Research Method & Ethical Issues

Informed consent is a method that was established to protect human participants. Bertha Schrems discusses the importance of informed consent in her article “Informed consent, vulnerability and the risks of group-specific attribution”. Research participants are sometimes threatened by abuse or exploitation and the possibility of harm through research. To

Bell (2005) mentioned that ethical research involves acquiring informed consent of people to be interviewed, questioned, observed or taken materials from and reaching to an understanding of how the data will be used and analysis will be reported and published. In guiding the activities of researchers, Denscombe (2010) described three ethical; “protection of participants’ interest”, “avoiding deception or misinterpretation” and “informed consent of participants”.

Qualitative research uses data obtained through methods such face- to- face interviews, observations, and focus groups. Data is analyzed by looking for trends and patterns. Quantitative research use numerical and statics to process the answer specific questions. Statistics used to support assessment of research. Analysis techniques are used to report are affected by the questions addressed and type of information that is expected in the research discoveries (Wakoff, 2007).

The research investigates information from the public and comes up with favorable conclusions that can be used to increase knowledge. Some of the data gathered from the public can be sensitive information that may interfere with the privacy of the subject or put the subject at risk. Some of the dangers that may affect the participant are physical danger or emotional torment. It is thus important to protect the privacy and integrity of the people being interviewed to ensure that their contribution does not affect them. Since research is a continuous process. It is important to ensure that the process of research is effective. Interviewed individuals need to feel safe to produce credible information that will enable the researcher to provide credible information to the public. Apart from providing credible information, participation in a research can be as part of an experiment that requires subjects to participate (Miller & Yang, 2007).

Some ethical issues are that the interviewees should not be exploited for personal gain (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2013). It would be important to build into the research plan a method of acknowledging the contributions that the respondent makes to the success of the research and to give back to the respondent in various ways and for their efforts (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2013).

In order to protect the subjects ethically and legally in this research project and in accordance with the ethical principles discussed above, researchers will obtain informed consent by describing all the potential benefits and risks of this study to the participants. The risks would include: 1) the possibility that the participants would have an increased level of distress and anxiety throughout the project, 2) the possibility of being identified as a participant in the research project, 3) the inconvenience of the project and opportunity costs such as using participants own gas to drive to an interview, 4) exploitation such as participants feeling pressurized to participate because of a sense of duty 5) Misrepresentation which means that

First and foremost the participants must be voluntary. In all ethical research when conducting research there must be willing participants. Research has shown that when participants volunteer they shouldn’t feel coerced, threatened or bribed into participation. Second, informed consent must be described at the onset of the study. Participants are told about the procedures and informed of any potential risks; there also should be documented in written form, ensuring the participant know about the experiment and can make informed decisions about whether or not they want to participate. Meanwhile, this can present problems in cases where telling the participants the necessary details about the experiment might unduly influence their responses or behaviors in the study. However, it is stated in this article which allows in certain instances, but only if the study would be impossible to conduct without the use of deception, if the research will provide some sort of valuable insight and if the subjects will be debriefed and informed about the study's true purpose after the data has been collected searchers Must Maintain Participant Confidentiality. Finally, while guidelines can provide some ethical standards for research, each study can pose different unique challenges. Likewise, confidentiality is a part of any ethical research. Participants need to be guaranteed that

In agreement to this Greetham (2009, p. 115) discusses six key ethical issues that should be considered when working with others. Privacy, confidentiality, consent, safety, fairness, and impartiality. This is to ensure that any information given is conducted properly and that it is not used for anything other than the study it is intended for. It will be explained to all participants that no names

This chapter will discuss and outline the case study and the ethical consideration of the research. Research is a mutual undertaking between researchers and participants and therefore, must be handled with trust and fairmindedness. This is to “avoid harm to participants, ensure informed consent of participants, respect the privacy of participants and to avoid the use of deception” (Gray, 2011, p.73). Furthermore, consent must be given without coercion, meaning that participants fully understand the actions of the research and how the results will be used, Burns (2000).

The research should not harm the participant and at no point should they feel distressed or uncomfortable, the participant needs to obtain the correct information and at no point be deceived or lied to (Diniz, 2008). The participant needs to be seen as an individual not just a number and needs to take into account that they are unique and will respond differently to other participants. Furthermore, the participant needs to agree to take part in the research on their own accord and must not be forced into partaking. Social research and the experiments conducted to acquire the research sometimes have ripple effects that can cause unanticipated consequences on the community. The community and in particular community psychologists need to identify an ethical dilemma that could result from social research when they see one, understand the fundamentals of the predicament, and decide what a solution should include

Methods of quantitative research includes surveys and data, which is then presented as statistics. It is then collected by a big group such as the Census. The downfalls of quantitative methods of research include being that it offers less depth in information as they generally place emphasis on a much larger number of cases. The outcomes of quantitative research are more often than not, used to present findings to a wide or whole population (Punch, 1998). Qualitative methods of research is essentially gathering information and data, by creating focus groups, and conducting field research and intensive reviews.

The forms of data collection are often grouped into four basic categories such as journals, blogs, e-mail, and video. These four forms, as defined by John W. Creswell (2013) are interviews, observations, documents, and audiovisual materials (pg. 152-162). The author mentioned about the challenges with qualitative research can include protecting sources, storing data, informing and receiving subject consent for participation in the study. Among those, ?Informed consent or voluntary? is one of the biggest ethical challenges in

Some ethical issue in this case are: the participant should receive accurate information and have informed consent to participate in the study research. The other important

Qualitative research comprises of receiving information that gives a verbal expression of the participates, providing more detail and depth than quantitative studies. It can be used to analysis people’s attitudes and emotions towards a topic encouraging them to expand on their answers to explain the reasons behind why they gave a particular response. The drawbacks to this being as it requires more time to collect the data so smaller sample sizes

Research methodology is a way how the research is conducted step by step and in order. There are two methods used for data collection which is the primary data and secondary data. These data can be obtained and used many ways. The data is taken and analyzed in advance to produce a result that we can use for research and future reference. This study will relate to the objective we want to achieve and finding the answer to every objective we seek. In order to successfully achieve the objectives we seek, we must know