Qualitative Research Methods in Psychology Session 3

1. Qualitative Research Methods in PsychologySession 3 Discuss Ethics in Qualitative Research (continued)

2. Ethics in qualitative research: a recap Can Do Can’t Do With Participants

3. Ethics in qualitative research Confidentiality Deception Consent Debrief Withdrawal Protection

4. Ethical considerations in Qualitative Research • Generally the same as quantitative research • Often made because: • Small number of participants may result in difficulties with anonymity • Research topics often sensitive (e.g. Domestic violence, health issues) and require particular consideration for participants in study • Often long term research process with close personal contact between researcher and participants. Participants may reveal very personal information and it can be difficult to maintain researcher objectivity at times

5. Ethical considerations in Qualitative Research • Research may result in obtaining sensitive information such as participants’ criminal activity. Researcher needs to consider this is advance and decide whether they will inform the authorities and participants should be informed about this before they participate • Informed consent cannot always be obtained (e.g. Covert participant observation) • Some research may involve danger to researcher (e.g. Covert participant observations in prisons, street gangs)

6. Silverman (2008) • According to Silverman qualitative researchers should ask: • Why are they doing the study? • Can the findings can be of value to the common good? • Will it help to protect the people in the study? • What are their own moral, political or personal interests in the study?

7. Dealing with ethical considerations

8. Dealing with ethical considerations

9. Exam tip Ethical issues mentioned here are general. In exam you will be given an extract from a specific study. You need to discuss ethics that are relevant to this specific study and provide clear examples using source material.

10. Ethics in qualitative research • You are volunteering or working in a nonresearch setting (e.g., at a rape crisis center or at a restaurant) and in the course of your work decide that this would be a good place to collect qualitative data through informal interviews and observations. • You do not want to tell people about your study because you would be speaking with them and observing them anyway. What are the ethical implications of this situation?

11. Ethics in qualitative research • You are meeting with scholars in another country where you are planning to conduct research interviews. • The experts from that country advocate hiding the tape recorder during the interviews to avoid making the participants nervous. • There is no ethics board in that country. What do you do? What are the ethical implications of this situation?

12. Ethics in qualitative research • You are evaluating an educational program for preschool children, a program that you think is useful, if not perfect. • In the process of conducting your study you learn that the directors of the program are falsifying rates of completion to maintain their levels of funding. • If this information were to become public, the program would be forced to shut down. What do you do with this “guilty knowledge?” (Gottfried, 1996) What are the ethical implications of this situation?

13. Journal Entry • Create a table of potential ethical issues in qualitative research and ways to solve these issues