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INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods November 10, 2009

INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods November 10, 2009. Research Ethics. Tuskegee Syphilis Study. A little bit of history. [Source: University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, Minority Health Archive]. Failures of Informed Consent.

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INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods November 10, 2009

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  1. INFO 272. Qualitative Research Methods November 10, 2009 Research Ethics

  2. Tuskegee Syphilis Study • A little bit of history [Source: University of Pittsburgh, Graduate School of Public Health, Minority Health Archive]

  3. Failures of Informed Consent • Benefits of the research certainly did not outweigh risks to the participants • Not informed • That they were participating in a study • About their health status • Deceived into believing they were receiving treatment • Not given the option to quit participation

  4. Basic Principles • Respect for persons • Beneficence – maximize benefits and minimize possible harms • Justice [source: USHMM]

  5. Translating principles into ethical research practice • Informed consent • describe the aims of the research project in understandable language • Give the option not to participate or to quit at any time • Give the option to decline to answer questions • Assessment of Risks and Benefits • Publication Practices – using pseudonyms • Selection of Subjects

  6. The Tearoom Trade • The question of covert observation • Does the intentions the researcher has for the knowledge generated matter? (i.e. for liberatory purposes)

  7. Ethnography and Informed Consent • Field settings: • Impossibility of informing everyone in a natural setting • Intrusiveness of introducing this legalistic step into a field setting • How voluntary could it be? • Long-term and participatory research: • Developing relationships/friendship with those you are studying • Participants let down their guard, forget your role over time

  8. Ethics and Allegiances • Managing overlapping roles and relationships • Colleagues and Professional Community • Funding bodies • Gatekeepers to the site • Research participants • The public • Ethical dilemmas - No “right” decision, only a decision that is more right. Subject to debate and very possible to legitimately disagree.

  9. Online Ethics • Association of Internet Researchers - http://aoir.org/?page_id=54 • Is there a site policy? • Who is the author of this online material? • Can this site/chatroom be considered a public space? • Unique capacity for lurking

  10. Some other cases • observing and taking notes on behavior in a coffee shop • take a job at a corporation in order to study it, various forms of ‘undercover’ or exposé journalism • ‘lurking’ in an online discussion group, copying and analyzing posts made to the group without the writers consent • being paid by the CIA to collect information for them while doing anthropological research [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4603271.stm]

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