Transcript ethics

Ethics
To do the “right thing”
you need to know
what the “right thing”
is.
ETHICAL ISSUES
PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTIONS
SOCIETAL NORMS
CODES OF BEHAVIOR
Rights and Obligations of the
Respondent
• The obligation to be truthful versus
The right to Privacy
• The “need” for Deception versus
The right to be informed
• The right to safety
Rights and Obligations of the
Researcher
• The purpose of research is research
• Objectivity
• Misrepresenting research
• Protect the right to confidentiality
of both subjects and clients
• Dissemination of faulty conclusions
• Advocacy research
Rights and Obligations of Client
Sponsor (User)
Ethics between buyer and seller
• Open relationship with research suppliers
• Open relationship with interested parties
• Privacy
• Commitment to research
• Pseudo-pilot studies
Advocacy Research

Research to support a specific legal claim
Pseudo-Pilot Studies

The researcher is told that the study is the first
of many in a more comprehensive study
Drug use
The police authority is conducting research into illicit drug
use. They conduct telephone surveys where they do not tell
respondents that they are the police.
Utilitarianism

The end justifies the means

Deception was justified because the subjects
would never have revealed information about
drug use if they knew that the police
commission funded the study
Moral idealism


A personal philosophy whereby conduct is
evaluated on the basis of adherence to or
violation of a “universal right ”
Deception is wrong. No rationale makes it right.
Ethical relativism



“It depends…”
Conduct is evaluated on the basis of context,
often cultural
“In this context it was OK to do. Deception is
consistent with the corporate culture of police
work. It would have been wrong for…”