RESEARCH METHOD COHEN ok

72 THE ETHICS OF EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL RESEARCH
to the wrong client or organ, can result in the most
unfortunate consequences for an individual, group
or institution. And matters are greatly exacerbated
if it is the wrong information, or incomplete, or
deliberately misleading.
In an increasingly information-rich world, it is
essential that safeguards be established to protect
it from misuse or abuse. The UK Data Protection
Acts of 1984 and 1998 are designed to achieve
such an end. These cover the principles of data
protection, the responsibilities of data users, and
the rights of data subjects. Data held for ‘historical
and research’ purposes are exempted from the
principle which gives individuals the right of
access to personal data about themselves, provided
the data are not made available in a form which
identifies individuals. Research data also have
partial exemption from two further principles, with
the effect that such data may be held indefinitely
and the use of the data for research purposes need
not be disclosed at the time of data collection.
Of the two most important principles which do
concern research data, one states that personal
data (i.e. data that uniquely identify the person
supplying them) shall be held only for specified
and lawful purposes. The second principle states
that appropriate security measures shall be taken
against unauthorized access to, or alteration,
disclosure or destruction of personal data and
against accidental loss or destruction of personal
data.
Most institutions of higher education have
their own ethics committees, and these usually
have their own codes of ethics against which
they evaluate research proposals. In addition,
some important codes of practice and guidelines
are published by research associations, for
example the British Educational Research Association
(http://www.bera.ac.uk), the British Psychological
Society (http://www.bps.org.uk), the
British Sociological Association (http://www.
britsoc.co.uk), the Social Research Association
(http://www.the-sra.org.uk), the American
Educational Research Association (http://
www.aera.net), the American Psychological Association
(http://www.apa.org) and the American
Sociological Association (http://www.
asanet.org). We advise readers to consult these
in detail.
The British Psychological Society’s Code of
Conduct, Ethical Principles and Guidelines (2005)
includes, among many others, sections on
competence, obtaining consent, confidentiality
and personal conduct. Its section on Ethical
Principles for Conducting Research with Human
Participants first discusses deception, debriefing,
risk and implementation (pp. 6–7) and then
moves to eleven main sections: introduction;
general principles, including the guiding precept
that ‘the essential principle is that the
investigation should be considered from the
standpoint of all the participants; foreseeable
threats to their psychological well-being, health,
values or dignity should be eliminated’ (p. 8);
consent; deception; debriefing; withdrawal from
the investigation; confidentiality; protection of
participants; observational research; giving advice;
and colleagues. Interestingly it does not insist
on informed consent, rather expressing it
as ‘wherever possible, the investigator should
inform all participants of the objectives of the
investigation’ (para. 3.1). Similarly it does not
proscribe deception, indicating that ‘it may be
impossible to study some psychological processes
without withholding information about the true
object of the study or deliberately misleading
the participants’ (para. 4.3). However, it says
that these need to be rigorously justified, and
alternatives must have been explored and found
to be unavailable.
The American Psychological Association’s
Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct (2002)
states five general principles: beneficence and nonmaleficence,
fidelity and responsibility, integrity,
justice, and respect for people’s rights and
dignity. These principles then become the
basis for ten sections of ‘ethical standards’:
resolving ethical issues; competence; human
relations (including ‘avoiding harm’ ‘exploitative
relationships’ and ‘informed consent’); privacy
and confidentiality; advertising and other public
statements; record keeping and fees; education and
training; research and publication; assessment; and
therapy.