Lavin, Michael wrote:
> Tips colleagues 
> The research by Milgram and Zimbardo contributed much to what we know about 
> situational variables and willingness to submit to group pressure. Those 
> classic experiments can no longer be conducted today  because of ethical 
> concerns;  

The Milgram study was replicated last year and shown on ABC "Primetime." 
See it here: http://tinyurl.com/2njwm9 

The Zimbardo study was "replicated" courtesy of American troops in Iraq 
(with a few "hints" from the CIA) in about 2004.

> I am sure that those ethical concerns played a preeminent role in the 
> establishment of research review boards like IRBs. 

Yes, partly, but research ethics was on the march from the time of the 
Nuremberg Trials, and probably would have made it into social science 
research in the 1970s even without Milgram and Zimbardo. They a 
currently forging their way into the humanities. Oral history is the 
beachhead. See  http://ahp.yorku.ca/?p=264

> IRBs are critical today but does anyone ever ponder that  classic research 
> ended with the implementation of IRBs. It is quite ironic that it was the 
> results of classic research that terminated classic research.  I sort of 
> conjure up the musical metaphor utilizing  McLean's "The Day the Music Died." 

There is a growing protest movement against the "mission creep" of IRBs, 
which many psychologists feel are coming to interfere with legitimate 
research in situations where no one is being protected from much of 
anything. See the 2005 Illinois White Paper -- 
http://www.law.uiuc.edu/conferences/whitepaper/summary.html -- and 
Zachary Schrag's blog --  http://institutionalreviewblog.blogspot.com/

Regards,
-- 

Christopher D. Green
Department of Psychology
York University
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
Canada

 

416-736-2100 ex. 66164
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.yorku.ca/christo/



"Part of respecting another person is taking the time to criticise his 
or her views." 

   - Melissa Lane, in a /Guardian/ obituary for philosopher Peter Lipton

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