SUBJECTS OR PARTICIPANTS? THE DEVELOPMENT OF ETHICAL PRINCIPLES IN RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMANS IN THE UNITED STATES

Abstract

Focused on the effects of prison life on individuals, Zimbardo and his associates built a simulated prison and recruited males to participate in the experiment. The males, all of whom were told that this was an experiment and that they were free to leave at any time, were randomly assigned a role as either a prisoner or guard. The planned two-week experiment ended after six days because of the extreme and disturbing psychological changes observed in the participants. The title of this article considers the possibility of a perceptual difference between viewing an individual as a research subject or a research participant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)