Learning Diary Entry 5.

Ethics Involved.


I was unable to make the campus session based on Ethics. This worried me slightly because this is an area I feel I have limited information to and lack knowledge therefore the blogging net work and course adviser help was vital to me.
After reading much information on ethics to understand and apply ethical issues to my research project I discovered:

voluntary participation-

This requires that people not be coerced into participating in research. This is especially relevant where researchers had previously relied on 'captive audiences' for their subjects

informed consent-

Essentially, this means that prospective research participants must be fully informed about the procedures and risks involved in research and must give their consent to participate. This is closely linked to and crucial to the matter of voluntary participation.


risk of harm-

This can be defined as both physical and psychological. There are two standards that are applied in order to help protect the privacy of research participants: Confidentiality and anonymity.


Confidentiality and anonymity-


The first, Confidentiality documents are assured that identifying information will not be made available to anyone who is not directly involved in the study. The stricter standard of anonymity means that the participant will remain anonymous throughout the study -- even to the researchers themselves. Clearly, the anonymity standard is a stronger guarantee of privacy, but it is sometimes difficult to accomplish, especially in situations where participants have to be measured at multiple time points (e.g., a pre-post study).

right to service-

Good research practice often requires the use of a no-treatment control group -- a group of participants who do not get the treatment or program that is being studied. But when that treatment or program may have beneficial effects, persons assigned to the no-treatment control may feel their rights to equal access to services are being curtailed.
I now feel I grasp a better understanding on the situation and will be considering and putting in to practice many of the ethical issues covered to result a well researched and flaw proof piece of work.