Military Applications

1
Military Applications

• Ethical Issues PY3

2
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?

3
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

4
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• What contribution has psychology made?
• Explaining warfare
• Participating in warfare/military objectives
• The effects of warfare
• Separate your notes into these sections

5
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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.

6
Watch clip
7
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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)
8
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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

9
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications
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

10
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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
11
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• Bowlby (1938)
• aggression constant feature across time and
  history-combination of evolutionary pressures and
  psychodynamics
• 4 causes
• Possession
• Frustration
• Arrival of strangers
• Attack of scapegoat
• What we witness are defence mechanisms-projection
• What the Nazis feared most in themselves they
  projected onto the Jews.
• But most nations peaceful most of the time
• Catharsis-forces build to a release of energy (
  Freudian)
• Thresholds- there are periods of gradual and
  sudden change
• ( evolutionary)

12
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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

13
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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?

14
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 2. USES OF PSYCHOLOGY IN WAR
• 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

15
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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)

16
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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

17
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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.

18
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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)

19
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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

20
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• Sensory Deprivation -Hebb study
• Most Ps lasted 2 days one lasted 5 days
• Very stressful
• Experienced sensory distortions
• Watson 1980- studied USA and Canadian armys use
  of SD
• hallucinations
• cant tell if awake
• when released overwhelmed and rather talkative
  and susceptible to propaganda!

21
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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?

22
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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?

23
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• Brain washing
• Korean war 1950s
• 7,000 US POWs- about 1/3 collaborated and made
  propaganda films for Koreans
• Harsh prison conditions- indoctrination sessions
• Many Americans died but none of Turkish did
• Why was this? Interesting to psychologists

24
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• Dr Vincent Example of brainwashing
• 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.

25
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• Propaganda
• 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 Germanys
  economic problems
• British propaganda Germans ate babies, boiled
  enemies for soap, raped women

26
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• Psychological processes in propaganda
• - Yale study group
• Learning theory
• Sleeper effect
• Selective attention
• Principles of persuasion

Advertising is propaganda!
27
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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

28
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications
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
29
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 3. EFFECTS OF WAR
• 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 later-study WW2 vets
  Hunt (1997)
• Not just soldiers but civilians

30
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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.

31
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• 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 its
  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.

32
PY3 Ethical Issues Military
Applications

• References
• Google for images
• Banyard P and Flanagan C,2005 Ethical Issues and
  Guidelines in Psychology. Routledge p89-96
• Banyard P, 1999 Controversies in Psychology.
  Routledge p11-29