Ethical Issues

COURSE INFO

TERM                         Fall 2023                                                    TIME     S 1.00 – 3.00 PM

Dr. Mohamed Hadji    mohamed.hadji@univ-saida.dz

mohamedhadji1983@gmail.com

Lesson 11   ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

 

10. Ethical Considerations

10.1 Examples of Unethical Practices

 

The term "ethics" pertains to questions of right and wrong. When researchers contemplate ethics, they must introspectively inquire whether it is "right" to conduct a specific study or carry out particular procedures – essentially, determining if their research aligns with ethical principles. Are there certain types of studies that should not be undertaken? Absolutely. For instance, it is deemed unethical when a researcher:

 

r  Requires a group of high school sophomores to sign a form in which they agree to participate in a research study.

r  Poses sensitive questions to first-graders without obtaining the consent of their parents to question them.

r  Engages in the deletion of data that does not support the hypothesis.

r  Mandates university students to complete a questionnaire about their sexual practices.

r  Involves a group of eighth-graders in a research study that may inflict psychological harm without informing them or their parents of this fact.

 

Each of these examples involves one or more violations of ethical practice. When researchers contemplate ethics, the fundamental question to ask in this regard is, "Will any physical or psychological harm come to anyone as a result of my research?" Naturally, no researcher desires any harm to befall the subjects in a research study. Given the paramount importance of this issue, which is often overlooked, a comprehensive discussion becomes imperative.

In a broader sense, ethics also pertains to questions of right and wrong. By behaving ethically, a person is doing what is right. However, the concept of what is "right" in the context of research demands closer examination. What does it truly mean to be "right" in the realm of research?

10.2. Three main ethical principles

There are three important issues or principles on which any researcher should address when he is conducting his research.

 

10.2.1. Protecting participants from harm

It is a fundamental responsibility of every researcher to exert all efforts within their power to ensure the protection of participants in a research study from physical or psychological harm, discomfort, or danger that may arise due to research procedures. This represents perhaps the most critical ethical decision of all. Any study that is likely to cause lasting or even serious harm or discomfort to any participant should not be conducted unless the research has the potential to provide information of extreme benefit to human beings. Even when this may be the case, participants should be fully informed of the dangers involved and, in no way, should they be required to participate. A further responsibility in protecting individuals from harm is obtaining their informed consent if they may be exposed to any risk. (Figure 4.1 shows an example of a consent form.) Fortunately, almost all-educational research involves activities that are within the customary, usual procedures of schools or other agencies and, as such, involve little or no risk. Legislation recognizes this by specifically exempting most categories of educational research from formal review processes. Nevertheless, researchers should carefully consider whether there is any likelihood of risk involved, and if there is, provide full information followed by formal consent by participants (or their guardians). Three important ethical questions to ask about harm in any study are:

1.      Could people be harmed (physically or psychologically) during the study?

2.      If so, could the study be conducted in another way to find out what the researcher wants to know?

3.      Is the information that may be obtained from this study so important that it warrants possible harm to the participants?

These are difficult questions, and they deserve discussion and consideration by all researchers.

10.2.2. Ensuring the confidentiality of research data

Once the data in a study have been collected, researchers should ensure that no one else (other than perhaps a few key research assistants) has access to the data. Whenever possible, the names of the subjects should be removed from all data collection forms. This can be done by assigning a number or letter to each form, or subjects can be asked to furnish information anonymously. When this is done, not even the researcher can link the data to a particular subject. Sometimes, however, it is important in a study to identify individual subjects. When this is the case, the linkage system should be carefully guarded.

All subjects should be assured that any data collected from or about them will be held in confidence. The names of individual subjects should never be used in any publications that describe the research. Moreover, all participants in a study should always have the right to withdraw from the study or to request that data collected about them not be used.

10.2.3. When is deception of subjects justified?

The issue of deception is particularly troublesome in research. Many studies cannot be carried out unless some level of deception of subjects takes place. It is often challenging to find naturalistic situations in which certain behaviors occur frequently. For example, a researcher may have to wait a long time for a teacher to reinforce students in a specific way. It may be much easier for the researcher to observe the effects of such reinforcement by employing the teacher as a confederate.

At times, it is deemed better to deceive subjects than to cause them pain or trauma, as investigating a particular research question might require. The famous Milgram study of obedience serves as a good example. In this study, subjects were ordered to give increasingly severe electric shocks to another subject whom they could not see sitting behind a screen. What they did not know was that the individual to whom they thought they were administering the shocks was a confederate of the experimenter, and no actual shocks were being administered.