Ethics: Human Subject Research
Marlon Cus, Veronica Chin, Rafael Kus, Andrea Higinio, Bernaldino Sabido, Marvin Mckoy
RSCH4015: Research Methods for Social Sciences
Florita Smith, M Ed
University of Belize
October 3, 2023
ETHICS
1. Define ethics.
According to Jenkison (2016), “Ethics is concerned with the moral principles that govern a
person’s or group's behavior”. Applying fundamental ethical concepts to research activities, such
as the planning and carrying out of research, respect for society and other people, the use of
resources and research outputs, scientific misconduct, and the regulation of research, is known as
research ethics.
2. Why is it important?
The primary purpose of ethics codes in human communication is to protect research participants,
Jenkinson (2016). In order to safeguard the welfare, rights, and dignity of study participants, it is
crucial to uphold ethical standards. As a result, an ethics committee should assess all studies
involving humans to guarantee that the right ethical standards are being observed.
3. What are the underlying principles?
The single underlying Principle of Ethics in research is DO NO HARM. There are five types of
Harm:
A. Psychological Harm
B. Physical Harm
C. Legal Harm
D. Social Harm
E. Economic Harm
4. Define each underlying principle.
When researchers conduct their studies, the results should not result in harm to the research
subjects. The following key points fall under one main Principle Do No Harm:
(a) Informed Consent- written document to prove that informed consent is given.
(b) Voluntary Participation- must be competent to make a voluntary decision about whether
to undergo/ participate in the research.
Note: Both Informed Consent and Voluntary Participation may be done orally.
(c) Participants can leave at any time- research participants have the right to refuse to
participate if they wish. When participants wish to leave the study all data collected
should be stripped from the research from the sampling frame.
(d) Anonymity/ Confidentiality- Anonymity refers to participants who wish to stay
anonymous, meaning that all information collected will not be provided to anyone as part
of the research results. On the other hand, confidentiality is protecting participants'
identity. The research is conducted without gathering or connecting the participant's
personal information that might give away his/her identity.
(e) Honesty- While conducting a research, the researcher should be honest with participants
about the study purposes, who is conducting the study etc. In some cases there are
research that cannot be conducted without the use of deception as when the benefits may
outweigh the risks and therefore require researcher to abide by the code of ethics
(f) Debrief after Study- The American Psychological Association, APA’s, Code of ethics
requires a debrief after the experiment. The debriefing, which is a crucial step in the
informed consent procedure and is required when the research study uses deception,
gives participants a thorough explanation of the hypothesis being tested, the methods
used to deceive them, and the reason(s) why deception was required.
Infographic of the Ethical Violations of four research:
Explanation of infographic data:
1. Deception: there was a lack of information for participants, most participants still did not
understand the study until months later, and participants were not told the truth.
Coercion: participants were pressured to continue the experiment, even after asking to
withdraw from the experiment.
2. The experimenter disguised himself as a health service interviewer to collect data from
the participants he tracked down. No consent form was presented to request the voluntary
participation of personnel to participate in the experiment.
3. Participants were not told the truth about their diagnosis. The experiment also had
unethical issues such as racism and lack of informed consent.
4. The experiment went sideways when there was a change in behavior in the prison guards
that started to harm prisoners who were also participants in the study. The study also
lacked honesty and coercion, the prisoners taught they did not have any choice but to
believe everything that was happening was reality and were not given the option to
withdraw until the experiment went harmful.
Links of study evaluated:
Jenkison, P. (2016). Ethics: Human Subject Research. Intro to Scientific Methods in
Communication. [Link]
Laud Humphreys and the Tearoom Sex Study [Link]
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Stanley Milgram Obedience study [Link]
Tuskegee Syphilis Study [Link]
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment [Link]
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