Nancy Scheper-Hughes and the Question of Ethical Fieldwork Essay

In this paper, I will focus on the ethical issues of informed consent and the cultural mindsets of doctors and scientists during this time period.

The labeling theory explains how a community or culture defines deviant behavior, and the proper diagnosis to treating the individual. This can be seen in An Cloch'an, where psychiatric problems are “rarely made by the villager himself”(Scheper-Hughes 161). Although initial hospitalization is rarely in acted by the individual, the patient eventually internalizes his behavior as deviant and will identify himself as insane once institutionalized. However, the labeling theory can only be used within the definitions of the culture, since different cultures will define abnormal behavior differently. In the context of some Non-Western cultures, symptoms of schizophrenia are praised, and those who may hear voices or hallucinate are deemed as spiritual, and given the role of prophet or shaman within the culture. Although schizophrenic symptoms are revered in some cultures, within Ireland there is not only a stigma to the patient,but to the family as well (Scheper-Hughes 283).Scheper-Hughes explains that schizophrenia is a family condition; to the extent where there is a pathology for the “schizophrenic mothers”. Defining the mothers of schizophrenic patients as obsessive, sexually and emotionally immature, repressed, guilt ridden and ignoring the needs and demands of their children (Scheper-Hughes 257). This clinical diagnoses for mothers of schizophrenics only deepens the social stigmas, and created more resentment among the family members toward the patient.

Research today has limits and standards to protect study participants and researchers alike, all in an attempt to facilitate ethical data collection for reliable results. A universal research body, such as the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at UVM, governs these set values. However, early anthropological research often deviated from ethical standards and broke basic research rights. Such is the case with Zora Hurston’s compilation of collected stories in Mules and Men. After returning to her hometown in Florida, she begins listening to stories from locals, building a cultural interpretation of the locals. Continuing her studies, she travels to New Orleans to pursue research in Hoodoo, a sacred and protected practice. Her unethical approach breaches IRB standards regarding her methods of safety, consent, and confidentiality, violating the UVM Institutional Review Board’s human subjects protection guidelines.

He grabs his hair in an attempt to escape the constant, faint hum in the back of his head as the internal voices maintain their persistent ridicule. A swarm of people stands around him after his involuntary wails attract their attention. The man glances up from his knees and asks the mass, “Why won’t you help me?” In No One Cares About Crazy People: The Chaos and Heartbreak of Mental Health in America, author Ron Powers explores the historical aspects of schizophrenia while exposing his sons’ struggles to deepen the reader's knowledge about mental illnesses and fade the line dividing ‘crazy’ and ‘normal.’

If the founders claim there is no need to seek licensing for the UNIX software, that the additional 15,000 licenses are part of the business marketing model to secure additional funding and that no financial implications are pursuant to the action, and that WSIB was an oversight

Nathan faced ethical questions in approaching this research project using an undercover method of observation: Did she lie to people? Was permission given by the university? How to handle the Research Board? Could she record her findings or conversations since she did not disclose her identity? Can an anthropologist really go “undercover”? These are a few of the concerns and criticisms the author faced during

Entering the taboo world of mental illness, stigmatized as the crazy and psychotic by decades of

In Bly’s time, mental illnesses were not taken seriously. Bly described the asylum she was admitted to as overcrowded, cold, and dirty (ch. 7). It defeated the purpose of trying to give extra attention to those in need. It was easy to get admitted into an institution, but nearly impossible to make it out because the treatment was not treatment.

Ramachandran & Rangaswamy (2012) states that in practice a counselor could be faced with a schizophrenia client who is either a danger to themselves or others and admitting them to an inpatient facility is not an option. Many of those patients are often given medications surreptitiously by family or caregivers. A counselor’s ethics and the patient’s autonomy both come into play when concealing medication from the client. Secretly giving an individual medication for their schizophrenic disorder prohibits the client’s right to know what the drug is doing to their bodies and minds. Similarly, it could also be argued that concealed medication is in the best “interest” of the client. This article highlights the culture of rural India and how the

Ethics, in our society, are the moral principles that govern our behavior, dictating what is right from wrong. The specifics of ethics changes as values in our society change and evolve. This occurs in Rebecca Skloots book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. One major reoccurring theme in the book is the lack of informed consent and autonomy. Fortunately, now there are safeguards which protect human rights in regard to health care and research. The Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, now part of the Department of Health and Human Services, created The Belmont Report, which is one such safeguard establishing principles for all human research (USDHHS, 1979). This paper will discuss the ethical issue of informed consent within The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the disregard to parts of the Belmont Report, as well as compare the role of the nurse in charge of Henrietta’s care versus the standards of care set for modern nurses.

Lastly, the issue of whose bodily experiences are studied and who is subsequently left out of research is an ethical problem in that it involves value judgements concerning which groups are worthy of study, and which are not. As underrepresentation can have wider consequences for certain groups through both its influence on future research and general perceptions, it is not enough to consider the ethics surrounding theory and

Conducting quality research requires the researcher to perform within both ethical and legal guidelines. “Ethics is the study of right and wrong” (Houser, J., 2012, pg.50). Ethics provide the avenue for decision making and are guided by the researcher’s integrity. Legal guidelines provide direction to the researcher by specifying what is required by law to conduct research. As a nurse researcher, it is an ethical duty to advocate for patients when incompetent, unethical or illegal practices are observed.

Health services in Ireland developed in parallel with health services in Britain throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - during most of the latter period, the Irish service developed its own direction. Until the 1960’s the activities of psychiatric nurses in Ireland were based in hospitals. The Department of Health (1966) issued a report ‘The Commission of Inquiry on Mental Illness’ where it was recommended that mental hospitals should be seen as centres of rehabilitation, with their aims of returning clients to the community - instead of being seen or used as centres of custodial care and as a result, causing those using the services to be institutionalized and unable to return back into the community. While some of these changed were implemented and service users were discharged into the community, the nature of mental health nursing care did not really change until the mid 1980’s, where changes were made in the United Kingdom almost a decade earlier. (Morrisey et al, 2008).

Anthropology, as a discipline in the field of human sciences, is based on certain ethical principles to guide its practitioners through their research. This creates a stable framework on which to start any research project. Avoiding deviation, however, can be complicated. Anthropologists have a responsibility to their field,

Bronislaw Malinowski is arguably the most influential anthropologist of the 20th century, certainly for British social anthropology. Malinowski saw himself as effecting a revolution in anthropology by rejecting the evolutionary paradigm of his predecessors and introducing functionalism, whereby institutions satisfied human biological need, as the way to understand other cultures. I argue that his lasting legacy, however, is methodological rather than theoretical. Although not the first to conduct fieldwork, his lengthy stay among the Trobriand islanders during World War 1 enabled him to study their culture and cover a wide range of topics, from economics to sexuality. He contributed to ethnography and fieldwork by living with the people he studied, getting to know them personally, participating in their activities, and conducting his research in the field has since become known as ‘participant observation’.