Research Ethics
IRB & Research
Research Types
Conducting research process
Wild Card
100
3 Main Principles of Ethics in Research that came due Belmont Report (1979)
1. Respect for Persons- (We recognize the personal dignity and autonomy of individuals, and we should provide special protection of those persons with diminished autonomy.) Participants participate voluntarily, using informed consent
2. Beneficence- (obligation to protect persons from harm by maximizing anticipated benefits and minimizing possible risks of harm.)
3. Justice of Persons- (The benefits and burdens of research should be distributed fairly.)
100
IRB was founded by...
1974- U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW, now the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or DHHS) decreed that the PHS guidelines would apply to social science research. Furthermore, the DHEW recognized that codes of conduct alone would not ensure ethical research without some oversight procedures in place.
To this end, the DHEW required research institutions, such as universities, to establish institutional review boards, or IRBs, that would review research proposals and ensure that the guidelines were followed.
1981- DHHS regulations are codified at Title 45, Part 46, of the Code of Federal Regulations. Those basic regulations became final in 1981 and were subsequently revised in 1983 and again in 1991.
1991 - revision was especially important, because it involved the adoption of the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects that had been set forth in the Belmont Report.
100
Pure Research is...
Applied Research is...
Research where the information reviewed may be referred to in the FUTURE.
Research where the information reviewed answers a practical question TODAY. With this research, the assumption is that some group, or society as a whole, will gain specific benefits from it. Thus, explaining juvenile delinquency to social workers, probation officers, and the police is important because it can lead to programs intended to alleviate delinquency in a community.
100
Flow of Research...
1. Select a topic
2. Literature review
3. Design study
4. Present to IRB
5. IRB Review
6. Implement Research
7. Process Data
8. Publish findings
100
Steps of Social Research
1. Problem Formulation ( specific issues for which empirical data can be gathered, such as: What is the divorce rate? How does it compare with the divorce rate of previous years?)
2. Research Design ( who will be studied, how these people will be selected, and what information will be gathered from or about them)
3. Data Collection ( description of what kinds of data will be collected and how this will be done) (includes pre-test and pilot study)
4. Data Analysis ( unlocks the information hidden in the raw data)
5. Draw Conclusions ( draw some conclusions
from the data analysis)
6. Publications ( book or professional journal or through presentation to a professional organization )
200
What are ethics? Why is this important for research?
What are some historical examples where ethics were not followed in research?
Ethics= the study of what is proper and improper behavior, of moral duty and obligation
Purpose: For social researchers, ethics involves the responsibilities that researchers bear toward those who participate in research, those who sponsor research, and those who are potential beneficiaries of research
- Medical experiments conducted by Nazis on Jews in camps. Healthy individuals were intentionally infected with diseases and were not given treatment. Nuremberg Trials of 1945 and 1946 determined experiments were unethical. Healthy people were intentionally infected with such serious diseases as spotted fever or malaria to observe the course of the disease with and without medication.
- Tuskegee Syphilis experiment (done by U.S. Public Health Service (PHS)- Unethical experiment of African-American males in Tuskegee, Alabama, given syphilis as an experiment to try different treatment.
200
Belmont Report did what?
respect, beneficence, and justice are now accepted as the three quintessential requirements for the ethical conduct of research involving human subjects.
200
Program Evaluation versus Practice Evaluation
Program Evaluation= did you achieve the goal you had in mind? = program evaluation on a large scale
Practice evaluation= on a smaller or client level, did you achieve the goals in mind; analyze specific aspect of program
200
3 Concerns about sponsors being involved with research studies...
1. Common for sponsors to want to retain control over the release of the collected data.
2. Nature of the research project itself. The precise purpose and procedures of the study should be specified in the agreement.
3. Informed consent- namely, revealing the sponsor's identity to participants. Although controversy exists in this regard some researchers take the stance that truly informed consent can be given only if a participant knows who is sponsoring the study and for what purpose the study is being conducted.
200
Ethical Considerations in a research study
Informed consent
Deception
Privacy (including confidentiality and anonymity)
Physical or mental distress
Problems in sponsored research
Scientific misconduct or fraud
Scientific advocacy.
300
Landmark Steps towards Ethics in Research
Nuremberg Code- 1946- developed in direct response to the atrocities committed during World War 11. The Nuremberg Code was limited to issues of ethics in medical research.
1966- PHS established ethical regulations for medical research that emphasized the following: (1) full disclosure of relevant information should be made to the participants;
(2) the decision to participate must be completely voluntary;
(3) researchers must obtain documented, informed consent from participants
300
IRB group is made up of...
Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, community members, lawyers, clergy, psychologists
300
This type of research is made up of these 3 things...
