PSY 120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Society Of Jesus, Well-Founded Relation, Reality Television
Document Summary
In my opinion, it is unrealistic to expect reality television to be held to the same set of ethical guidelines as psychological research because they are so fundamentally different. The goal of research is to learn more about a certain subject. Referring to psychology specifically, researchers are seeking to further their understanding of human nature and behaviour. On the other hand, the goal of a tv producer is merely to provide entertainment. While technically they are showing a portrait of human nature, they aren"t aiming to gain knowledge or educate others. What both have in common is the use of real human participants being manipulated to achieve a goal. To answer the question, i stepped away from psychology and looked at ethics in general. Ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. (velasquez 1987).
