Week 4 : Research Ethics

Question 1

What is Research Ethics…

Answer 1

• ethics = moral system
• research may have unforseen consequences
• one does not have to be bad or evil person to perform unethical research

Question 2

What Constitutes Participation in Research…

Answer 2

• something they wouldn’t normally do in their day you get them to do
• public space does not require active participation (public vs private places)

Question 3

Three Ethical Principles

Answer 3

1. Respect
2. Beneficence
3. Justice

Question 4

Three Ethical Principles

1. Respect

Answer 4

• No one can be coerced or forced to participate in a research project
• People are to be treated as autonomous agents
• Vulnerable populations
• Some ppl who cannot give informed consent… under-age, diminished mental capacity, power dynamics
• requires that researcher’s protect individuals’ privacy & autonomy

Question 5

1- Respect

Informed Consent

Answer 5

• The freedom to say yes or no to participating in a research study
• All the possible risks & benefits must have been properly explained
• informed consent can be… written, verbal or implied

Question 6

Three Ethical Principles

2 - Beneficence

Answer 6

• do no definite harm
• minimize any possible harm
• anonymity (no identifying information)
• confidentiality… researchers do not have the legal rights to refuse to cooperated with law enforceent to protect their research subjects – Sometimes, the ethical & legal requirement is to not maintain confidentiality
• digital data can be lost, stolen or hacked
• deductive disclosure risk
• maximize any possible benefits

Question 7

Three Ethical Principles

3 - Justice

Answer 7

• the types of people in the study are the same types who will benefit from its results
• risks & benefits of the research be distributed equally among subjects
• e.g. Tuskegee syphilis study

Question 8

Research ethics board (REB)

Answer 8

• A researcher submits a research protocol, and the proposed research is reviewed either by the full REB or by a subset of staff members
• research question, intended methods & procedures, Target population, recruitment methods & possible benefits & risks
• proposed research must be approved before researchers proceed to recruit study subjects

Question 9

Human subject research

Answer 9

• the definition of this is still under debate and changes over time - balance between risk & rigour

Question 10

Deception

Answer 10

• sometimes researchers try to conceal the real research questions from the consent form
• sometimes this is tolerated
• appears in most ethnographic & experimental research
• must debrief

Question 11

Scientific misconduct

Answer 11

• conflicts of interest = their loyalies compromise the way they design, conduct or report their findings
• data fabrication & manipulation (p-hacking)

Question 12

Steps to enhance scientific integrity

Answer 12

• open-access publication
• transperency - publish the data
• Retraction
• Pre-registration
• Journal/publisher ranking and reputation

Question 13

Overview of famous research

Answer 13

• Facebook study = accessing data without permission
• Gang Leader for a day = lying to drug dealers
• Human Terrain System = Military studies of local people
• Experiments & torture at nazi concentration camps = Nuremberg code, risks & benefits
• Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment = deliberate harm to a vulnerable population
• Wichita Juru Study
• Milgram obedience experiment = shock one
• Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment
• Tearoom trade