1. Systematic (uses scientific methodology to ask and answer questions)
2. Empirical (based on something you can observe, and measure.
3. Social or Psychological (includes areas of the bio-psycho-social arena)
Social Research
300
Fraud is...
Misconduct is...
Fraud is the deliberate falsification, misrepresentation, or plagiarizing of the data, findings, or ideas of others.
Misconduct is a broader concept that includes not only fraud, but also carelessness or bias in recording and reporting data, mishandling data, and incomplete reporting of results.
300
Anonymity versus confidentiality...
Anonymity =No one- not even the researchers no which person is linked to which study participant (this is not always possible)
Confidentiality = The names of people involved in the study will not be made public; but the researchers know who is who
400
Nuremberg Code (1947) did what?
Declaration of Helsinki (1964/2008) did what?
Required voluntary consent of research subjects.
Required that well being of research subjects was more important that the scientific research.
400
Positive Skew versus a Negative Skew
400
1. Type of research that focuses on the attempt to discover facts or describe reality. For example, it might deal with questions such as these: What are people's attitudes toward welfare? How widespread is child abuse?
2. This type of research is used to plan intervention programs, to monitor the implementation of new programs and the operation of existing ones, and to determine how effectively programs or clinical practices achieve their goals. This type of research can also determine whether a program has unintended consequences, desirable or undesirable.
Descriptive Research
Evaluation Research
400
Sources of knowledge:
1. Tradition
2. Experiential
3. Common Sense
4. Journalism
5. Science
1. Tradition- Traditional knowledge is knowledge based on custom, habit, and repetition.
2. Experiential- based on the assumption that truth and understanding can be achieved through personal experience, and that witnessing events will lead to an accurate comprehension of those events.
3. Common Sense- common sense practical judgments based on the experiences, wisdom, and prejudices of a people.
4. Journalism- journalism consists of opinion pieces based on the speculations and inferences of the journalist, much of it, like science, is grounded in observation: Reporters interview people or observe events and write their reports based on those observations.
5. Science- method of obtaining objective knowledge about the world through systematic observation.
400
Research terms
n=
mean=
median=
Mode=
standard deviation=
n= total number people in SAMPLE used in study
mean= average (total sum of #/n)
M= sample mean
median= # in the middle of all numbers when put in order
mode= most common number or value on a data set
standard deviation= tells you how much diversity(or "deviation") there is for a variable
500
Ethical Research issues:
1. Informed consent-
2. Deception
3. Privacy
4. Physical/mental distress
5. Sponsored research
6. Honesty
7. Scientific advocacy
500
Types of variables:
Categorical variable=
Continuous Variable
Categorical variables -take on values that are names or labels. The color of a ball (e.g., red, green, blue) or the breed of a dog (e.g., collie, shepherd, terrier) would be examples of categorical variables.
Continuous Variable/Quantitative variables= are numerical. They represent a measurable quantity. For example, when we speak of the population of a city, we are talking about the number of people in the city - a measurable attribute of the city. Therefore, population would be a quantitative variable.
500
Type of research that focuses on prediction or making projections about what may occur in the future or in other settings. An example is Insurance companies that make use of sophisticated actuarial schemes to predict the risks involved with insuring people or property.
This type of Research that covers why something happened. This type of research would would go beyond describing rates of juvenile delinquency or even predicting who will engage in delinquent acts. Explanatory research would focus on why certain people become delinquents.
Predictive Research
Explanatory Research
500
3 Criteria of Causation (hint..."A.N.T.)
1.Association / Correlation= Variables A and B must be empirically related; there must be a (scientific) logical relationship between A and B.
e.g. Taking a dose of aspirin lowers fever.
2. Temporality A (cause [IV]) precedes B (effect [DV]). e.g. The person took aspirin, and then the fever went down, not the other way around.
3. Nonspurious The relationship between A and B is not caused by other variable(s). e.g. The drop in fever is not due to the room getting colder, submerging the person in an ice bath, etc.
500
Positivist versus Post-Positivism=
Independent Variable & Dependent Variable =
Positivist (AKA: Logical Empiricism) – Observable quantification of a phenomenon •How many cells are in the Petri dish? •What’s the pulse rate? Respiration rate? Blood pressure? Height? Weight?
Post-Positivism (AKA: Interpretive Approach) – Using created measurement instruments to quantify less concrete phenomenon •Depression •Intelligence •Kindness
IR=independent variable= the presumed active or causal variable—the one believed to be producing changes in the dependent variable.
DV= dependent variable = the passive variable, or the one that is affected. In the previous examples, peer acceptance of alcohol and parental supervision are the independent variables, and alcohol use and substance abuse are the dependent variables.