00:00:00
in a top-secret operation in the 1950s
00:00:03
codenamed mk-ultra the cia administered
00:00:06
a powerful drug called
00:00:08
lsd to u.s citizens without their
00:00:10
knowledge
00:00:11
and the purpose of the study was to see
00:00:13
if lsd could be used as a type of weapon
00:00:15
to control
00:00:16
people's minds i know this sounds like a
00:00:19
movie script or some sort of dystopian
00:00:21
novel
00:00:21
but it actually happened and to me
00:00:24
this is a perfect case study and
00:00:26
starting point to examine ethics
00:00:28
in psychology research
00:00:31
[Music]
00:00:40
alright guys welcome to psych explained
00:00:42
in this video we're going to discuss
00:00:44
ethics and at its core ethics and
00:00:47
psychology research
00:00:48
is the understanding that participants
00:00:50
in the study have certain rights
00:00:52
and it's the researchers responsibility
00:00:54
to make decisions
00:00:56
with the participants rights in mind now
00:00:58
these rights
00:00:59
are typically laid out as guidelines or
00:01:01
principles that were developed by the
00:01:03
american psychological association
00:01:05
commonly known as the apa and the ones
00:01:08
we're going to talk about today
00:01:09
include informed consent protection from
00:01:12
harm
00:01:12
deception freedom from coercion
00:01:15
debriefing
00:01:16
and confidentiality slash anonymity
00:01:19
and as we talk about these principles
00:01:21
we're going to refer back to project
00:01:23
mkultra and see which ethical principles
00:01:26
were violated
00:01:27
and which ones were upheld so let's get
00:01:30
started
00:01:32
so before a study begins there should be
00:01:34
some sort of mutual understanding
00:01:36
between the researchers and the
00:01:37
participants regarding what's
00:01:39
about to happen and this essentially
00:01:41
lays foundation
00:01:42
for what we refer to as informed consent
00:01:45
and if we break down these two terms
00:01:47
you'll understand what informed consent
00:01:49
means inform means
00:01:51
to be made aware of right you're
00:01:52
informing somebody about what's about to
00:01:54
happen and consent means
00:01:55
to agree so the participants know what's
00:01:58
about to happen
00:01:59
and they agree to do it some sort of
00:02:01
signed document
00:02:03
if we break this down into bullet point
00:02:04
form here is kind of the main
00:02:06
takeaways first informed consent must
00:02:09
occur
00:02:09
before the study begins so not during
00:02:13
the study
00:02:14
not after the study participants should
00:02:16
know what the study is about
00:02:17
before they actually enter the research
00:02:19
study also and most importantly
00:02:22
is that participation should be
00:02:25
voluntary okay what it should be it
00:02:27
should be voluntary right voluntary
00:02:29
participation
00:02:30
as opposed to the opposite which would
00:02:32
be involuntary
00:02:34
participation right they should choose
00:02:36
and willingly
00:02:37
enter the study without being let's say
00:02:39
forced to do it and also with voluntary
00:02:41
participation
00:02:42
is they also should have the opportunity
00:02:44
to withdraw or leave the study
00:02:46
at any time right so if you're a
00:02:48
participant you say i don't want to be
00:02:49
here anymore right this makes me
00:02:50
uncomfortable i hate being here
00:02:52
well the researcher can't say well while
00:02:54
you sign the signed document
00:02:55
you have to stay if they want to leave
00:02:57
they want to withdraw that is part of
00:02:59
informed consent
00:03:01
also with informed consent knowing this
00:03:02
is before the study begins
00:03:04
participants should be made aware of the
00:03:06
purpose of the study right why are we
00:03:08
here
00:03:08
right what is we what are we hoping to
00:03:10
achieve by me signing up for the study
00:03:12
and even things like logistics you know
00:03:14
how long am i going to be here
00:03:16
what do i have to do am i taking a
00:03:18
survey so what are the logistics and
