Transcript Dr Peter Lugosi - Ethics and Research

Ethics and Research
Peter Lugosi
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
What are ethics?
A set of prescriptive moral rules and
behavioural codes relating to what is right or
wrong, or appropriate and inappropriate.
Different approaches to ethics
•
Concerned with universal moral
principles and duties towards others.
(Deontological)
•
Concerned with the consequences of
specific actions. This is usually assessed
through a cost/benefit analysis.
(Utilitarian)
Respect
for persons
and
autonomy
Beneficence
and
nonmaleficence
Ethical
Principles
Trust
Open, honest,
inclusive
relationships
Following Brewster Smith (2000)
Justice
Fair distribution
of benefits;
fairness of
processes
Fidelity and
scientific
integrity
Why are ethics important?
1. Moral reasons
•
Researchers have obligations to respondents/
participants, funding bodies and research
organisations, and a broader stakeholder
community.
•
Misrepresentation, harm, discomfort, bias,
misplaced loyalty and conflicts of interest.
Why are ethics important?
2. Instrumental reasons
• Risk management (physical, psychological,
social, economic, and legal risks)
• Ethical review part of the research
development process (and its associated
bureaucracy)
Why are ethics important?
3. Pragmatic reasons
Questioning your ethical position leads you
to question your aims, objectives, your
motivations and the way you set about
realising all this (i.e., your methods).
Ethics as a prism
Ethics as a prism: Illumination or
distortion?
Research aims
and objectives
Methods
Relationships
Participants
Outcomes
Audience
Risks/benefits
/contributions
Trust
Justice
Beneficence
Nonmaleficence
Respect for autonomy
Fidelity and integrity
Reshaped
Research aims
and objectives
Methods
Relationships
Participants
Outcomes
Audience
Risks/benefits
/contributions
Planning for research and
choosing the topic
-Has it been explored? If so, by whom and how? If not, why
not?
-Who are the stakeholder; who may it harm and/or benefit
and how?
-Funding, politics and conflicts of interest.
-What are the potential consequences of your work?
-How can these risks be avoided, negotiated/ minimised or
justified?
Deciding on the methodology
-Minimising risks and maximising data
generation
-Ethics, validity and triangulation
-Action research: data gathering vs
intervention
Entering the field
-If you are deciding to enter someone's 'space',
how are you going to achieve this?
-When and where are you going to approach
them?
-Again, are there risks involved, and if so, who
does the research place at risk, and how?
-What boundaries exist and how can or should
they be overcome?
-Do they in fact reveal something more important?
Explaining work and cooperation
-Informed consent
-Maintaining informed consent over time
-Clarity and adequacy of explanation
-Routines, spiels and scripts
Understanding the relationship
between researcher, the field and
respondents/participants
-Friends, colleagues, informants, participants,
respondents or subjects?
-Reciprocity
-Revelations and confessions
-Deals and promises (sharing results, insights etc)
-Access, overt/covertness, informed consent and
sampling
Collecting and recording data
-Practicalities of fieldwork. How can you
accurately record information, especially
about social events?
-Do your respondents know and approve of
what you have recorded?
-Non response and room for silence (in
qualitative and quantitative research)
Storing data
-Is your data sensitive?
-Can it put people at risk if it falls into the
hands of certain people?
-How are you going to protect your data,
your interests and the interests of your
informants?
Analysing, interpreting and
communicating findings
-Honesty with data and interpretation (biases,
convenient readings etc)
-Participative inquiry/analysis, source checking
-Presenting identities, personal or 'troubling'
information?
-Sharing your results or conclusions with
individuals or organisations?
Analysing, interpreting and
communicating findings
-Anticipating feedback and reactions
-Ownership of data and publishing
-Implications of research and interpretation
Closing thoughts
Ethics as intellectual inquiry (or self-indulgence), institutional
practice or a critical prism
It can be destructive and a threat: creating unnecessary
boundaries and obstacles
It can also be a constructive process and opportunity: encouraging
rigour and nuanced understanding of the research process, its
stakeholders and outcomes
Questions of ethics are increasingly unavoidable
Be aware of institutional discourses; use existing literature/cases,
consult with a range of colleagues, peers and “participants” as
points of reference to develop your “moral career”
Questions?
Further reading
Beauchamp, T., Faden, R., Wallace, J., & Walters, L. (Eds.). (1982). Ethical issues in social scientific
research. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Bulmer, M. (ed.) (1982) Social Research Ethics: An Examination of the Merits of Covert Participant
Observation, London: Macmillan.
Brewster Smith (2000) Moral foundations in research with human participants. In B. Sales and S. Folkman
(Eds.), Ethics in Research with Human Participants (pp. 3-10). Washington: APA.
Christians, C. G. (2000). Ethics and politics in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.),
Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.) (pp. 133-155). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
de Laine, M. (2000) Fieldwork, Participation and Practice: Ethics and Dilemmas in Qualitative Research.
London: Sage.
Duncombe, J., & Jessop, J. (2002). ‘Doing rapport’ and ethics of ‘faking friendship.’ In M. Mauthner, M.
Birch, J. Jessop, & T. Miller (Eds.), Ethics in qualitative research (pp. 107-122). London: Sage.
Finch, J. (1984). It’s great to have someone to talk to: The ethics and politics of interviewing women. In C.
Bell, & H. Roberts (Eds.), Social researching: Politics, problems, practice (pp. 70-87). London:
Routledge.
Homan, R. (1991) The Ethics of Social Research. London: Longman.
Further reading
Kimmel, A. J. (1996). Ethical Issues in Behavioral Research: A survey. Oxford: Blackwell.
Leo, R. A. (1995). Trial and tribulations: Courts, ethnography, and the need for an evidentiary privilege for
academic researchers. The American Sociologist 26(1): 113-134.
Lugosi, P. (2006) Between Overt and Covert Research: Concealment and Revelation in an
Ethnographic Study of Commercial Hospitality. Qualitative Inquiry 12(3): 541-561.
Oakes, J. M. (2002). Risks and wrongs in social science research: An evaluator’s guide to the IRB.
Evaluation Review, 26(5), 443-479.
Punch, M. (1986). The politics and ethics of fieldwork. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Punch, M. (1994). Politics and ethics in qualitative research. In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.),
Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 83-97). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Qualitative Inquiry (2007) Special issue on research ethics Volume 13, Number 3 (This
journal has several other articles on the subject)
Shaffir, W. B. and Stebbins, R. A. (eds.) (1991) Experiencing Fieldwork: An Inside View of
Qualitative Research, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.