Topic 11a) Ethical Research
I have been reading the all-time classic Rubin and Babbie text “Essential Research Methods for Social Work (2016)” and within it there is a long discussion on Ethical Research and Politics. Additionally, I have been reflecting on and critiquing the ethical considerations of various proposals in graduate Social Work.
Good research is typically designed to produce valid and reliable results, but in some cases, the methods used to achieve these goals can raise ethical concerns, particularly when it comes to the use of placebos and deception. Deception can also be used in research to control for the placebo effect. However, it can be ethically problematic if it involves intentionally misleading participants or withholding information that may be important for their decision to participate in the study or to consent to particular procedures.
To address these ethical concerns, research studies involving placebos or deception should be designed with careful consideration of the potential risks and benefits to participants, and with appropriate safeguards in place to protect their welfare. This may include obtaining informed consent from participants, ensuring that they are fully aware of the potential risks and benefits of participation, and providing them with the option to withdraw from the study at any time. These ethical requirements disqualify lots of types of studies.
Additionally, researchers should consider alternative study designs that minimize the use of placebos and deception, such as using active controls instead of placebos. For my study I have used a delayed intervention for teacher training. It is essential for researchers to prioritize ethical considerations in their study designs to ensure that their research is conducted in a responsible and respectful manner.
Overall, ethical considerations are an essential aspect of research, as they help to ensure that studies are conducted in a responsible and respectful manner. However, ethical considerations may also impact the conduct and interpretation of research in a number of ways, and researchers must carefully balance the ethical considerations with the scientific goals of their study.
From the text, it is understood that Social Work research is often intrusive into people’s lives. My new understanding of proposing ethical studies leads me to the conclusion that all participants must have knowledge of and consent to participate as well as voluntarily participate.
Of course, there is a conundrum in research due to the ethical nature of it. Because ethical research relies on people electing to participate it might not be representative of the general population.
Additionally, a common error that is made in research design, I have heard, is the confusion between anonymity and confidentiality. It must be clear that anonymous means when the researcher, him or herself, cannot identify a given response with a given participant, and that confidentiality is when a researcher CAN identify participants responses but promises not to publicly reveal the information.
In my research proposal, I want any student information to be totally anonymous and classroom teacher information to be confidential.
In the end, I just had to share this XKCD comic, xkcd: Effect Size. It suggests a meta-analysis of all studies (53,589 pages worth) and that, in the end, with a high confidence interval, science is not significant.
This is a clear joke, but I like it. If it is understood that epistemology and methodology rely on human observation and reporting, we will be careful with our research. Research is subject to errors in personal inquiry - inaccurate observation, overgeneralization, and selective observation. Numbers can paint part of a picture and are very useful, however, as this comic suggests,there are many other parts of the story to look at as well. So, at the very least, we have to ethically source our data.
Good research is typically designed to produce valid and reliable results, but in some cases, the methods used to achieve these goals can raise ethical concerns, particularly when it comes to the use of placebos and deception. Deception can also be used in research to control for the placebo effect. However, it can be ethically problematic if it involves intentionally misleading participants or withholding information that may be important for their decision to participate in the study or to consent to particular procedures.
To address these ethical concerns, research studies involving placebos or deception should be designed with careful consideration of the potential risks and benefits to participants, and with appropriate safeguards in place to protect their welfare. This may include obtaining informed consent from participants, ensuring that they are fully aware of the potential risks and benefits of participation, and providing them with the option to withdraw from the study at any time. These ethical requirements disqualify lots of types of studies.
Additionally, researchers should consider alternative study designs that minimize the use of placebos and deception, such as using active controls instead of placebos. For my study I have used a delayed intervention for teacher training. It is essential for researchers to prioritize ethical considerations in their study designs to ensure that their research is conducted in a responsible and respectful manner.
Overall, ethical considerations are an essential aspect of research, as they help to ensure that studies are conducted in a responsible and respectful manner. However, ethical considerations may also impact the conduct and interpretation of research in a number of ways, and researchers must carefully balance the ethical considerations with the scientific goals of their study.
From the text, it is understood that Social Work research is often intrusive into people’s lives. My new understanding of proposing ethical studies leads me to the conclusion that all participants must have knowledge of and consent to participate as well as voluntarily participate.
Of course, there is a conundrum in research due to the ethical nature of it. Because ethical research relies on people electing to participate it might not be representative of the general population.
Additionally, a common error that is made in research design, I have heard, is the confusion between anonymity and confidentiality. It must be clear that anonymous means when the researcher, him or herself, cannot identify a given response with a given participant, and that confidentiality is when a researcher CAN identify participants responses but promises not to publicly reveal the information.
In my research proposal, I want any student information to be totally anonymous and classroom teacher information to be confidential.
In the end, I just had to share this XKCD comic, xkcd: Effect Size. It suggests a meta-analysis of all studies (53,589 pages worth) and that, in the end, with a high confidence interval, science is not significant.
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