Ethics consists of norms or standards of behavior that guide ethical alternative about our behavior and our relationships with others. The aim of ethics in research is to make sure that nobody is harmed or suffers adverse consequences from research activities. This objective is sometimes achieved. However, unethical activities are pervasive and embody violating nondisclosure agreements, breaking respondent confidentiality, misrepresenting results, deceiving individuals, invoicing irregularities, avoiding legal liability and more so.
ETHICAL TREATMENT OF PARTICIPANTS: The foremost ethical
consideration in relation to research design is protecting the rights of the
respondent or subject. The respondent has different rights to be protected
irrespective of the means of gathering the data either through experiment,
interview, observation or survey. In general, research ought to be so designed
as a respondent does not suffer physical harm, discomfort, pain, embarrassment,
or loss of privacy. To safeguard against these, the researcher ought to observe
some guidelines. (a)
Explain to the respondents the benefits expected
from the research, (b) Explain respondents’ rights and protections, (c) Obtain the informed consent of the
respondents
Whenever
an interviewer contacts a respondent directly he should introduce with his or
her name, the name of the research organization, and indicate the purpose and
benefit of the research. This puts respondents at ease, they know to whom they
are speaking, and it motivates them to answer questions sincerely. Understanding
well the reasons for being asked questions improves cooperation through honest
disclosure of purpose. Many a times
the actual purpose and benefits of the study or experiment must be concealed
from the respondents to prevent introducing bias. The necessity for concealing
objectives leads to the problem of deception
While designing a research, the investigator ought to keep in mind the following issues:
Deception :Deception takes place when the respondents are made known only truth partially or when the truth is fully concealed. A section of people believe this should never happen. Others put forward two reasons for deception. (1) In order to prevent biasing the respondents before the survey or experiment and (2) to protect the confidentiality of a third party (e.g., the client). Deception should not be used in an attempt to improve response rates. There should be a balance between the benefits to be gained and should the risks to the respondents. Whenever possible an experiment or interview should be redesigned to reduce dependence on deception. In addition, the respondents’ rights and well-being must be protected sufficiently. The American Psychological Association emphasizes that the use of deception is inappropriate unless the study’s expected scientific, educational, or applied value justify the use of deceptive techniques and equally effective alternatives that do not use deception are not feasible.
Informed Consent: The researcher is required to secure informed consent from respondents fully disclosing the procedure of the proposed survey or other research design before requesting permission to proceed with the study. Some persons are of the opinion that a signed consent form must be obtained. In case of children, it is advisable to have a parent or other person with legal standing sign a consent form. When doing research with medical or psychological consequences, it is better to have a consent form. If there is a possibility that the data could harm the respondent or if the researchers offer only limited protection of confidentiality, a signed form describing the types of limits should be obtained. For most businesses research, oral consent is sufficient. In situations where respondents are intentionally or accidentally deceived, they should be debriefed at the completion of the research
Questioning Respondents: Debriefing explains the truth to the participants and describes the major goals of the study and outline the reasons for using deception. In cases where severe reactions occur, follow up medical or psychological attention should be provided to ensure the participants remain unaffected by the research. It is a good practice to offer respondents follow-up information even if research does not deceive the respondents. For surveys and interviews respondents can be offered a report of the findings. Usually, they will not demand extra information. Occasionally, however, the research will be of particular interest to a respondent. A simple set of descriptive charts can be generated for such an individual. This retains the goodwill of the respondent, providing an incentive to participate in future research projects.
For experiments, all subjects should be questioned. This corrects any deception that occurred and it allows subjects to put the experiment into context. Debriefing usually consists of a description of the hypothesis being tested and the purpose of the study. Subjects who were not deceived still benefit from the debriefing session. They will be able to understand the reasons for which the experiment was created. The researchers also gain important insights into the thinking process of subjects about during and after the experiment. This may require modifications in future research designs. In this case also subjects in experiments and observational studies be offered a report of the findings.The majority of subjects do not resent temporary deception and may have more positive feelings about the value of the research after debriefing. Nevertheless, debriefing is an ethically complex issue and need to be tackled with sensitivity and care for research participants.
Right to Privacy: Privacy laws differ from country to country. All individuals have a right to privacy and researchers must honour that right. The surety of privacy is important to retain not only validity of the research but also to protect respondents. Thus, the confidentiality of survey answers is an important aspect of the respondents’ right to privacy. Once the guarantee of confidentiality is provided, protecting that confidentiality is essential. Researchers should confine access to information that reveals names, phone numbers, locations, or other identifying information. Researchers who have signed nondisclosure, confidentiality forms may be allowed access to the information. Individual interview response sheets should be inaccessible to everyone except the editors and data entry personnel. Usually, data collection instruments should be destroyed once the information in a data file. Data file that facilitate to reconstruct the profiles or identification of individual respondents should be carefully controlled. For very small groups, data should not be made available because it is often easy to pinpoint a person within the group. Employee job satisfaction survey feedback in small units can be applied to identify an individual through descriptive statistics alone. But privacy is more important than confidentiality. A right to privacy means that one has the right to deny to be interviewed or to refuse to answer any question in an interview. Potential participants have a right to privacy in their own homes, including not admitting researchers and not answering telephones. They have the right to engage in private behavior in private places without fear of observation. To address these rights, ethical researchers ask permission to interview respondents. They inform respondents of their right to refuse to any question. They schedule field interview only during day light or they call in advance to set an appointment. Telephone interviews are restricted in time and occur solely during reasonable hours. Observation is restricted to public behavior.
