Research Ethics

Dr bk majola
 Outline

• Ethical Principles
• Harm to Participants
• Informed Consent
• Invasion of Privacy
• Deception
• Ethical Dilemmas – For Examples
 Ethical Principles

 Ethics can broadly be described as the

principles of conduct that govern a person,
group of people, organisation or profession.
 Ethics codes contain what constitutes ethical
behaviour.
 When planning research, a researcher should be
able to predict possible consequences of their
research, therefore ethics must be considered.
 Ethical Principles

• Ethical principles in research can be

discussed around four areas:
• i) harm to participants
• ii) informed consent
• iii) invasion of privacy
• iv) deception.
 i) Harm to Participants
 Harm can include physical harm, harm to
participants development or self-esteem, harm
to career prospects/future employment or
stress
 It is not always possible to identify whether or
not harm might occur, nevertheless research
participants should be protected
 In qualitative research, issues of confidentiality
and anonymity are important considerations
 ii) Informed Consent
 Informed consent requires that participants be
fully informed about the research process.
 Participants should be informed of the aim
and implications of the research project in a
manner that they understand.
 Participants should be given as much
information as they need to make an informed
decision about whether or not they wish to
participate in the project.
 iii) Invasion of Privacy
 Privacy is linked to the idea of informed consent as
the participant surrenders their right to privacy to
an extent when they agree to be involved in a
study.
 Secret ways of getting information (e.g. hidden
cameras) are deemed to be violations of privacy.
 Secret methods do not give participants an
opportunity to refuse the invasion of privacy and
participants might reveal things they would
otherwise not have.
 iv) Deception
 Deception happens when researchers present their
research as something other than what it is (withholding
information/misleading participants).
 Some degree of deception appears common as
researchers tend to want to limit participant’s
understanding of what their research is about (e.g. to get
more natural responses/avoid bias in the respondent’s
behaviour).
 Participants should be given an opportunity to know e.g.
that they will be recorded.
 Deceptive research cannot receive full informed consent.
Ethical Dilemmas – For Examples

 During the Willowbrook study on children

diagnosed with mental retardation (1963-
1966), these children were deliberately
infected with the hepatitis virus. The children
were fed bits of stools from infected people
and later more purified virus was injected
 Consider this example. What might be a
major ethical concern with such a study?
 Ethical Dilemmas – For Examples
 Laud Humphreys’ ‘Tearoom sex study’ – Humphreys
observed that a majority of arrests were occurring of men
committing “impersonal sexual acts with one another in
public restrooms”. He decided to observe the actions of these
men. He pretended to participate in the activities by ‘keeping
watch’ for the police. With some men, he gained their
confidence and got them to tell him about the rest of their
lives. He secretly followed some. He also appeared at the
homes of some claiming to be a health-service interviewer
and interviewed them about e.g. their marital status, jobs etc.
Humphreys published his dissertation with the information.
 Consider this example. What might be a major ethical
concern with such a study?
 Ethical Dilemmas – For Examples
 In 2012, Facebook manipulated nearly 700,00
users’ newsfeeds to see if this would affect
their emotions. In the experiment, emotional
words were hidden in the newsfeeds for about
a week. The changes to the newsfeeds were
made without users’ knowledge or explicit
consent.
 Consider this example. What might be a
major ethical concern with such a study?
Ethical Dilemmas – For Examples
 Milgram’s study of obedience – the study focused on the conflict
between obedience to authority and personal conscience. Milgram
wanted to investigate whether Germans were particularly obedient to
authority figures. He advertised in a newspaper for men to participate
in a study of learning. They were paid for showing up. Participants
drew lots to find out who would be ‘teacher’ and who would be
‘learner’. The draw was fixed so that the participants were always
teachers and Milgram’s associates (pretending to be real participants)
were learner’s. The learner was taken to a room and had electrodes
attached to his arms. The teacher and researcher went to a room next
door with an electric shock generator with a row of switches from 15
volts (slight shock) to 450 volts (severe shock). The teacher was
instructed to administer a shock each time the learner made a
mistake. The learner gave wrong mistakes on purpose. When the
teacher refused, the researcher gave a series of orders, insisted he
continue. 65% of the participants continued to the highest level,
450volts. All participants continued to 300 volts..
 Questions

 Describe four ethical principles that should be

considered when planning a research project
 Consider the group assignment task. What do
you plan to do during the study to ensure that
you do not violate any ethical principles?
Questions/Comments
Thank you