EXAMPLE OF ETHICS DILEMMAS

Situation 1: What happened?

A study was being carried out with a community sample of adults. As part of the
informed consent process, the researchers had an information sheet and a consent
form, with tick boxes, which potential participants were asked to sign before the
research proceeded.

On one occasion, the researcher went through the information sheet with a potential
participant, who confirmed that he would like to proceed with the research. The
researcher then asked the participant to sign the consent form. At this point, the
participant revealed that he could not read, and said that he really wanted to take
part in the research, but did not want to sign a form that he could not read. He asked
if he could be interviewed without signing the form.

Situation 2: What happened?

An inexperienced researcher was carrying out a study that involved doing

developmental tests with children in schools. By prior arrangement, she would visit
the family home, and would seek consent to arrange to visit the child at school.

On one occasion, the researcher visited a family for whom English was an additional
language. Both parents and their children were at home, and their English was
limited, but the researcher judged they had understood, and consented. They
signed consent for the school visit, and made the researcher very welcome – even
insisting that she stayed for lunch.

A week or so later, as arranged, the researcher visited the school to see the child.
On arrival, the head teacher explained that the child’s older sister had said her
parents were very worried about the visit – they didn’t know who the researcher was,
and that a neighbour (who spoke the family’s language) had read the information
leaflet and told the parents that the researcher was probably a social worker. It was
clear that they hadn’t understood when they consented to the school visit.

Situation 3: What happened?

Participants are entitled to have copies of their own data - such as an interview note
or a recording - and it is good practice to offer this as part of the process of seeking
consent. However, what is the researcher’s responsibility if the participant wishes to
share their data?

In one recent study, an adult interviewee requested a copy of her interview

recording. She wanted to share it with other family members, because she felt it
would help them understand her perspective on some recent difficult events. The
researcher was concerned that the interview could upset those family members - but
what could he do?
Situation 4: What happened?

A study involved video observation of group dynamics during student discussions

over the course of tutorials in one academic year. All students who participated in
the discussions had signed consent forms, agreeing to be videoed. Subsequently,
one student dropped out of the course and decided that he also wanted to withdraw
from the study. He asked for his data to be destroyed. The researcher was very
reluctant to do this, as destroying the video recordings would mean that she lost data
on all the other students who had been involved in those discussions.

Situation 5: What happened?

In a recent study, a question arose about the use of pseudonyms. All the participants
were asked to suggest a pseudonym for themselves that the researchers could use
in writing up. There were three results: (a) people gave the researchers a fake name,
which was used, (b) they didn’t give one, whereupon one was allocated to them, and
(c) they said they would like their real name to be used. In the case of (c), the
researchers wanted to respect people’s request to be identified, but they were
concerned that the interviews had addressed sensitive data, and that identifying
participants might also jeopardise the anonymisation of other people that the
participants had named as important to them, who were also interviewed for the
study.

Situation 6: What happened?

M, a student, seemed enthusiastic about the study. For example, after each of the
first two interviews, she asked whether there would be another interview, and was
keen to continue with the research. However, after the second interview, the
researcher found out that she had dropped out of her course. M did not respond to
any subsequent attempts to make contact with her.

Was it just coincidence that M dropped out of her course - a result of other things
going on in her life? The researcher was concerned because it seemed surprising
that she did not respond to his attempts at making contact, given her earlier
enthusiasm about the study.

M was very critical of some of her lecturers in her earlier interviews, and after taking
part in the research she had failed their modules. The researcher was worried that
she may have thought he had shared his findings with these members of staff, and
that she might have attributed her failure of the module to his breach of
confidentiality. Equally, he wondered if the interview discussions - reflecting on her
problems in the course - might have increased her dissatisfaction, and contributed to
her leaving the course.