Blog Reflection 4

Ethics, Validity and Reliability

Ethical considerations

Ethical practices involve not only guidelines provided by professional associations but require the researchers to anticipate and address any ethical dilemmas that they may be confronted with in their study. (Creswell, 2009).

These dilemmas, when identified, should become an integral part of the proposal.

What dilemmas should be considered and anticipated?

Issues in the research problem

The problem to be addressed in the study should not only benefit the researcher but also the participants. By no means should they be disempowered or marginalised through the study. Trust should be established between the researcher and the particiants

Issues in the purpose and questions

Participants must be informed about the purpose of the study 

Data collection

•  have the research plan reviewed by a Review Board of the home university
• assess the potential risk: physical, psychological, social, economic or legal harm
• consider special needs of vulnerable populations 
• develop an informed consent form for participants to sign before conducting the research.   This form ensures that the participants’ rights will be protected during data collection
• make sure the issue of data confidentiality is addressed to the participants
• gain permission of individuals in authority to provide access to study participants. This may take a form of a letter identifying: time frame of the study, the potential impact, outcomes of the study
• Another important aspect of data collection is a consideration of how likely it is that the study will disclose sensitive information. The rule here is normally that the ethical code for researchers protects the privacy of the participants.

Data analysis and interpretation 

As a researcher, I should consider a couple of important issues while analysing the data.

First of all, I should think of how to protect the anynonymity of individuals, of the incidents that happen during the project implementation. I can choose to use pseudonyms or codes instead of names.

I should discard the data after 5-10 years (recommended time) to prevent it from falling into undesired hands.

I should consider the issues of data ownership – here a personal agreement with the participants seems to be a good solution.

Writing and disseminating the research

Include a statement of your approach to ethical issues such as fraudulent practices in the proposal.

Tasks:

Consider the following ethical dilemmas that may face a researcher. Describe ways you might anticipate the problem and actively address it in your research proposal.

1. A prisoner you’re interviewing tells you about a potential breakout at the prison that night. What do you do? 
   
   I develop an informed consent form for the participants to sign to ensure their identity is protected. I do not disclose any information gained from the interviews with the participants following the rule that ethical code for researchers protects the privacy of the participants.

2. A researcher on your team copies sentences from another study and incorporates them into the final written report for your project. What do you do?
   
   I do not accept this contribution and refer the researcher to my research proposal where a statement of my approach to ethical issues such as fraudulent practices is described. I consider such a practice a misconduct.

3. A student collects data for a project from several individuals interviewed in families in your city. After the fourth interview, the student tells you that approval has not been received for the project from the IRB. What do you do?
   
   I stop the process of data collection and file the proposal immediately with the IRB. In this way I can evaluate to wha extent my research puts the individuals involved at risk. I can also make sure that the rights of the participants are not violated.