Back on April 12 of this year, there was a brief thread on TIPS on the Primetime broadcast about a replication of Milgram's study. There was a line in the report that indicated that it had been vetted by the APA. Linda Woolf contacted the APA for an explanation of the degree of their involvement in the ethical decision-making on this experiment (some of which is excerpted below). Steve Behnke claimed that, "as far as I know, there was absolutely no vetting whatsoever, and certainly no vetting of the ethical aspects." In the process of looking for information on this tape, I just came across a description of the process of receiving ethical review for the study at: http://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/getArticle.cfm?id=2264.
In the relevant portion, Jerry Burger, the experimenter on this study, writes "to address these concerns, I created a list of individuals who were experts on Milgram's studies and the ethical questions surrounding this research. I offered to make this list available to the IRB. More important, Steven Breckler, a social psychologist who currently serves as the executive director for science at the American Psychological Association, graciously provided an assessment of the proposal's ethical issues that I shared with the IRB." So while Steve B. (for Behnke) as Director of the APA Ethics office didn't provide any ethical analysis of the project, it seems that Steve B. (for Breckler) as executive director for science at APA did provide a positive assessment of the proposal's ethical issues that was given to the IRB for their deliberations. I think the description given by Burger certainly qualifies as a vetting of the experiment despite APA's protest. There may have been some confusion about a distinction between an ethical analysis of the TV program and the study but, in the messages below they seem to be clearly saying that the experiment received no ethical review from APA and that clearly seems to be untrue. This may all be old news to everyone but it was news to me and, given the recent thread on using this tape in classes, I thought it might be relevant for teachers to know the extent of APA's involvement in the ethical review. Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Professor of Psychology John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (479) 524-7295 http://www.jbu.edu/academics/hss/faculty/rfroman.asp "Pete, it's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart." - Ulysses Everett McGill ------------------------------ [tips] Re: Milgram replication on ABC From: Linda Woolf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) <[email protected]> Reply-To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) <[email protected]> Date: Apr 12 2007 - 9:36am Hi Paul, When I first read the press release about the program I contacted Dr. Steve Behnke, Director of the Ethics Office at APA to ask about the "vetting." Here is Dr. Behnke's reply followed by an email by Rhea Farberman, who handles all of the Association's press releases. The "staff person" mention is Rhea Farberman's email, I believe, was in the Science Directorate. Best, Linda **************** Hi Linda, Good to hear from you-as far as I know, there was absolutely no vetting whatsoever, and certainly no vetting of the ethical aspects. I believe there was some communication with the producer, but no vetting, approval/disapproval, or anything of that nature by APA. I'm copying Rhea on this message-Rhea, can you confirm that my account is correct? Thanks so much, Steve ***************** Steve, Linda - ABC's claim that APA "vetted" the experiment is incorrect and very misleading - we are demanding a correction. An APA staff person consulted with the segment producers on the subject matter but told them to have the researcher's university IRB review the study - which was done. We will post a clarifying statement tomorrow. Rhea Paul Okami wrote: To Chris, and anyone else who might know something about this program: What does it mean that ABC "got the approval" of the APA for this broadcast? How is the APA in a position to offer such approval, and what does it mean, anyway? Is there some documentation somewhere which includes the APA stamp of approval for the show? For example, does the Monitor discuss it or some such? I was unable to see the program, so I don't know if this issue was discussed. Thanks, Paul Okami -- Linda M. Woolf, Ph.D. Past-President, Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, & Violence (Div. 48, APA) Professor of Psychology and International Human Rights Coordinator - Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Webster University 470 East Lockwood St. Louis, MO 63119 Main Webpage: http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/ HYPERLINK "mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]"[EMAIL PROTECTED] "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's (and woman's) best friend. . . . Inside a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips ---