On-line Data Collection: The conduct that results in resistance from respondents- interference, invasiveness in their lives, denial of privacy rights- has encouraged researchers to investigate topics on line that have long been the principal method of offline investigation. The novelty and convenience of communicating by computer has led researchers to on-line search of abundant sources of data. However, this raises the question how we gather data online, deal with subjects, and present results. Yet questions remain on defining specific ethical behavior for cyber research, sufficiency of existing professional guidelines, and the question of ultimate responsibility for respondents.
While designing a research, the investigator ought to keep in mind the following issues:
Deception :Deception takes place when the respondents are made known only truth partially or when the truth is fully concealed. A section of people believe this should never happen. Others put forward two reasons for deception. (1) In order to prevent biasing the respondents before the survey or experiment and (2) to protect the confidentiality of a third party (e.g., the client). Deception should not be used in an attempt to improve response rates. There should be a balance between the benefits to be gained and should the risks to the respondents. Whenever possible an experiment or interview should be redesigned to reduce dependence on deception. In addition, the respondents’ rights and well-being must be protected sufficiently. The American Psychological Association emphasizes that the use of deception is inappropriate unless the study’s expected scientific, educational, or applied value justify the use of deceptive techniques and equally effective alternatives that do not use deception are not feasible.
Informed Consent: The researcher is required to secure informed consent from respondents fully disclosing the procedure of the proposed survey or other research design before requesting permission to proceed with the study. Some persons are of the opinion that a signed consent form must be obtained. In case of children, it is advisable to have a parent or other person with legal standing sign a consent form. When doing research with medical or psychological consequences, it is better to have a consent form. If there is a possibility that the data could harm the respondent or if the researchers offer only limited protection of confidentiality, a signed form describing the types of limits should be obtained. For most businesses research, oral consent is sufficient. In situations where respondents are intentionally or accidentally deceived, they should be debriefed at the completion of the research
Questioning Respondents: Debriefing explains the truth to the participants and describes the major goals of the study and outline the reasons for using deception. In cases where severe reactions occur, follow up medical or psychological attention should be provided to ensure the participants remain unaffected by the research. It is a good practice to offer respondents follow-up information even if research does not deceive the respondents. For surveys and interviews respondents can be offered a report of the findings. Usually, they will not demand extra information. Occasionally, however, the research will be of particular interest to a respondent. A simple set of descriptive charts can be generated for such an individual. This retains the goodwill of the respondent, providing an incentive to participate in future research projects.
For experiments, all subjects should be questioned. This corrects any deception that occurred and it allows subjects to put the experiment into context. Debriefing usually consists of a description of the hypothesis being tested and the purpose of the study. Subjects who were not deceived still benefit from the debriefing session. They will be able to understand the reasons for which the experiment was created. The researchers also gain important insights into the thinking process of subjects about during and after the experiment. This may require modifications in future research designs. In this case also subjects in experiments and observational studies be offered a report of the findings.The majority of subjects do not resent temporary deception and may have more positive feelings about the value of the research after debriefing. Nevertheless, debriefing is an ethically complex issue and need to be tackled with sensitivity and care for research participants.
Right to Privacy: Privacy laws differ from country to country. All individuals have a right to privacy and researchers must honour that right. The surety of privacy is important to retain not only validity of the research but also to protect respondents. Thus, the confidentiality of survey answers is an important aspect of the respondents’ right to privacy. Once the guarantee of confidentiality is provided, protecting that confidentiality is essential. Researchers should confine access to information that reveals names, phone numbers, locations, or other identifying information. Researchers who have signed nondisclosure, confidentiality forms may be allowed access to the information. Individual interview response sheets should be inaccessible to everyone except the editors and data entry personnel. Usually, data collection instruments should be destroyed once the information in a data file. Data file that facilitate to reconstruct the profiles or identification of individual respondents should be carefully controlled. For very small groups, data should not be made available because it is often easy to pinpoint a person within the group. Employee job satisfaction survey feedback in small units can be applied to identify an individual through descriptive statistics alone. But privacy is more important than confidentiality. A right to privacy means that one has the right to deny to be interviewed or to refuse to answer any question in an interview. Potential participants have a right to privacy in their own homes, including not admitting researchers and not answering telephones. They have the right to engage in private behavior in private places without fear of observation. To address these rights, ethical researchers ask permission to interview respondents. They inform respondents of their right to refuse to any question. They schedule field interview only during day light or they call in advance to set an appointment. Telephone interviews are restricted in time and occur solely during reasonable hours. Observation is restricted to public behavior.
On-line Data Collection: The conduct that results in resistance from respondents- interference, invasiveness in their lives, denial of privacy rights- has encouraged researchers to investigate topics on line that have long been the principal method of offline investigation. The novelty and convenience of communicating by computer has led researchers to on-line search of abundant sources of data. However, this raises the question how we gather data online, deal with subjects, and present results. Yet questions remain on defining specific ethical behavior for cyber research, sufficiency of existing professional guidelines, and the question of ultimate responsibility for respondents.
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