Conclusion- Ethics in Conditioning Research

Conclusion- Ethics in Conditioning Research

Conditioning experiments on children are unethical. They are conducted with full disregard for the welfare of the child. It would also not have been effective if the research had been carried on adults. The research was likely to be conducted on orphans who are obtained for free from orphanages. This implies that a certain discriminated crop of individuals are considered more appropriate for such research. Today, many bodies have come up with methods of eliminating such issues. First, it is required that those conducting research on people and animals get certification from certain research bodies. This then prevents similar situations from arising. Secondly, researchers are required to obtain complete and informed consent. When these things are not done, ethics are violated. Children are not capable of giving informed consent. This then excempts them from research processes.

Pavlov’s conditioning experiments have been conducted on children in the past. Pavlov himself conducted experiments on children. Supposedly, Pavlov conducted surgical procedures in children to be able to tell if children would be conditioned by conducting two events at the same time. One event would prepare the child of the incoming reward while the other would be the reward itself. Initially, the child would be uninformed about the two concepts. He would get the preparation action. In the case of Pavlov, the child would get a push on the hand. At the same time, the child would be offered a cookie through a well laid mechanism (Into the mind: Mind control, 2010). Eventually, the child would associate the push with the reward. This would then lead to the belief that the push and the reward were associated.

Pavlov’s procedures would not meet the ethical standards today. The fact that the children were being conditioned rather than being let to behave independently is controversial and unethical. The very experiments also, as mentioned earlier, do not have any regard for human life as far as the children being experimented on are concerned. While the research may be advantageous for the rest of the population, it is a violation of ethics to use to expose others to harsh and inhuman treatment even for the gain of others.

References

Into the mind: Mind control [Video file]. (2010). In Films on Demand. Retrieved November 8, 2014, from http://digital.films.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=7967&xtid=43512