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Chapter 3

Chapter 3. The Ethics and Politics of Social Research. Ethical Issues in Social Research. Voluntary participation No harm to participants Anonymity and confidentiality. Ethical Issues in Social Research. Deception must be justified by compelling scientific concerns.

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Chapter 3

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  1. Chapter 3 The Ethics and Politics of Social Research

  2. Ethical Issues in Social Research • Voluntary participation • No harm to participants • Anonymity and confidentiality

  3. Ethical Issues in Social Research • Deception must be justified by compelling scientific concerns. • Researchers must be honest about their findings and research.

  4. Ethical Issues in Social Research • Institutional Review Boards • Review research proposals involving humans so they can guarantee the rights and interests are protected. • Professional Codes of Ethics • Most professional associations have formal codes of conduct that describe acceptable and unacceptable professional behavior.

  5. Ethical Controversy:Laud Humphreys (1970) • Study of homosexual behavior in public restrooms. • Lied to participants by telling them he was a voyeur-participant. • Traced participants to their home and interviewed them under false pretenses.

  6. Ethical Controversy: Stanley Milgram (1960) • Study of human obedience. • Subjects had role of "teacher" and administered a shock to "pupils". • Pupils were actually part of the experiment.

  7. Ethics and Politics of Social Research • Ethics deals mostly with methods used in research. • Politics deals with the substance and use of research. • There are no formal codes of accepted political conduct.

  8. Project Camelot Proposed research project concerning the topic of internal war within a nation. • The project was canceled and dismantled. • Science is neutral on topics of war and peace, scientists are not.

  9. Politics in Perspective • Science is not untouched by politics. • Science proceeds in the midst of political controversy and hostility. Examples: Global Warming; Autism research

  10. Politics in Perspective • Awareness of ideologies enriches the study and practice of social research methods. • While researchers should not let their values interfere with their research, this does not mean that researchers should not express both their scientific expertise and personal values.

  11. Extra Credit • Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative • www.citiprogram.org • Register your information (free for faculty, staff and students of member institutions) • Take the modules for the Social Sciences • Take the quizzes for each module (must score a 70% to pass each module). • Print CITI Certificate and hand in at the beginning of class, May 8th • Replace 1 homework grade or 5% on 1 exam

  12. Is It Ethical? • To be strategic in your relations with others? • To talk to people when they don't know you will be recording their words?

  13. Is It Ethical? • To "pay" people with tradeoffs for access to their lives and minds? • To "use" people as allies or informants in order to gain entrée to other people or to elusive understandings?

  14. Other Examples Stanford Prison Experiment • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkmQZjZSjk4 Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment • http://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm

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