Ethical Issues and Issues of Sensitivity in Sociological Research

Ethical Issues and Issues of Sensitivity in Sociological Research

Ethical issues are the considerations that can have an important

influence on the research process. They are moral principles- beliefs

about what is right and wrong, which often guide research.

Sociological associations in many countries have a set of ethical

guidelines for conducting research. There are six main ethical issues;

I will explore them below.

Sensitive issues are issues that need to be dealt with tactfully

because of their subject matter. This could include subjects such as

death, health issues, sex etc. These are potentially sensitive

subjects as the people being researched may have had an unpleasant

situation with them.

The first ethical issue I will investigate is "informed consent". This

is the idea that those the researchers are studying should be given

the opportunity to agree or refuse to participate in the research.

This means covert observation could not take place, as this involves

not letting people know they are being observed. Informed consent

means that the researcher must provide information about the aims of

the research, what the conduct of the research involves and the

purpose to which the research will be put. This issue was raised when

James Patrick did his research on "A Glasgow Gang Observed". This

involved him becoming part of a "gang", only one member of the gang

knew he was a researcher undercover. From spending time with the

group, he gained information about what they did, what their attitudes

were and how far they were willing to go e.g. breaking the law. This

research did not involve informed consent, as the majority of ...

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...o depends on

what sort of person the researcher is, are they highly principled? Or

are they willing to cut a few corners to make their research easier or

more accurate? How strict a researcher is can definitely benefit/ruin

their research. Telling the complete truth to participants about the

research could undermine the research or cause research problems, as

if the participants know they are being observed it could cause them

to act very differently. A lot of issues are not straightforward, some

conflict and often need a great deal of thought put into them. To do

completely accurate and valid research, the balance between respecting

participants' privacy, not deceiving them, being careful not to put

them at risk of harm and making sure the data collected is true has to

be right, and this is a difficult balance to get.