arguments For Using Animals in
Psychological Research
•
•
Moral obligation to help humans before
other animals (Gray 1987) – balance
human benefit v animal suffering.
Animals are well-protected by law eg
“Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act”
(1986) and the BPS Guidelines of 2008.
Arguments For Using Animals in
Psychological Research
•
•
Animals are convenient to do research on, so
we should try to use them (because Humans
are WORTH MORE – which is a moral
question).
Animal research has given a lot to both
practical and theoretical psychology – eg
Learning Theory (Skinner’s rats and pigeons),
Parental Deprivation (Harlow’s Monkeys)
Arguments For Using Animals in
Psychological Research
•
•
•
•
Wider Benefit to Society
We use animals when research on
humans would not be possible
So benefits to humans outweigh costs to
the animals
Animal Rights – animals have no
responsibilities to society, so therefore
don’t have any rights
Arguments Against Using Animals
in Psychological Research
•
•
Animals suffer – which goes against their
rights, often unjustifiably because the
knowledge gained is relatively limited.
Animals are qualitatively different (both
physically and mentally) from humans,
which makes it wrong for us to do
research on them when it will only give
limited insight into human behaviour.
Arguments Against Using Animals
in Psychological Research
•
•
Singer(1991) argues that there is no
justification in using animals for research and
those who do are guilty of speciesism. He
argues it is wrong to do research on any
organism that can feel pain, because an
animal’s pain is as important as human pain.
Regan(1984) mature mammals are “the
subject of a life” which has a value
independent of any usefulness to others, and
should be treated the same as humans
Starter
• In Pairs, split up the four studies below
and write brief details about two each (5)
• Harlow (1959)
• Gibson and Walk (1960)
• Jouvet (1967)
• Fossey (1983)
Starter (2)
• Join with another pair and decide an order
of ethical acceptability (1 most – 4 least)
• Lay out your order on an empty desk,
compare with another group
Group essay task
• Stick each research summary onto a separate
A3 sheet
• Group 1 – for each study make ethical
arguments that support the researchers in doing
the study.
• Group 2 - for each study make ethical
arguments that oppose the researchers in doing
the study.
• Refer to the bubble mark scheme to make sure
that the essay will hit the top band
Closer
• Randomiser chooses judge
• Each group puts up a 1 minute argument
for /against a study
• Judge decides
• Winning team first out the door