Ethics in Psychology: The Learned Helplessness Experiment

Ethical Concerns in the Learned Helplessness Experiment

• The experiment raises numerous ethical concerns due to the deliberate infliction of pain and distress on animals, violating animal welfare principles.
• The dogs were subjected to electric shocks and intentionally induced psychological harm, potentially causing long-term damage, without their ability to provide informed consent.
• The experiment exploits the vulnerability of animals and the power imbalance between researchers and subjects.
• The justification for causing harm is questionable, especially considering that alternative, less harmful methods might have been available to study learned helplessness.
• The study does not address the long-term impacts on the dogs' well-being, and the generalizability of results from animal studies to human psychology is debatable.
• The experiment risks desensitizing both researchers and society to animal suffering in the pursuit of scientific knowledge.
• The need for stringent ethical guidelines in animal research is critical to ensure that potential benefits are carefully weighed against the harm caused to subjects.