Transcript Military Applications - TheoryofThundersharkz

Military Applications
Ethical Issues PY3
PY3 Ethical Issues
Military Applications
Is war wrong?
• Spend 5 minutes discussing with a couple
of friends whether you think war is wrong.
• In all situations?
• Does it depend what is at stake?
• Should there be rules of engagement?
• Is this a question psychologists should be
concerned with?
Power point objectives
The purpose of this power point is to:
• Introduce to you ideas about ethics and
warfare but particularly the involvement of
psychologists in warfare
• Describe to you some studies that have
been undertaken regarding warfare
• Help you discuss if these studies are
reliable, valid and ethical
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What contribution has psychology made?
1. Explaining warfare
2. Participating in warfare/military objectives
3. The effects of warfare
Separate your notes into these sections
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1. EXPLAINING WARFARE
• war and peace seem to be part of
the human condition
• for most of us it is “ acted out” on
TV and so getting a grip on the
reality of it is difficult but for others
it is very real
• The media show us amusing or
heroic stories but it is neither
• Most modern warfare is a
combination of days of boredom
and short bursts of terrifying
action
• Warfare changes over time and
has cultural aspects to it.
Watch clip
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Is war is natural? Explaining Warfare.
• Evolutionary psychologists would agree that aggression
has survival value and an adaptive purpose.
• But this rarely includes death( Not so adaptive!)
• A range of ideas have been offered
Male competition (intra sexual selection)
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William McDougall
“The instinct of pugnacity”
• an eugenics enthusiast
• survival of fittest- removes the weak
• anthropological evidence- tribes in Borneo
were cited, those most aggressive had the
best huts and showed survival qualities
such as bravery
• The removal of war =degeneration of
society
• If there is no war societies need selective
breeding
• This was the basis of the 1920/30s Nazi
campaign against Jews, homosexuals,
gypsies, Catholics……..
• Not really an idea we would subscribe to
today
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Sigmund Freud
In 1932 Freud started a correspondence with Einstein in which he
outlined his thinking about warfare. ( As a Jew, Freud was exiled in
London during WW2,Einstein another Jew also had plenty to say! )
Freud said:
• communities can overthrow tyrants
• communities can be aggressive to each other
• some wars good-establish large empires
• imposed order and peace
• persecute minorities/civil liberties
• league of nations/UN can play that role
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• Humans have 2 instincts
• Conserve and unify/destroy and
kill
They can not suppress these instincts only divert them into warfare
People can be separated into leaders and the led -need to
educate the elite to be more rational leaders and less emotional
The more rational- eventually the more pacifist
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Bowlby (1938)
•
aggression constant feature across
time and history-combination of
evolutionary pressures and
psychodynamics
•
4 causes
1. Possession
2. Frustration
3. Arrival of strangers
4. Attack of scapegoat
•
What we witness are defence
mechanisms-projection
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What the Nazis feared most in
themselves they projected onto the
Jews.
•
But most nations peaceful most of the
time
1. Catharsis-forces build to a release
of energy ( Freudian)
2. Thresholds- there are periods of
gradual and sudden change
( evolutionary)
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Mead
• anthropologist
• Claimed war is not an inevitable part of
our nature
• It is an invented institution like marriage
( also to protect property)
• Eskimos (sic) are aggressive, even
cannibalistic but there is no war-there are
also few or no possessions or property.
They are mostly nomadic.
• Other nations could deal with conflict
better
• There have been instances where
conflict has been settled without war e.g.
end of cold war/iron curtain/Cuban
missile crisis
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Summary
• What do you think about these ideas?
• Are they reliable?
• Based on scientific evidence?
• Are they valid?
• Do they add anything to our understanding
of warfare and human behaviour?
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2. USES OF PSYCHOLOGY IN WAR
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up to 1960s it was all about human resources
mass IQ testing
psychometric testing- matching skills to jobs
staff welfare designing plane controls/sex ed for
soldiers
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Use of animals
Skinner trained pigeons to navigate missiles
during WW2
They learnt to discriminate ships
• never used as too unreliable
Sea gulls were also trained to detect
submarines
• classical conditioning was used to shape
their behaviour
• dogs and dolphins were trained during
WW2 using psychological techniques to
carry bombs and search danger zones
• dogs are used today like sniffer dogs to
search dangerous buildings ( a dogs life is
considered less valuable than a soldiers)
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After 1960s
• change of direction- power of
psychology realised by military.
• think Guantanamo Bay and
rendition!
• change of direction-psy ops
used to fight guerrilla fighters,
terrorists
• Interested in the effects of
captivity interrogation techniques
and brain washing
• It is all very secret! Most info
comes out of USA but by no
means the only country using
psy ops or the worst country
• Watson (1980) - reviewed 7,500
studies
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Japanese prisoners of war study
• Japanese not prepared for numbers so
guards left to develop own
strategies/control
• POWs were crowded,dirty,there was no
food and they were worked until died
• torture was common- beatings/stand in
sun/pull out nails/prop eyelids open in
sun
• Afterwards former POWs showed a lack
of emotional response, were depressed,
and had impaired memory and poor
concentration
• A study of the effects of captivity, of
physical hardship/brutality.
