Bryman Chapter 6: Ethics and Politcs in social research
Ethical debates are complicated, because:
o Researchers have very diferent views on what is ethically acceptable and what isn’t
o The main elements that are debated remain the same throughout the last 60 years
o Extreme cases and studies are ofen critciied as unethical which is related to the methods
used; e.g. disguised observaton
o There is a rising awareness of ethical consideratons among researchers, universites and
research funding bodies
Stances on ethics
o Universalism: ethical precepts should never be broken; if they are then social research is
damaged
o Situaton ethics: ethics should be considered case-by-case; breaking of ethical rules is
sometmes necessary to discover social phenomena; in some cases there is no other choice
to investgate certain issues
o Ethical transgression is pervasive: all research involves some elements that are at least
questonable; e.g. every tme partcipants are not given every detail on the research they are
taking part in; research must be dishonest to get honest data
o Anything goes (more or less): certain amount of fexibility in ethical decision making
o Deontological vs. consequentalist ethics: Deontological (certain acts are wrong or good in
and of themselves); Consequentalist (looking at the consequences of an act to determine
whether it’s right or wrong
Be aware of the codes of difereet professioeal orgaeizatoes (e.g. Britsh sociological associaton) as
well as of the ethical guideliees of the ueiversity.
Ethical principles
1. Harm to partcipants
Loss of self-esteem
Stress
E.g. Milgram experiment for on obedience to authority
Researchers should consider that the research experience may be disturbing for
partcipants
Problem: it is not always possible to identfy whether partcipants will be harmed
2. Lack of informed consent
Possible partcipants should be given as much informaton as possible to decide
whether they want to partcipate in the research or not
It is very difcult to give partcipants all detail as this is likely to infuence their
answers or their behaviour
The use of covert research in which no informaton is given to partcipants can be
justfied in certain contexts but it is however violatng the principle of informed
consent
3. Invasion of privacy
Privacy is invaded when partcipants is not given full informaton about the research;
e.g. in covert research
Ethical debates are complicated, because:
o Researchers have very diferent views on what is ethically acceptable and what isn’t
o The main elements that are debated remain the same throughout the last 60 years
o Extreme cases and studies are ofen critciied as unethical which is related to the methods
used; e.g. disguised observaton
o There is a rising awareness of ethical consideratons among researchers, universites and
research funding bodies
Stances on ethics
o Universalism: ethical precepts should never be broken; if they are then social research is
damaged
o Situaton ethics: ethics should be considered case-by-case; breaking of ethical rules is
sometmes necessary to discover social phenomena; in some cases there is no other choice
to investgate certain issues
o Ethical transgression is pervasive: all research involves some elements that are at least
questonable; e.g. every tme partcipants are not given every detail on the research they are
taking part in; research must be dishonest to get honest data
o Anything goes (more or less): certain amount of fexibility in ethical decision making
o Deontological vs. consequentalist ethics: Deontological (certain acts are wrong or good in
and of themselves); Consequentalist (looking at the consequences of an act to determine
whether it’s right or wrong
Be aware of the codes of difereet professioeal orgaeizatoes (e.g. Britsh sociological associaton) as
well as of the ethical guideliees of the ueiversity.
Ethical principles
1. Harm to partcipants
Loss of self-esteem
Stress
E.g. Milgram experiment for on obedience to authority
Researchers should consider that the research experience may be disturbing for
partcipants
Problem: it is not always possible to identfy whether partcipants will be harmed
2. Lack of informed consent
Possible partcipants should be given as much informaton as possible to decide
whether they want to partcipate in the research or not
It is very difcult to give partcipants all detail as this is likely to infuence their
answers or their behaviour
The use of covert research in which no informaton is given to partcipants can be
justfied in certain contexts but it is however violatng the principle of informed
consent
3. Invasion of privacy
Privacy is invaded when partcipants is not given full informaton about the research;
e.g. in covert research