00:03:20
purpose as well
00:03:21
and lastly participants should be made
00:03:24
aware
00:03:24
of the risks involved you know will i be
00:03:28
harmed in any way will i feel anxious
00:03:29
will i feel stressed
00:03:31
so informed consent is all about
00:03:33
voluntary participation a participant
00:03:35
knows what they're about to get into and
00:03:37
then the study begins
00:03:39
so here's a question how does it connect
00:03:41
to our study
00:03:42
of project m k ultra now just to recap
00:03:46
and this is a true story the cia
00:03:48
purposely
00:03:50
bought the world supply of lsd to be
00:03:53
used as kind of an experimental truth
00:03:55
serum kind of a mind controlling drug
00:03:57
to see if it can actually work against
00:03:59
let's say an enemy
00:04:00
okay i know it sounds like dystopian
00:04:02
novel but it actually happens
00:04:03
now did the participants know they were
00:04:06
being given lsd
00:04:08
most of them did not so what would that
00:04:10
tell you that broke
00:04:11
informed consent there was no informed
00:04:13
consent there was no
00:04:14
voluntary participation so under each
00:04:17
one we'll explain how this connects to
00:04:19
say project mk ultra which is that
00:04:22
people
00:04:22
right they weren't participants because
00:04:24
they didn't sign up for anything these
00:04:25
human subjects people uh
00:04:29
were not aware right we're not
00:04:33
aware of where
00:04:36
they were given they
00:04:41
we're given lsd
00:04:44
right so it's not just that they were
00:04:46
not aware that they were given lsd
00:04:48
they also didn't even know they were in
00:04:49
a study in the first place a lot of them
00:04:51
just went to brothels
00:04:53
or a lot of them went to different
00:04:54
places and somebody just slipped a drug
00:04:56
inside
00:04:56
and they didn't even know what was
00:04:58
happening okay all right so there's
00:04:59
informed consent
00:05:01
all right what's next we have protection
00:05:04
from harm it's me
00:05:05
this is the most important one no matter
00:05:08
what research study you're doing you
00:05:09
really have one goal
00:05:10
right obviously your goal is to you know
00:05:12
advance scientific literature
00:05:14
but it's to make sure that nobody in
00:05:15
your study is harmed
00:05:17
now it's impossible to have no harm at
00:05:19
all right
00:05:20
you know you're going to feel stressed a
00:05:21
participant might feel anxious you can't
00:05:23
control that
00:05:24
so it's not about eliminating you know
00:05:26
all harm
00:05:27
the idea of this is you really want to
00:05:30
minimize harm right minimize
00:05:33
harm as much as possible but understand
00:05:36
harm comes in many forms right
00:05:40
harm can be physical right
00:05:43
an electric shock uh blood pressure goes
00:05:46
up right there's something
00:05:47
physically harmed with the participants
00:05:49
another type of harm you want to
00:05:51
minimize
00:05:52
is probably the most damning in terms of
00:05:53
long-term effects which is psychological
00:05:56
harm
00:05:56
right this would be like emotional
00:05:58
distress and all those type of things
00:06:00
so we want to minimize the harm now
00:06:03
here's the big question
00:06:04
how much harm is acceptable if you're
00:06:07
doing a really good study right and a
00:06:09
lot of this is subjective
00:06:11
right yes people participants might have
00:06:13
some harm but you can make an argument
00:06:15
well
00:06:15
it's for the betterment of scientific
00:06:17
research right so it's okay to harm a
00:06:19
little bit
00:06:20
if the benefits away the costs and this
00:06:22
is sometimes referred to as
00:06:24
cost benefits or risk benefit cost
00:06:28
benefit benefit analysis
00:06:32
which is essentially saying
00:06:36
analysis you know do the pros
00:06:40
outweigh the cons right just use your
00:06:41
hand right pros i weigh the cons
00:06:43
and once again it's quite subjective but
00:06:45
you have to make that argument if i use
00:06:47
my little drawing here
