Methodological And Ethical Issues Which Are Apparent In This Study

Discuss the methodological and ethical issues which are apparent in this study. How have the findings impacted the psychological field?

One methodological issue with the Bain et al refrigerator study is that type of experiment used. Having used a laboratory experiment, all variables were under strict control and this does not reflect the true nature of the situation the children were placed in. Children trapped inside a refrigerator would not escape by pressing a panel on the floor, thus the experiment has features which do not reflect an accurate representation of a real life situation (Bain et al, 1958). One ethical issue with this study is the prevention of psychological harm. All participants in this study were children aged two to five

These findings have impacted the psychological field in a manner of ways. One finding was that four of the children later talked about how they felt uncomfortable in the dark room (Bain et al, 1958). This will have had an impact on the psychological field as it clearly displays the lasting effects of a stressful situation on young children. Thus, studies of this sort will have had an impact upon on the guidelines which the British Psychological Society (BPS) produce for all psychological studies to follow. The ethical guidelines now state that the monitoring of the willingness of the child should be applied to every study (British Psychological Society, 2014). Thus, when a child shows distress they should be immediately removed from the study. In addition to this, the findings show that after the test, a lot of the children discontinued wetting the bed, taking a bottle and there were no negative changes in sleep pattern (Bain et al, 1958). Therefore this may have impacted the psychological field as the features of the experiment may have lead to these neutral or positive changes in

In relation to the prevention of psychological harm, the children should have been immediately released after an allocated amount of time if no behaviour, distressed behaviour or aggressive behaviour was displayed. One of the child participants sat in the enclosure for a total of 15 minutes with no attempt of escaping (Bain et al, 1958). Therefore, if the study was to be conducted in 2016, after one minute of no activity, the child should be removed from the enclosure. Also, at the first sign of distress or discomfort the child should be immediately removed from the experiment and returned to their parents or caregiver and comforted until they are happy. Another ethical issue within the initial experiment was deception. To resolve this issue in 2016, the television in the playhouse should not be included at all as by the television turning off, this could have caused distress for the child as they may have expected it to continue playing. Therefore to avoid deception, there should be nothing within the playhouse that could distract the child or make them upset by having it turned off, such as the television. The children should be instructed or encouraged to go inside the blank playhouse and the only thing they should be able to do is escape the playhouse by means of pushing the door. In regards to gaining consent, the British Psychological Society state that