Psychology and Its Animal Subjects

Abstract

Dr. Emmanuel Bernstein of Saranac Lake, NY, and I began PsyET A 2 years ago. While the group is independent of the American Psychological Ass ciation (APA), all of its present 160 members are also members of APA. For a number of reasons, we felt andcontinue to feel the need for an independent group within our profession that will concern itself with psychology's treatment of animals. At the time of PsyET A's inception, psychological research was being singled out for criticism on ethical grounds, be­ yond its proportionate share as but one of the areas of scientific research (e.g., P. Singer's Animal Liberation). For example, it was claimed that psychology had had more than its share of painful experiments (as discussed in J. Diner's Physical and Mental Suffering of Experimental Animals). Within the profession, there was little response or apparent recognition of this criticism, the actual facts of the matter, or the complex ethical issues that had begun to be raised in moral philosophy (e.g., T. Regan and P. Singer, Animal Rights