Ethics

Foundation

As the central imperative of conduct toward participants, the Tri-Council code asserts the primary value of human dignity in the holistic sense of guarding the physical, mental, and cultural well-being of the individual.

Basics

Basic rules of conduct are variously grouped and labeled, but cover these seven issues: (1) Do not harm participants. (2) Maintain their privacy. (3) Bring them available benefit. (4) Inform them about the research. (5) Involve them only voluntarily. (6) Ensure research of good quality. (7) Be honest with data and reporting.

In the strictest jurisdictions, ethics committees require a thorough summary of key components of the design, and written rationales for all elements with ethical implications, such as: purpose of the study, scientific and applied value, sampling design, modes of getting data, lists of survey questions, experimental or quasi-experimental procedures, information given to participants, mode of securing consent, provisions for protecting identities, and probabilities of harms and benefits to participants (and researchers' steps to minimize the former and maximize the latter).

Four Complications

Ethical practice is not as simple as the list implies. First, ambiguities, dilemmas, and contradictions emerge in the implementation, and “rules for breaking rules” are unavoidably incomplete. Second, rules apply in some circumstances but not others, or in varying degrees. Third, pressures frequently build to take shortcuts. Fourth, the approval process before an ethics committee is sometimes a challenge in itself. For all these reasons, every social–behavioral researcher needs training in ethical matters, or good self-education.