Psychologists Should Anticipate Ethical Issues In The Research Process

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Shaeffer (1983:9) observes that ‘research is all things to all people, differently perceived, defined and classified by producers and consumers, participants and subjects, academics and policy makers.’ Punch (2005) adds that research involves collecting data from people, about people. So when embarking on a research mission, researchers should anticipate ethical issues that may arise during the course of the study. Hesse- Bieber & Leavey (2006) postulate that, in addition to conceptualising the research writing process for a proposal, researchers need to anticipate the ethical issues that may arise during the research process.
Dooley (2004) defines ethics as the study of right and wrong conduct and in studies like human research; researchers must weigh the benefits of the knowledge to be gained against the costs, including those to the subjects. Blumberg etal (2011) agree that ethics is the study of the right behaviour and addresses the question of how to conduct research in a …show more content…

Other ethical issues to consider include personal disclosure, authenticity and credibility of the research report and also personal issues such as disclosure among others. Other ethical considerations to watch out for include that the research should aim to benefit individuals and society and minimise harm, also rights and dignity of individuals and groups should be respected. A research should also be conducted with integrity and transparency and lines of responsibility and accountability should be clearly laid out and defined. Another ethical consideration to make is that independence of the research should be maintained and where conflict of interests cannot be avoided but should be made

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