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What are Qualitative Research Ethics
Rose Wiles
NCRM Hub
University of Southampton
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council
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Outline of Presentation
• What do we mean by ethics?
• Outline ethical frameworks for helping consideration of
ethical dilemmas
– Principlism
– Consequentialism
– Ethics of care
– Virtue ethics
• Example …..
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What are Ethics?
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An ethical dilemma
In a study in an educational context exploring school-based
friendships and using participatory and child-friendly research
methods, the process for consent for children to participate in the
study was that consent was needed from both the child and his/her
parents. On the day the research was to take place, one child gave
in her consent form on which the parent’s signature had clearly been
forged. The child denied they had forged it, and was desperate to
take part in the research project and expressed anxiety about feeling
excluded if she was unable to participate. Should the researcher
overlook the forged consent given the research does not pose any
risks to the child and indeed excluding them might be judged as
more harmful?
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council
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Factors Shaping Ethical Decision-Making
Ethical Frameworks
Ethical Regulation,
Professional
Guidelines,
Disciplinary norms
Ethical decisionMaking
Individual Moral
Framework
Legal Regulation
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Principlist Approaches
• The framework used most commonly
• Based on 4 principles
– Respect for autonomy; informed consent,
voluntariness, confidentiality, anonymity
– Beneficence, ‘do good’
– Non-maleficence, ‘do no harm’
– Justice, distribute the burdens and benefits of
research equally
• A starting point for explore ethical dilemmas
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Consequentionalist Approaches
• Ethical decisions based on consequences
(outcomes) of actions rather than principles
• Actions are morally right if they produce a
good outcome for an individual – or more
usually wider society
• Covert research?
• Breaching confidentiality?
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council
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Ethics of Care
• Ethical decisions made on the basis of care,
compassion
• 3 points central
– Situational rather than universal principles
– Stresses care and compassion for research
participants
– Stresses interdependency/ relationality between
researchers and all people affected by research
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Virtue Ethics
• Person based
• Focus on a researcher’s
moral character
• Notion of research
integrity
• Virtues needed to
behave in morally in
research
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The Virtues and Vices of Research
Phase
Defect (vice)
Virtue
Excess (vice)
framing
cowardice
courage
recklessness
Negotiating
manipulativeness
respectfulness
partiality
Generating
laziness
resoluteness
inflexibility
Creating
concealment
sincerity
exaggeration
Disseminating
boastfulness
humility
timidity
Reflecting
dogmatism
reflexivity
indecisiveness
Macfarlane. B. (2009) Researching with Integrity. Oxon: Routledge
Making Ethical Decisions
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identify the nature of the problem and the stakeholders involved;
identify various options for resolving the dilemmas;
identify the range of consequences of each option for different
stakeholders;
consider the short and long-term implications of decisions;
consider the options by reference to moral principles such as honesty,
trust, autonomy, fairness and equality;
integrate consequences and principles to reach an independent and
justifiable decision;
reflect on the decision
Israel, M. & Hay, I. (2006) Research Ethics for Social Scientists. London: Sage
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An ethical dilemma: consent
While Dan verbally agreed to all the data we have from his participation in
our research being archived in our previous wave of interviews back in
2007, we have been providing our participants with more detailed
information about archiving and asking them to sign consent to archiving
forms in this year’s round. Unfortunately Dan died just before he was about
to participate in the 2009 wave, and so he has not signed the form. The
question here is can we go ahead and archive the data anyway on the basis
of his verbal consent two years ago? An alternative is that we ask Dan’s
parents if they would sign the archiving consent form, as his next of kin.
This, however, implies or suggests that they have some sort of ownership of
the data. Could Dan’s parents demand their own copies of Dan’s data?
Could they refuse to give permission to archive the data, despite Dan’s
implied consent two years previously?
http://www.timescapes.leeds.ac.uk/research-projects/projects/siblings-friends
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An ethical Dilemma: confidentiality
But perhaps there is also a moral dimension to the issue of the data and
Dan’s parents too. We both have a sense that we hold something material of
Dan, while his parents and siblings have lost their son and brother. We
have, for example, recordings of his voice. We are wondering whether we
should offer to give Dan’s parents in particular a sample of his voice
identifying a non-sensitive part of the 2007 interview, such as Dan’s
discussion of his interests. There are several issues that we are thinking
about in this respect. We did promise Dan confidentiality and anonymity
when we collected the data from him, though of course we and he did not
have such a situation in mind. Does that promise over-ride this situation? If
the confidentiality promise doesn’t over-ride giving Dan’s parents a sample
of his voice, who are we to decide that they should not hear anything we
consider sensitive?
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Responses - consent
‘My instinct is that you ought to contact Dan’s next of kin … given that he
was only 16 when he consented. It may be that you need to remind them
that you have the data and offer them a chance to consent to archive or
request that Dan’s data is withdrawn and destroyed’
‘I feel it is not their decision to refuse whether Dan’s data can be archived as
this was an agreement which you entered into with Dan – not his parents ‘
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Responses - confidentiality
‘I think considering offering his parents a sample of his voice would
be to consider their feelings in the circumstances, rather than
necessarily infringing Dan’s privacy’
‘I think that his agreement to anonymity and confidentiality still
stands, he hasn’t revoked it – and – honestly, ethically, I am not sure
you can speculate on what he may or may not have wanted and how
that may or may not have changed over time or with circumstances’
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Decision
We came to the conclusion that there was no, one, solution to the ethical dilemmas,
and we would do what felt comfortable for us. Other researchers may have settled on
other courses of action in the same situation, but we decided to do the following
because it feels morally caring to us.
We have followed up our condolences card by writing to Dan’s parents after
Christmas and New Year was over, on the assumption that this period would be
particularly difficult for them. We offered them and/or Dan’s siblings the opportunity to
archive any memories of Dan alongside his research data if they wanted to (this offer
was in effect informing them that the material was being archived). We also offered
them a sample of Dan’s voice. We left it that if they did not contact us we would
understand that they would prefer not to be involved in these ways. Dan’s parents
responded to say that they would like a DVD of extracts from his interview, and also
to have their memories of Dan recorded for the archive.
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Summary Conclusions
• Gut feelings versus ethical frameworks; ethical frameworks help
researchers to think about, evaluate and justify ‘gut feelings’.
• Which framework? Researchers need to use frameworks that fit
with their moral views and which enable them to explore and
justify their decisions.
• There are no answers! Ethical frameworks provide a means of
thinking about ethical dilemmas and assessing what an
appropriate and defensible course of action might be.
• Individual researchers make different decisions
NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council
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NCRM is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council
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