1) As male participants walked alone or in groups along a path to a parking lot, Harari, Harari, and White (1995) simulated a rape

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1) As male participants walked alone or in groups along a path to a parking lot, Harari, Harari, and White (1995) simulated a rape. A male confederate grabbed a screaming female confederate, put his hand over her mouth, and dragged her into the bushes. Observers recorded the number of participants who offered help. (Before participants could actually intervene, a researcher stopped them and told them that the "rape" was part of a study.)

- What ethical concerns arise in this study?

- How could you remedy these ethical concerns?

- How would your remedy affect the study's validity?

2. Schlenker, Forsyth, Leary, and Miller (1980) asked participants to make a videotaped speech on a topic with which they personally disagreed (not wearing seat-belts in cars) that would later be shown to children in a study of attitude change. After participant were paid for their help, they found out that observers questioned their morality, saying that the participant had been "bribed" to make the anti-seat-belt speech.

- What ethical concerns arise in this study?

- How could you remedy these ethical concerns?

- How would your remedy affect the study's validity?

3. Weiss (1971) was interested in the effects of controllability on responses to stress. Three rats, two of which received electric shocks, were run together. One rat in each group could avoid or escape shock by making a response, one rat in each group received shocks like the first rat but could not avoid or escape them, and the third rat was not shocked. Immediately after the experimental session, the rats were killed and dissected to look for effects of controllable vs. uncontrollable stress on ulcers.

- What ethical concerns arise in this study?

- How could you remedy these ethical concerns?

- How would your remedy affect the study's validity?

4. To study the effects of an unpleasant and demeaning social experience, Farina, Wheeler, and Mehta (1991) sent unsuspecting participants to a faculty member's office rather than to a research lab. When the participant arrived, a male professor in the office expressed anger and annoyance, criticized the participant for mistakenly reporting to the wrong room, and harshly directed the participant to the "correct" laboratory.

- What ethical concerns arise in this study?

- How could you remedy these ethical concerns?

- How would your remedy affect the study's validity?

5. In his classic study of factors that affect people's willingness obey authority figures, Milgram (1963) led participants to believe they were administering painful shocks to another participant (the other "participant" was actually a confederate who received no shocks). Participants were told to deliver an electric shock of increasing intensity each time the learner made a mistake. In some conditions, the "learner" screamed, pounded on the wall, then later fell silent. If the participant tried to stop delivering shocks, the experimenter told him that "the experiment must continue."

- What ethical concerns arise in this study?

- How could you remedy these ethical concerns?

- How would your remedy affect the study's validity?