At 9:11 AM -0600 12/12/07, Rick Froman wrote: >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.
First, the article was in an APS journal, not APA. Second, the actual quote is below -- judge whether this constitutes 'vetting': ....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. -- The best argument against Intelligent Design is that fact that people believe in it. * PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Psychology Dept Minnesota State University * * 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 * * http://krypton.mnsu.edu/~pkbrando/ * ---