00:06:48
you have to make the argument that the
00:06:50
benefits of the study
00:06:52
outweigh the risks right the benefits
00:06:54
outweigh the risks and if you can argue
00:06:56
the benefits outweigh the risks that
00:06:58
were advancing scientific knowledge or
00:07:00
learning so much and yes
00:07:02
people might suffer a little bit well
00:07:03
then it might be worth it okay
00:07:05
all right so let's go back to our study
00:07:06
of project mk ultra
00:07:08
were people harmed absolutely
00:07:12
now some people take lsd for
00:07:13
recreational purposes right because they
00:07:15
want to it's fun in their minds and it
00:07:17
creates a euphoric experience but
00:07:19
imagine me giving this hallucinogenic
00:07:21
drug but you didn't know you took it
00:07:23
so there's so much harm being inflicted
00:07:26
on these participants or people who
00:07:27
didn't know they were taking it
00:07:29
so in this study there is a lot of harm
00:07:31
there was no protection from harm there
00:07:33
was tons of distress
00:07:35
and we kind of lay out you know a couple
00:07:38
of this idea of distress emotional
00:07:39
distress there was
00:07:40
you know fear right why am i feeling the
00:07:43
way i do right they didn't know they
00:07:44
were taking lsd and
00:07:46
anxiety uh fear anxiety and panic
00:07:50
uh and even hallucinations right it's a
00:07:52
strong hallucinogenic drug
00:07:54
so there was a lot of uh distress and
00:07:57
discomfort and fear and anxiety
00:07:59
that occurred uh there was absolutely no
00:08:02
protection
00:08:02
from heart okay what's our third one our
00:08:06
third one
00:08:06
is deception now this one is a little
00:08:08
interesting because
00:08:09
deception can be used but only in
00:08:12
certain circumstances but let's actually
00:08:14
dive into what
00:08:14
deception actually means so deception
00:08:19
you know a synonym means
00:08:22
to mislead okay
00:08:27
mislead okay or you might say
00:08:30
you know to hide the truth
00:08:33
hide the truth okay
00:08:37
and it's important to note that
00:08:39
sometimes deception is used and it is
00:08:41
important
00:08:42
right there are a lot of famous studies
00:08:44
and we'll talk about these in a moment
00:08:45
where you have to kind of hide the truth
00:08:47
or or to mislead participants
00:08:49
because it's just part of the study and
00:08:52
without it
00:08:52
you're not going to get the results you
00:08:53
need you know just for example some very
00:08:55
famous studies in psychology
00:08:57
that have used deception are like
00:08:59
milgram shock experiments
00:09:02
and you're more than welcome to research
00:09:03
milgram shock experiment
00:09:05
but the participants didn't know that
00:09:08
the equipment was fake and they didn't
00:09:09
know
00:09:10
that they were not really electrocuting
00:09:13
the other participants
00:09:14
you could of course look that up and
00:09:16
another famous study is the ash
00:09:17
conformity study
00:09:19
right in which participants were led to
00:09:20
believe that uh you know
00:09:22
everybody around them were part of the
00:09:24
study but everybody around them were
00:09:25
really
00:09:26
part of the research team they were
00:09:27
called confederates a confederate is
00:09:29
somebody who pretends to be part of a
00:09:31
study
00:09:31
but they're really part of the research
00:09:33
team so generally speaking according to
00:09:35
the apa
00:09:36
deception is really not allowed okay
00:09:40
but it is allowed okay so we'll say
00:09:43
you know deception
00:09:46
you know is permitted is allowed
00:09:49
is allowed if okay
00:09:53
if and what is that if once again
00:09:57
cost benefit analysis if you can prove
00:09:59
that one nobody's really being harmed
00:10:01
right you can kind of eliminate that
00:10:02
after the study but also that the the
00:10:04
benefits away that you're advancing
00:10:06
scientific literature that is really
00:10:08
important
00:10:08
for the scientific and psychological
00:10:10
community that deception
