RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

ETHICAL DILEMMAS 67
interests of science and the thoughtful, humane
treatment of people who, innocently, provide the
data’ In other words, the problem again hinges
on the costs/benefits ratio.
The pervasiveness of the issue of deception
becomes even more apparent when we remember
that it is even built into many of our measurement
devices, since it is important to keep the
respondent ignorant of the personality and
attitude dimensions that we wish to investigate.
There are many problems that cannot be
investigated without deception and, although
there is some evidence that most subjects accept
without resentment the fact of having been
duped once they understand the necessity for it
(e.g. the Milgram (1974) obedience-to-authority
experiment: see Chapter 21), it is important to
keep in the forefront of one’s mind the question
of whether the amount and type of deception is
justified by the significance of the study and the
unavailability of alternative procedures.
The use of deception resulting in particularly
harmful consequences would be another occasion
where ethical considerations would need to be
given priority. An example here would be the
study by Campbell et al. (1964) which created
extremely stressful conditions by using drugs to
induce temporary interruption of breathing (see
Box 2.7).
Box 2.7
An extreme case of deception
In an experiment designed tostudytheestablishmentof
aconditionedresponseinasituationthatistraumatic
but not painful, Campbell et al.(1964)induced–through
the use of a drug – a temporary interruption of
respiration in their subjects. The subjects’ reports
confirmed that this was a ‘horrific’ experience for
them. All the subjects thought they were dying. The
subjects, male alcoholic patients who had volunteered
for the experiment when they were told that it was
connected with a possible therapy for alcoholism, were
not warned in advance about the effect of the drug,
since this information would have reduced the traumatic
impact of the experience.
Source:adaptedfromKelman1967
Kelman (1967) has suggested three ways of
dealing with the problem of deception. First, it is
important that we increase our active awareness
that it exists as a problem. It is crucial that
we always ask ourselves the question whether
deception is necessary and justified. We must be
wary of the tendency to dismiss the question as
irrelevant and to accept deception as a matter of
course. Active awareness is thus in itself part of
the solution, for it makes the use of deception
afocusfordiscussion,deliberation,investigation
and choice.
The second way of approaching the problem
concerns counteracting and minimizing the
negative effects of deception. For example, subjects
must be selected in a way that will exclude
individuals who are especially vulnerable; any
potentially harmful manipulation must be kept
to a moderate level of intensity; researchers must
be sensitive to danger signals in the reactions of
subjects and be prepared to deal with crises when
they arise; and at the conclusion of the research,
they must take time not only to reassure subjects,
but also to help them work through their feelings
about the experience to whatever degree may be
required. The principle that subjects ought not to
leave the research situation with greater anxiety or
lower levels of self-esteem than they came with is
agoodonetofollow(theissueofnon-maleficence
again). Desirably, subjects should be enriched by
the experience and should leave it with the feeling
that they have learned something.
The primary way of counteracting negative
effects of research employing deception is to
ensure that adequate feedback is provided at
the end of the research or research session.
Feedback must be kept inviolable and in no
circumstances should subjects be given false
feedback or be misled into thinking they are
receiving feedback when the researcher is in fact
introducing another experimental manipulation.
Debriefing may include the following (Cooper and
Schindler 2001: 116):
explaining any deception and the reasons for it
describing the purposes, hypotheses, objectives
and methods of the research
Chapter 2