• Interesting for psychologists from both
points of view- the guards and the
prisoners.
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Zimbardo (1970)
Stanford Prison
Study
• Linked to brutality of Japanese
guards in WW2-not civilian
prisons
• Prison simulation/ abandoned
• funded by US navy
• surprise arrest like
POW/hostage
• Depersonalisation-hoods
• creativity of guards
• numbers not names
(POW)
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Interrogation
• in some armies military
offence to collaborate- not
going to tell the enemy their
secrets!
• torture not that effective
• Soldiers trained to withstand
pain and die before they
divulge anything
• Military now more interested
in psychological techniques
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Sensory Deprivation -Hebb
study
• Most Ps lasted 2 days one lasted 5
days
• Very stressful
• Experienced sensory distortions
• Watson 1980- studied USA and
Canadian army’s use of SD
• hallucinations
• cant tell if awake
• when released overwhelmed and
rather talkative and susceptible to
propaganda!
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Sensory Disorientation
• Used by British army in NI
described by Shallice (1973)
• Victims suffered disorientation
through-torture/sleep
deprivation/drugs/hunger and
sensory deprivation
• They were
questioned/hooded/had to
listen to loud white noise/stand
for 16 hours/had beatings/were
sleep deprived/and little food.
• Devastating effect on humans
• Research is used to help
prepare soldiers/get enemies
to talk-what if info saves lives?
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• Write down your thoughts so far on this
topic.
• How should psychologists be involved in
warfare?
• Are psychological explanations of warfare
meaningful and useful?
• What ethical issues are there with
psychologists involvement in war?
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Brain washing
• Korean war 1950s
• 7,000 US POWs- about
1/3 collaborated and
made propaganda films
for Koreans
• Harsh prison conditionsindoctrination sessions
• Many Americans died but
none of Turkish did
• Why was this? Interesting
to psychologists
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Dr Vincent: Example of brainwashing
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French doctor working in China
Arrested and taken to a Chinese
Communist Party re education centre
Lifton (1960) descriptive study
3 year programme of brainwashing or
re-education?? Depends on your view!
Arrest
Depersonalisation
Struggle
Leniency
Loss of control
Study
Change
Has modern application in training of
terrorists in UK.
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Propaganda
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Research into the process is difficult
as hard to detect- the best
propaganda is undetectable
Includes mild distortions of already
held views and persuasive stories.
Psychological processes are
important here such as perception,
attention and attribution.
Conducting cultural analysis- makes
it more powerful -hit right buttons.
Often psychologists do this in
anthropological studies.
Power lies in control of media-e.g..
Gulf War Hometown News
Programme
The USA in Iraq avoid estimates of
Iraqi casualties
Nazis and Jews- Jews were to blame
for Germany’s economic problems
British propaganda Germans ate
babies, boiled enemies for soap,
raped women
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Psychological processes in
propaganda
• - Yale study group
1. Learning theory
2. Sleeper effect
3. Selective attention
4. Principles of persuasion
Advertising is
propaganda!
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psy ops
• US operations in Vietnam
studied
• Was used against
Vietnamese people
• encouraged defection in
Vietnamese army
• over 7million leaflets/156000
posters/month 2000 hours
of broadcasting
• stories of defected fighters
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Obtaining cultural info to influence
Vietnamese
e.g. targeted grieving practices 49/100
days after major battles
research into cultural differences in
disgust and smell
stink bombs were used to flush out
guerrillas
-smell of cooking fat- Burma
Gave away toothbrushes and toilets-win
“Hearts and Minds” of the people
It has been rumoured that Barney the
Dinosaur music was blasted at
internees at Guantanamo Bay
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3. EFFECTS OF WAR
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Report on nuclear war BPS
(1985)
• Used to plan civil defence
• One area of interest is Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder or
what used to be called Shell
Shock
• -3 parts
Re experiencing/avoidance or
numbing/increased arousal
Delayed, cyclic even 50 yrs laterstudy WW2 vets Hunt (1997)
Not just soldiers but civilians
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Summary- some questions to think about
• Not enough in the exam to describe this/need to
discuss issues and processes
• Questions likely to ask about ethical issues of use
of psychology in warfare
• Moral justification of war is not really a
psychological issue
• Uses of science in war to expedite/mediate the
effects are ethical issues discussed by
psychologists
• Questions will ask you for two real life
applications so this material will be worth 7.5
marks or 250 words.
• The other application we will look at is the media.
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• Should psychologists promote peace or help humans deal
with war better and may be shorten the length of it?
• American Psychological Association has branch of
military psychology – is this a good thing?
• Military research attracts funding. Can lead to progresses
in scientific endeavour/knowledge?
• Helps soldiers work conditions?
• Cultural sensitivity itself is good- use of it isn't- can you
separate the research from it’s future use?
• Is any research likely to be reliable given the arena in
which it is carried out?
• Complete a mind map of your thinking on these questions
and the ethical issues of using psychology in warfare.
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References
• Google for images
• Banyard P and Flanagan C,2005 Ethical Issues
and Guidelines in Psychology. Routledge p8996
• Banyard P, 1999 Controversies in Psychology.
Routledge p11-29