00:10:12
is is meaningful for the study so in
00:10:15
general
00:10:15
we don't want to mislead our
00:10:16
participants but sometimes you do
00:10:18
if the benefits outweigh the costs so
00:10:21
was anybody
00:10:22
misled or was there hiding the truth in
00:10:25
our project
00:10:26
mk ultra well there was a lot of it
00:10:29
in one big example participants were led
00:10:32
to believe that they were taking an
00:10:33
experimental drug
00:10:34
to treat schizophrenia what they didn't
00:10:37
tell them was that it was lsd
00:10:39
and they took this drug every single day
00:10:41
for a year
00:10:42
right so that's an extreme example of
00:10:44
deception
00:10:45
another example of let's say you know
00:10:47
misleading or hiding the truth
00:10:48
is that a lot of the studies took place
00:10:51
at a brothel and a brothel is where
00:10:53
prostitutes and sex workers work
00:10:55
and they would lure men in and the men
00:10:57
didn't realize
00:10:58
is that the prostitutes were working for
00:11:01
the cia
00:11:02
and they would slip lsd in their drink
00:11:04
and then they would be interrogated
00:11:06
right what do you know and
00:11:07
and how does this lcd make you feel so
00:11:09
in our study
00:11:10
you know coming back to project mk ultra
00:11:12
where is deception
00:11:14
is that the prostitutes and the brothels
00:11:16
the sex workers
00:11:18
workers were actually confederates
00:11:22
they were part of the research team
00:11:24
helping out the cia
00:11:27
veteran right so there are a lot of
00:11:31
examples of deception this is not one
00:11:33
that would be good
00:11:34
all right so what's another apa ethical
00:11:36
principle we have
00:11:38
coercion now the same way we broke down
00:11:40
deception let's break down coercion
00:11:43
to coerce right as a verb
00:11:46
and coerce essentially means to force
00:11:50
or pressure someone pressure someone
00:11:54
to do something against their will
00:11:57
right they don't want to do it but
00:11:59
they're being unwittingly
00:12:00
forced involuntarily to do something
00:12:03
this is why we often say
00:12:04
freedom from coercion right freedom of
00:12:06
being forced to do something against
00:12:08
your will
00:12:08
and this might be in a research study it
00:12:10
could be just being in a study
00:12:12
you know being a study i don't want to
00:12:14
be here but i'm going to make you be
00:12:15
here anyways
00:12:16
right take this bill or it could be
00:12:18
something like just
00:12:20
staying in a study right maybe you want
00:12:21
to leave but they won't let you leave so
00:12:24
there's a lot of coercion it could be
00:12:25
also
00:12:25
saying or do something that you don't
00:12:28
want to do now
00:12:28
how would a researcher coerce somebody
00:12:31
to do something right how would that
00:12:32
actually happen
00:12:33
well typically it deals with threats
00:12:37
okay
00:12:38
some sort of threats now threats
00:12:42
do not have to be you know somebody puts
00:12:46
a gun to your head it doesn't have to be
00:12:47
so obvious
00:12:48
a threat could be somebody uses their
00:12:50
power right the cia
00:12:52
is a pretty powerful agency their power
00:12:54
or influence over you
00:12:56
or maybe if they threaten you by saying
00:12:58
if you don't do x
00:12:59
i will do y so there's a lot of coercion
00:13:01
that takes place
00:13:03
so how would this apply to project
00:13:04
mkultra
00:13:06
well people were threatened that if they
00:13:08
didn't do what the ci wanted them to do
00:13:10
there would be consequences so in one
00:13:13
big example
00:13:14
i'll write this down here people were
00:13:18
threatened
00:13:20
the rat end
00:13:23
[Music]
00:13:24
to extend
00:13:28
their trip let me explain what this
00:13:31
means
00:13:33
people did not realize that they were
00:13:36
given lsd
00:13:37
and when they were being interrogated to
00:13:39
see how the drug was affecting them
00:13:41
the cia officials might have said
00:13:43
something like if you don't
00:13:44
