In research, the term ethical concern is used to mean ethical standards that provide
directions when conducting research. Although psychologists are expected to consider the ethical
principles and regulations, some have deliberately ignored this requirement. This paper aims at
examining whether the benefits of each study outweigh the ethical benefits and how they could
have been conducted in a more ethical manner. Ethically Suspect Research
Looking at the monster study conducted by psychologist Wendell Johnson in 1963, the
orphaned children in one of the two groups received praise that they had normal speech pattern.
The other group was told that they were stutterers even though they were not (Hunt, 2017). Most
of the children in the stuttered group ended up suffering negative psychological effects and even
worse stuttered throughout their lives. Although the experiment aimed at proving a theory, the
ethical concerns involved outweigh its benefits. Ethically Suspect Research

The study could have been conducted in a more ethical manner if Johnson obtained
informed consent from all the 22 orphaned children compliant to section 8.02 of ethical
principles of psychologists and code of conduct. Johnson could also have provided information
to the orphaned children about the nature, results and conclusion of the study as expected in
section 8.08a and 8.08c. Johnson should have taken responsible steps in ensuring that the
experiment caused no negative psychological effects.
During the Stanford prison experiment which was led by psychologist Philip Zimbardo,
most of the students who played the role of prisoners forgot or misunderstood their rights to quit
the experiment (Zimpardo, 2026). Students who played the role of guards had been given a brief
orientation but they never followed instructions but instead became so abusive to an extent the experiment had to be shut down after only six days. The degree of abuse meted out on students who played the role of prisoners was greater than the benefits of the experiment. Ethically Suspect Research

Write a two-page (minimum 500 words) APA-formatted paper on ethically suspect research