The so-called "Monster study" or study of the monster, was one of those incomprehensible acts in human research that, today, continues to shake us.Another example of how far it can go the human being most devoid of ethics and logic, always protected by the supposed good of science and the desire for knowledge.
What happened in Iowa at the beginning of 1939 would have gone unnoticed if the subjects of this study were adults.Simple volunteers who had freely offered to the most unfounded of the experiments.But it was not so, the so-called "monster study" had as main experimental subjects creatures among 5 and 15 years.
We will explain it to you below.
A study without ethics or logic: the «monster experiment»
Europe was already shaking at the dawn of a possible war, a conflict that would not affect the United States until a few years later.we hated to say that in those months of 1939 everything went smoothly in the country, and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, that could justify what was done at the University of Iowa that year, only the yearning for A man's curiosity.
His name was Wendell Johnson, a speech pathologist interested in finding out the causes of stuttering.This was a time when he still had the idea For example, if a child had the classic autism spectrum disorder, it was due to an incorrect education by the parents.The same thing happened with stuttering.What was Mr.Johnson's theory? That if a person was stuttering or presenting speech problems, it was clearly due to a learned and/or induced behavior at home.
Surely you already know what the purpose of the experiment was.his best student at the University of Iowa, the young Mary Tudor , who did not object to being a part and to be the "inducing and executing hand" of that study.
They were chosen 22 children between 5 and 15 years of an orphanage .Children without family and without any legal protection to protect them from what was going to happen to them.In fact, nobody asked what it was going to be that study carried out by a speech pathologist, without ethics or regrets.And what was the final purpose of his study? To show that if a person was stuttering, it was precisely because his education had induced him.By parents who put clear barriers to the child's speech to develop normally.
To give proof of it Wendell Johnson and Mary Tudor divided the children into two groups.The first, over 5 months, received positive feedbacks every time they spoke, supporting their good expression and fluency The other 11 children, those who had the bad luck of belonging to the experimental group of "punishment", received as you can imagine severe punishments, criticisms and psychological abuse every time they spoke, since January 1939 until May of that same year.
The dire results of the "monster experiment"
Mr.Wendell Johnson's study could not be more fruitless The children of the experimental "sanctioning" group did not develop stuttering.They were marked for life due to serious personality disorders, anxiety, panic, for withdrawn behaviors and, evidently, many stopped speaking.
You may wonder why it is known as a “monster experiment or study.” It was other students at the University of Iowa who gave it this nickname knowing what they were doing.And given the conclusions, the professor Johnson did not dare to publish the results; if it did, the university itself could be discredited.What happened immediately was the almost instantaneous escape of her best student: Mary Tudor, young man who had helped him in the study.
To our surprise, what happened at that university was not really published until 2003, when the "New York Times" did a complete report on its history.Four years later, it was the University of Iowa itself that had to start paying compensation to all those children.A total of 925,000 dollars.
Something unjustifiable and, no doubt, hard to forget.
If you have been interested in this story, also discover what happened in World War II with the famous Lebensborn project.
Image: GemMoth, theirhistory, theirhistory
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