ethical issues

Question 1

what are ethical issues?

Answer 1

Ethical issues occur when there is a conflict between the rights of participants and the needs of researchers

Question 2

what is informed consent?

Answer 2

Participants should be briefed with as much information as possible about a study to enable them to make an informed judgement as to whether to take part or not

Question 3

how do you take consent from children below the age of 16?

Answer 3

Parents or carers must be given enough information about the study to allow them to make an informed judgement on the child’s behalf

Question 4

how do you take consent from vulnerable people?

Answer 4

When vulnerable people do not have relatives or carers to give informed consent on their behalf, researchers have to seek consent from an ethics committee

Question 5

what is deception?

Answer 5

f

Question 6

when is deception used?

Answer 6

• there is no alternative
• We should seek approval from an ethics
  committee
• Debriefing does not justify deception

Question 7

what is debriefing?

Answer 7

We must always debrief participants after a study to allow them to ask questions and for the researcher to remind them again of their right to withdraw

Question 8

what is right to withdraw?

Answer 8

We must make participants aware that they are free to leave a study at any time, even if we’ve paid them! They can also, refuse permission for their data to be used

Question 9

what is protection from harm?

Answer 9

• Participants’ psychological and physiological safety must be ensured
• We cannot expose them to greater risk than their normal life experiences

Question 10

what is confidentiality?

Answer 10

Information about our participants are protected by the Data Protection Act

They must not be identifiable
in published research

Participants are given numbers or referred to by a code or their initials