Statistical Sciences 2035 Quiz: Ethical Issues in Research
7 Oct 2018
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ETHICAL ISSUES IN RESEARCH
The importance of ethical issues is grown historically. They date back to Roman times and
reach until today’s time. Especially, in the 20th century the three cases of Asch’s conformity
experiment (estimate line length, peer pressure), Milgram’s obedience studies (teacher,
learner, electric shock) and Zimbardo’s prison study (prisoners, guards) drew attention to
ethical issues of research. These experiments and other real-life cruelties lead to the
development of codes of conduct for researchers, participants and society in general.
Basic rights are:
Societal rights:
Researchers are obligated to be objective, scientifically, unbiased in their research and
report results, fully informing society of important results whether positive or negative.
Participant’s rights:
Researchers should ensure that participants are given sufficient and true details of the
study so they can make an informed decision whether or not to participate which is
voluntary. This consent should be confirmed in a form that contains all required
information and the signature of both parties. Sensitive data must be disclosed and
protected which also refers to the right of anonymity and confidentiality. Researchers have
to assure that participants are safe and not harmed in any way. After the research,
participants must be informed about the results and conclusions drawn from the
experiments. Deceived participants are now to be told the real nature of the study. When
rewarding participation, these means shall not jeopardize the participant or according to
the invested time or effort.
Sponsor Responsibilities:
A sponsor must be fully open with the researcher about the specific research question they
want answered, the resources available, the access that will be permitted and the time
frame.
There are only few guidelines for ethical codes of conduct regarding web-based social
research. Boundaries between public and private data are blurring and demand high
attention by researchers. Furthermore, web-based consent or surveys might be illegitimate
or biased.
There is some concern that the imposition of strict guidelines, in relation to human
research, has detrimental effects on the quality of research undertaken which depicts a
dilemma. There clearly exists a need to balance the rights of the individual and
Document Summary
The importance of ethical issues is grown historically. They date back to roman times and reach until today(cid:495)s time. Especially, in the 20th century the three cases of asch(cid:495)s conformity experiment (cid:523)estimate line length, peer pressure(cid:524), milgram(cid:495)s obedience studies (teacher, learner, electric shock(cid:524) and zimbardo(cid:495)s prison study (cid:523)prisoners, guards(cid:524) drew attention to ethical issues of research. These experiments and other real-life cruelties lead to the development of codes of conduct for researchers, participants and society in general. Researchers are obligated to be objective, scientifically, unbiased in their research and report results, fully informing society of important results whether positive or negative. Researchers should ensure that participants are given sufficient and true details of the study so they can make an informed decision whether or not to participate which is voluntary. This consent should be confirmed in a form that contains all required information and the signature of both parties.
