The Psychologist’s Involvement in Military Interrogation.

Introduction

Psychologist’s involvement in military interrogations was made public in 2015 after the Hoffman reports in the United States. This report stated that most of the American psychologists were involved in the interrogation of detainees during the war on terror activities in the United States. The main Psychologist’s involvement in military interrogations was mainly aimed at making the process safe, ethical, and effective (Massoumi et al.,2020). The investigations instead found that psychologists were mainly involved in enhancing interrogation techniques, most of which included torture.

Psychologists contributed to the United States’ involvement in World War in which they offered advice mainly aimed at making interrogations effective, and this is evident from the Cold War, where psychologists were involved in interrogation techniques such as sensory deprivation and the use of mind control. (Beckner et al.,2022)

Human rights

Psychologists played a crucial role in violating the principles of the American Psychologists Association’s Ethical Code and the International Human Rights Regulations, which included torture. Psychologist’s involvement was used to support the torture of detainees. The psychologists never used appropriate means to integrate detainees but instead used forceful ways (Nunan et al.,2020). The psychologists helped in the use of torture during interrogation, and thus, they ended up violating human rights.

There was evidence indicating that psychologists helped in evaluating the suspects and also advised interrogators on how they could break them. Psychologists’ involvement thus resulted in human rights violations. These psychologists could help to prevent torture, but instead, they did not do so as was required.

Ethical implications

The ethical implications are one of the controversies that form a moral dilemma. However, it instead argued that using the interrogation techniques advised by psychologists increased the effectiveness of interrogations as it justified the use of the interrogation method, as the intelligence gathered could save several lives by applying them. Unitarianism theory, which is commonly applied to the topic, justifies the use of torture even though it helps to improve public safety and also prevent deaths from terror attacks (Beckner et al.,2022).

Psychologists’ involvement violates the principle of nonmleficencence in unethical practices, which informs psychologists not to cause any harm to the public. It does not also support the ethical practice code, which includes the APA Codes of Ethics. The Psychologist’s involvement in military interrogations may also make people destroy them, hence making it more difficult for psychologists to help people. Hence, it opposes Kantian principles of ethics because it hinders psychologists from fulfilling their professional duty.

Psychologist’s involvement in military interrogations might be right or wrong depending on the outcome after the practice. The related national security authorities and the CIA made it a practice, and hence, they implemented it during the Cold War, both World Wars and the War on Terror. It is still not evident that the participation of psychologists enabled the military to gather information that could not be obtained in any other way.

The United States Intelligence Committee ruled out that interrogation techniques were ineffective. Therefore, as the practice has various negative implications, it is evident that it does not benefit public safety. Thus, it renders psychologists’ participation in military interrogation unethical of the utilitarian and deontological ethical theories.

Discussion

From breaching a psychologist’s code of conduct to becoming villains instead of men’s health enthusiasts, psychologists have been involved in all manner of human tendencies since the dawn of modern civilization. This is evident from the use of torture by psychologists in getting information, as observed in the involvement of psychologists in military interrogation. Psychologists’ involvement is a serious issue that still attracts questions to the field of psychology. Though it enhanced interrogation, though the involvement of psychologists in military interrogation helped to assist the United States military in the twentieth century, it was deemed ineffective and unnecessary (Massoumi et al.,2020). psychologists tend to be harsh and cruel, thus interfering with the human rights law.

From this, it is evident that the use of torturous interrogation methods has violated the human rights code. The use of torture during interrogation instead of peaceful interrogation procedures led to human rights violations, thus rendering them inefficient.

References

Massoumi, N., Mills, T., & Miller, D. (2020). Secrecy, coercion and deception in research on ‘terrorism ‘ and ‘extremism.’ Contemporary Social Science, 15(2), 134-152.

Beckner, M. E., Main, L., Tait, J. L., Martin, B. J., Conkright, W. R., & Nindl, B. C. (2022). They are circulating biomarkers associated with performance and resilience during military operational stress. European journal of sports science, 22(1), 72-86.

Nunan, J., Stanier, I., Milne, R., Shawyer, A., & Walsh, D. (2020). Eliciting human intelligence: police source handlers’ perceptions and experiences of rapport during covert human intelligence sources (CHIS) interactions. Psychiatry, psychology and law, 27(4), 511–537.