Ethical Considerations in Social Sciences and

Humanities Research
Research Scenario 1
Farid is taking Introduction to Anthropology, Psychology and Sociology. He proposes to
do a research project investigating the question of whether girls or boys have an easier
time making the transition to high school. He interviews a number of people for his
research project and during one of the interviews, Kayley tells Farid that her transition to
high school was particularly difficult because grade 9 was when she realized that she
was gay. Farid told his friend Jason about Kayley’s interview and Jason then posted the
information on Facebook. Kayley, who was not “out” at school or with her family, is
devastated and is very close to dropping out of school.

1. To begin, in this case study, the violation of confidentiality appears to be the most
evident. We can understand this as, in our case, the researcher(Farid) listened to
the subject-Kayley's opinion on the transition from elementary to high school.
After acquiring knowledge of her experiences, Farid then shares the newly
acquired information with his friend Jason. Jason posts the data to Facebook, a
platform where the data is now made public without pseudonyms. This resulted
in Kayley's information exposure, information she had not shared with her school
community or her family. Nonetheless, Farid did not make any reasonable effort
to ensure the acquired knowledge was issued, mainly because he told his friend
after. Instead of personal interest, he did not share the information with his friend
because he was directly involved with the research. Farid also exploited his
researcher/subject relationship at the expense of the "client." Furthermore, by
putting his relationship with his friend before the subject, Farid imposed harm on
both the dignity and privacy of the participant, resulting in her consideration of
dropping out of school.
2. Despite the various ethical issues and violations within this case study, Farid
could have easily avoided the ethical issues. For example, if Farid did not let his
friend Jason know about Kayley's life, Jason would have never exposed her
information. She would not be in the situation she currently is in. Also, Farid
should have obtained informed consent to avoid these ethical issues, as the
information acquired in this study can derail the subject's life if used in the wrong
way. What I mean by this is that Farid should have asked Kayley if sharing this
knowledge with someone was acceptable rather than sharing it without her
permission.
3. In this case, when following the ethical research criteria provided by the
university f Toronto, as an ASP student, I should have let all participants know of
the risks involved in this study. Specifically, the loss of privacy, reputation and the
emotional harm associated with eh sharing of this information. However, in
Farid's case, the loss of reputation should have been guaranteed avoided as this
was an individual study project for class. He should have gone into and left this
study with an objective mindset towards the participants. Also, as an ASP
 student, to ensure the criteria ensured in the informed consent letter, Farid
should have used pseudonyms to protect the privacy of participants as the
information shared could impose severe emotional/social harm. Farid should
refrain from sharing information with people not involved with the experiment.
Ultimately, refraining from sharing information with those not involved can benefit
the participants, as their information is guaranteed to be confidential. It helps the
result obtained from the research because all practice involved while the study
was conducted was deemed ethical.

Research Scenario 2
Jocelyn is taking Families in Canada. She proposes to do a research project on family
meal traditions. She interviews a number of students and during one of the interviews,
Shoshana describes some issues that she’s been experiencing for the last few months.
Based on what she has heard, Jocelyn worries that Shoshana has an eating disorder
and is putting herself at risk. Other than Jocelyn, nobody knows about what Shoshana
is experiencing. (I assumed that students are in grade 12, families in canada is a grade
12 course)

1. In this case study, the most visible ethical violations would be the lack of a clear
purpose to this research. Jocelyn's research project was on family meal traditions
but did not have a question she was trying to answer. More importantly, the lack
of purpose behind her research resulted in sharing information irrelevant to her
study. Jocelyn worries that Shoshana has an eating disorder but provided a clear
intention to the research and a question to be answered; Jocelyn would not be in
this challenging scenario. On the one hand, to ethically conduct the research,
you must assure the participant's confidentiality. On the other hand, you have to
consider Shoshana's safety.
2. As much as we care about a person's safety, we have to remember that as a
researcher, our goal is to understand the question we are trying to answer. We
should avoid aimlessly researching a topic, as it can yield varying results based
on the participant's answer. When we are specific with our intent, we avoid
ethical dilemmas. Similarly, when we have a clear purpose for the research, we
do not appear intrusive on the subject's life.
3. As a student in ASP, when ensuring that our research follows the ethical
research criteria, we have to make sure that we follow every guideline. In the
case of Shoshana, to ensure that the investigation is conducted ethically, we
would make sure to fully describe to Shoshana what we will be doing in the
project. However, there is no clear purpose to the research, in this case, so the
first step to ensuring that research is conducted ethically would be coming up
with a specific question to research.

Specific to this example, when conducting ethical research, we must ensure

participant confidentiality within information shared. This means using alternative
naming methods for each participant, like pseudonyms or ID numbers, and only
 sharing information with people directly involved in the research project. As hard
as it may seem, we have to follow the ethical guidelines, primarily because it
ensures the genuineness of the research and adds credibility to your name.

Research Scenario 3
Abbey is taking Raising Healthy Families and is working with children from ages 3
through 6 asking them to perform various cognitive reasoning tasks. She recruited her
participants through friends of friends and through the daycare program that is run near
her school. Shortly after the study, the father of one participant contacted the principal of
the school demanding a copy of his daughter’s assessment results. He believes that his
daughter has an undiagnosed learning disability and he would like her results to be
used in determining best placement for her at school

1. In this case, it appears that Abbey did not specify the purpose of her research.
She worked with children ages 3-6 and asked them to perform various tasks.
Children cannot consent to conduct research at this young age. This means that
their parents would have to be informed of everything going on. However, if the
father is demanding a copy of the assessment results to use as a reference for
placement at school, Abbey did not specify the purpose of the research enough.
To begin, as a student taking a high school level course, Abbey should have
made clear that her results are not to be taken as a professional opinion, as she
has not done anything to be deemed as a credible resource. Her lack of
credibility means that the research conducted is not guaranteed to be accurate,
so it cannot be used as a professional opinion. Additionally, Abbey should have
presented the parents with a clear purpose behind the research, which would let
them know what she is trying to understand, what their children will be doing, and
why they will be doing it. Also, the researcher must share the study's findings
with the participants.
2. There is always a way to avoid the ethical issue presented in this case study. To
begin, providing specific information regarding the purpose of the research can
ensure that the parents know what is happening with their child. Still, it gives the
knowledge of practice techniques, the time required, and the researcher's
credibility. This will avoid such problems as parents demanding results for use in
real life. Then again, if the researcher made it clear that this was for school,
explained their credibility, and shared the study results with the parents, they
wouldn't demand their results. They would know that these results may not be
accurate and cannot be used to determine what is best for their child.
3. Finally, under the research criteria, the researcher must entail the purpose of the
research in detail and share findings with participants. This way, researchers and
participants can avoid confusion, and the study can be conducted ethically.

For each research scenario answer the following questions:

1. What are the ethical issues that arise in each scenario?

2. How could the issues in each scenario have been avoided?

3. Examine the sample ethical research criteria that is based on the University of
Toronto’s Research Ethics Criteria for Social Sciences & Humanities. How could
a student in ASP ensure that they meet the standards listed in the criteria? Give
specific strategies that a student could apply when conducting their own research
experiment.