Ethics and Research Peter Lugosi

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Ethics and Research Peter Lugosi
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What are ethics?

• A set of prescriptive moral rules and behavioural
  codes relating to what is right or wrong, or
  appropriate and inappropriate.

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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)

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Respect for persons and autonomy
Beneficence and nonmaleficence
Justice Fair distribution of benefits fairness
of processes
Ethical Principles
Fidelity and scientific integrity
Trust Open, honest, inclusive relationships
Following Brewster Smith (2000)
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Why are ethics important?

• 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.

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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)

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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).

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Ethics as a prism
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Ethics as a prism Illumination or distortion?
Reshaped Research aims and objectives Methods Rel
ationships Participants Outcomes Audience Risks/be
nefits /contributions
Trust Justice Beneficence Nonmaleficence Respect
for autonomy Fidelity and integrity
Research aims and objectives Methods Relationship
s Participants Outcomes Audience Risks/benefits /c
ontributions
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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?

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Deciding on the methodology

• -Minimising risks and maximising data generation
• -Ethics, validity and triangulation
• -Action research data gathering vs intervention

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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?

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Explaining work and cooperation

• -Informed consent
• -Maintaining informed consent over time
• -Clarity and adequacy of explanation
• -Routines, spiels and scripts

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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

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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)

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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?

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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?

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Analysing, interpreting and communicating findings

• -Anticipating feedback and reactions
• -Ownership of data and publishing
• -Implications of research and interpretation

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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

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• Questions?

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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). Its 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.

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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 evaluators 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.