follow or listen to our directions we're
00:13:46
going to make your psychedelic trip
00:13:48
worse we're going to give you more lsd
00:13:50
now realize they didn't even know what
00:13:51
was happening they didn't know they were
00:13:52
taking lsd so somebody tells you
00:13:54
you know we're going to threaten you and
00:13:55
make this this trip this bad experience
00:13:57
worse
00:13:58
that would be a form of coercion all
00:14:00
right another way you could think about
00:14:02
this of coercion
00:14:03
is that some of the people who are given
00:14:05
uh lsd
00:14:06
were mentally ill or drug addicts in
00:14:09
other words
00:14:10
they weren't in the right state of mind
00:14:12
to one give informed consent
00:14:14
but they were being pressured to do
00:14:15
something because they didn't know
00:14:17
otherwise they weren't in the right
00:14:18
state of mind
00:14:19
and they were pressured by the influence
00:14:21
and power of
00:14:22
these people all right so what are our
00:14:25
last two
00:14:26
let's talk about debriefing now we know
00:14:28
informed consent
00:14:29
occurs before study begins what about
00:14:32
debriefing
00:14:33
debriefing is the opposite it occurs
00:14:36
after the study
00:14:37
ends okay and what is the point of
00:14:40
debriefing
00:14:42
there's a lot of things that happen in a
00:14:43
study and debriefing is the opportunity
00:14:46
for the researchers to really let it all
00:14:48
out right here's what we did here's why
00:14:51
we did it
00:14:51
do you have any questions participants
00:14:53
can ask questions
00:14:55
and you know seek advice or seek help
00:14:57
this is where all the things happen to
00:14:59
make sure that everything is cool
00:15:00
everything is calm after the study ends
00:15:02
and if we break it down this occurs once
00:15:05
after the study
00:15:06
participants might explain once again
00:15:08
the purpose of the study
00:15:10
you know here's what we did and why we
00:15:12
did it they might also
00:15:14
reveal any deception
00:15:19
okay so yes you were deceived but here's
00:15:22
why we did it and then lastly you know
00:15:25
do you have any questions
00:15:27
you know do you have any questions about
00:15:29
the study or the data or why we're here
00:15:31
uh the questions could also be in the
00:15:33
long in the long lines of you know
00:15:35
i don't really feel good right i feel
00:15:37
anxious why do i feel anxious
00:15:39
and it's at this opportunity where's the
00:15:41
researcher's responsibility
00:15:42
to return people to kind of a normal
00:15:44
baseline from
00:15:46
before the study began right if his
00:15:48
participant is feeling anxious or
00:15:49
stressed
00:15:50
during the debriefing session is the
00:15:52
reason needing to calm them down
00:15:54
and making sure that you know if you
00:15:55
need any extra help what do you need how
00:15:57
can i help you if there is any issues
00:15:59
okay
00:16:00
now how could this apply to our project
00:16:02
mk ultra
00:16:03
and by the way please research this this
00:16:05
operation it is
00:16:06
absolutely fascinating and once again it
00:16:08
sounds like a dystopian novel but it
00:16:10
actually happened
00:16:10
of course there was no debriefing right
00:16:12
it wasn't like you know here's why we
00:16:14
gave you lsd
00:16:15
and have a nice day right there was
00:16:17
absolutely no
00:16:19
follow-up right not how you doing
00:16:22
hey by the way we gave you lsd three
00:16:24
months ago how you doing right there was
00:16:26
none of that it was just kind of here
00:16:27
you go go with dr mary way and we'll see
00:16:30
you later okay
00:16:31
all right so what's our last ethical
00:16:32
principle we have confidentiality
00:16:35
and anonymity what both of these have in
00:16:37
common
00:16:38
is about participants rights
00:16:40
participants
00:16:44
have certain rights now what are these
00:16:47
rights
00:16:48
well let's break down what these two
00:16:50
terms means confidentiality
00:16:52
and anonymity starting with anonymity
00:16:55
