RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

2
The ethics of educational and social research
Introduction
The awareness of ethical concerns in research
is reflected in the growth of relevant literature
and in the appearance of regulatory codes of
research practice formulated by various agencies
and professional bodies. 1 A major ethical dilemma
is that which requires researchers to strike a
balance between the demands placed on them
as professional scientists in pursuit of truth,
and their subjects’ rights and values potentially
threatened by the research. This is known as
the ‘costs/benefits ratio’, the essence of which
is outlined by Frankfort-Nachmias and Nachmias
(1992) in Box 2.1, and is a concept we return
to later in the chapter. Ethical problems for
researchers can multiply surprisingly when they
move from the general to the particular, and from
the abstract to the concrete.
Ethical issues may stem from the kinds of
problems investigated by social scientists and the
methods they use to obtain valid and reliable
data. This means that each stage in the research
sequence raises ethical issues. They may arise
from the nature of the research project itself
(ethnic differences in intelligence, for example);
the context for the research (a remand home);
the procedures to be adopted (producing high
levels of anxiety); methods of data collection
(covert observation); the nature of the participants
(emotionally disturbed adolescents); the type of
data collected (highly personal and sensitive
information); and what is to be done with the
data (publishing in a manner that may cause
participants embarrassment).
In this chapter we present a conspectus of the
main issues that may confront researchers. Each
research undertaking is an event sui generis, and
the conduct of researchers cannot be, indeed
should not be, forced into a procrustean system
of ethics. When it comes to the resolution
of a specific moral problem, each situation
frequently offers a spectrum of possibilities
(see http://www.routledge.com/textbooks/
9780415368780 – Chapter 2, file 2.1. ppt).
In this chapter we review seriatim several issues
in the ethical field. These can constitute a set
of initial considerations that researchers should
address in planning research:
informed consent
gaining access to and acceptance in the
research setting
the nature of ethics in social research generally
sources of tension in the ethical debate,
including non-maleficence, beneficence and
human dignity, absolutist and relativist ethics
problems and dilemmas confronting the researcher,
including matters of privacy, anonymity,
confidentiality, betrayal and deception
ethical problems endemic in particular research
methods
ethics and evaluative research
regulatory ethical frameworks, guidelines and
codes of practice for research
personal codes of practice
sponsored research
responsibilities to the research community.
While many of these issues concern procedural
ethics, we have to recall that ethics concern right
and wrong, good and bad, and so procedural
ethics are not enough; one has to consider
how the research purposes, contents, methods,
reporting and outcomes abide by ethical principles
and practices. Before this, however, we examine
another fundamental concept which, along
with the costs/benefits ratio, contributes to the