1. Ethics and Politics of Social Research
Mary Cassatt: Breakfast in Bed, 1894.

2. Ethical Issues in Social Research
Voluntary Participation
Subjects must agree to reveal information about themselves.
Subjects must be able to provide informed consent.
Behavior observed in public settings is assumed to imply agreement to being observed.
Subjects contacted after being observed in a public setting must be informed they were observed in a public setting.

3. Ethical Issues in Social Research
No Harm to Subjects
Subjects must be free from reasonably anticipated physical or emotional harm.
Subjects must be informed of the manifest content of the information they will be asked to reveal about themselves.
It is permissible to deceive subjects, as long as the deception cannot be anticipated to create physical or emotional harm.

4. Ethical Issues in Social Research
Anonymity
Both the researcher and the public cannot identify the subject.
Anonymity often is not required during data collection, but sometimes is preferred.
The “double-blind” experiment.
Typically, identifiers must be removed from the data after collection is complete.
The exception would be for longitudinal data collection.

5. Ethical Issues in Social Research
Confidentiality
The public cannot identify the subject.
Confidentiality nearly always is required.
Social scientists are mandatory reporters of child abuse and capital crimes.
A Federal Certificate of Confidentiality can help protect researchers from revealing the identity of subjects involved in criminal activities, except capital crimes.

6. Ethical Issues in Social Research
Deception: Identity of Researcher to Subjects
Sometimes, it can be important for researchers to conceal their identity to subjects.
This type of deception can raise serious concerns about informed consent.
Deception: Identity of Research Purpose
It is common in laboratory experiments to reveal the full nature of the research purpose.
Debriefing involves informing subjects of full research purpose after data collection is completed.

7. Ethical Issues in Social Research
Institutional Review Boards
“Human Subject Committees” decide if research is ethical.
Ethics is an evolving issue.
Learn more and take the test! Click here:
Guidelines for Human Subjects Research

8. Ethical Issues in Social Research
Required Elements for Consent
Purpose of study.
How respondent was selected.
Results will be used for research and [other].
Voluntary participation in the study or any part of it.
Respondent can keep any incentives if they withdraw from the study.
Confidentiality of responses.
Contact information of the researcher.

9. Ethical Issues in Social Research
Professional Ethics
Reporting of findings.
Credit for findings.
Plagiarism.

10. The Politics of Social Research
Objectivity and Ideology
Verstehen: Value-free scientific inquiry.
Research and bias.
Racial, gender, political, religious.
The expert witness.
The Sociologist as Person
Basic research, applied research, and advocacy.