and you might have heard the word
00:16:56
anonymous
00:16:57
which is essentially saying the same
00:16:59
thing which is we don't know who the
00:17:00
participants are
00:17:02
right we don't know your name we don't
00:17:03
know your address we don't know your
00:17:05
social security number
00:17:06
you're just a data point you're just a
00:17:08
number in our study
00:17:10
right in other words if you ever fill
00:17:12
out a survey people don't know who you
00:17:13
are
00:17:14
you just gave information right that's
00:17:16
anonymity
00:17:17
but if you're in a study and you have to
00:17:20
give
00:17:20
information you have to make sure that
00:17:22
you keep that information
00:17:24
private right we don't want the name dr
00:17:26
kushner out there in the public
00:17:28
if i participate in a research study and
00:17:30
there's maybe some controversial
00:17:32
or very you know private results so we
00:17:35
have
00:17:35
keeping information private and not
00:17:38
really knowing who we are so
00:17:39
participants have rights those rights
00:17:41
are they
00:17:42
the rights to privacy
00:17:46
and to keep information
00:17:50
you know if you have to actually do give
00:17:52
your name to keep the information
00:17:54
in a secure environment in a secure
00:17:59
environment okay that might be for
00:18:02
example
00:18:03
keeping the information in a database
00:18:05
and a computer that nobody can get a
00:18:07
hold of right
00:18:08
it's not going on facebook it's not
00:18:09
going on social media no one has access
00:18:12
to this information so the whole point
00:18:14
of this
00:18:16
box is privacy uh security
00:18:19
and making sure that we protect our
00:18:21
participants so
00:18:22
how does confidentiality and anonymity
00:18:25
connect to
00:18:26
our project mk ultra was there a breach
00:18:29
of confidentiality and anonymity
00:18:31
well at first they did a really good job
00:18:33
because they didn't want the public to
00:18:34
know what happened right they did a
00:18:36
really good job
00:18:36
securing the names of the people who
00:18:39
took the drugs
00:18:40
but over time as you see this headline
00:18:43
from washington post
00:18:44
the information eventually got out right
00:18:46
this covert operation
00:18:48
was made public and the public was
00:18:51
horrified
00:18:51
that this actually occurred and if you
00:18:54
look at this
00:18:55
today and you want to go online and look
00:18:56
up mk ultra you can actually see the
00:18:58
people
00:18:59
or at least some of the people who are
00:19:01
given the drugs
00:19:02
a lot of them are pretty famous some of
00:19:04
them are like whitey bulger who is the
00:19:06
boston crime boss and mobster uh ken
00:19:09
kisi the
00:19:10
author of one flew over the cougars nest
00:19:11
there are a lot of famous people who are
00:19:13
part of these trials
00:19:14
so yes there might have been some
00:19:15
privacy but unfortunately
00:19:18
is there identities
00:19:22
identities identities
00:19:25
uh we're not kept secure
00:19:31
right because we know today who
00:19:34
was in the study okay so yeah maybe it
00:19:36
was private first but today
00:19:38
we do know all right guys thanks for
00:19:40
watching i really hope you learned
00:19:41
something
00:19:42
now it's important to know the apa is
00:19:44
not the only organization in the world
00:19:46
to protect participants rights or have
00:19:48
some sort of code of ethics
00:19:49
we also have the institutional review
00:19:52
board or the irb
00:19:54
and they exist in research labs and they
00:19:56
exist on college campuses and
00:19:57
universities
00:19:58
and when you do a study you submit your
00:20:00
proposal to them
00:20:01
and this committee will determine if
00:20:03
essentially the pros outweigh the cons
00:20:05
right is there any risk
00:20:07
to participants so there are a lot of
00:20:08
things out there that protect the rights
00:20:10
of participants
00:20:11
don't forget to like the video subscribe
00:20:13
and i'll see you next time
