Instructions: Review the ethical dilemma below and answer the questions provided.

Note that in
Question 1, you can have a minimum of zero (0) ethical principles and a maximum of three (3) stated.
The rubric below will be used to grade your answer. (10 points)

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 neighbor (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.

1. What ethical principles are being violated by the study? (5 points)

The ethical principles violated by the study are Informed consent, Beneficence and
non-maleficence and Respect for persons-autonomy and protecting those with diminished
autonomy. Informed consent requires the requires the research staff and participants to be
given concrete information about the research in an intelligible and appropriate manner.
Beneficence and non-maleficence deals with the aim to maximize the benefit of the research
and minimize the potential risk of harm to participants and researchers. Risk and harm can be
alleviated by vigorous precautions. Respect for persons-autonomy and protecting those with
diminished autonomy on the other hand means that all participants in the research must take
part voluntarily without any constraint and their own beliefs, rights and dignity should be
respected and protected.

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.
 1. What ethical principles are being violated by the study? (5 points)

Since the research will involve teachers and learners, the researcher will investigate whether
they belong to any vulnerable group. After which, an assurance will guarantee that no one belong to
such group, hence not anyone be subject to any physical, psychological, or mental abuse. Vulnerable
members of the population are elderlies, pregnant, indigenous people (IP), homeless or patient with a
terminal or incurable disease, or even powerless individual due to poverty and minors who are
dependent to their parents, of which the respondents are not among one of them. In other words, the
concept of vulnerability will not be applied.