d) The researcher failing to ask permission to interview someone.
Question 10
What problem does a research organization face when drawing up an ethical code?
a) Identifying relevant legislation that should guide behaviour.
b) Reflecting the difficulty of making truly ethical decisions.
c) Incorporating assessments for the ethical behaviour of
participants.
d) All of the above.
Chapter 05
Results
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Question 1
There is a tendency for debates about ethics in social research to focus on the most extreme cases of ethical transgression. Why might this create a misleading impression?
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Correct answer:
c) Because this implies that ethical concerns do not pervade all social research.
Feedback:
Writing about ethics in social research has typically centred on some extreme, infamous cases of deception, invasions of privacy and so on. While these examples help to illustrate our points convincingly, they can be misleading in that ethical dilemmas affect all kinds of social research, down to the most mundane and straightforward research designs.
Page reference: 123 Question 2
Which of the following ideas is not associated with the stance of situation ethics?
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Correct answer:
a) Anything goes Feedback:
One of the four main ethical stances that Bryman identifies is that of situation ethics. This is the belief that there are no absolute rules of ethical research and that each case must be examined individually. It may be that there was no other way of studying a particularly important phenomenon and so "the end justifies the means" and the researcher had "no choice" but to use this method.
However, this approach of "principled relativism" is not the same as the belief that "anything goes", for it still demands that we draw a line between ethical and unethical conduct and rule out some practices.
Page reference: 125 (Key concept 5.2) Question 3
Why is it argued that ethical transgression is pervasive in social research?
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Correct answer:
b) Because researchers rarely provide their participants with all the information they might want to know about a project.
Feedback:
Another of the ethical stances that Bryman identifies is the claim that ethical transgression is pervasive and therefore inevitable in social research. This is based on the acknowledgement that researchers have to deceive or withhold information from their participants to some extent. It would be impractical to tell everyone every detail about the research design, for example. Furthermore, if the researcher explained the hypotheses being tested or that most people of a particular socio-economic background hold a particular point of view, for
example, while being more "honest" would also bias the response.
Page reference: 124 (Key concept 5.2) Question 4
Which of the following is a form of harm that might be suffered by research participants?
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d) All of the above Feedback:
One of the most commonly cited ethical principles is that we should not cause harm to our research participants. This can take many forms, including physical injury, psychological distress or emotional harm, loss of self-esteem, being persuaded to conduct morally reprehensible acts, and having one's physical, intellectual or emotional development hindered. We must also be careful about security of our research records, so that respondents may not be identified, let's say, or otherwise harmed through loss of confidentiality.
Page reference: 128, 129 Question 5
Why is it important that personal data about research participants are kept within secure, confidential records?
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Correct answer:
b) In case individuals, places or organizations can be harmed through identification or disclosure of personal information.
Feedback:
When maintaining records of personal information about your participants, it is important that these data are kept in a safe, secure place to which no one but you has access (unless the participants have consented to other arrangements).
Participants have the right to see what has been written about them, or which is stored on computer files about them. Much quantitative data can be made
anonymous quite easily and, in any event, the identity of the respondent is not a focus of study but in qualitative research this is not as easily done. Great care must be taken with the handling of this data, particularly in the final published reports, so that individuals cannot be identified from their comments or any details about their backgrounds.
Page reference: 129 Question 6
Which method is most commonly associated with a lack of informed consent?
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c) Covert observation Feedback:
One of the most important ethical principles is that prospective participants should be fully informed about the nature of the research, so that they can make an informed decision about whether or not to take part. Covert observation is often regarded as an ethically dubious method because this principle is
breached: the people being studied are not aware of the researcher's true identity and so do not have the opportunity of refusing to participate.
Page reference: 133 Question 7
Why is it "easier said than done" to ensure that the principle of informed consent is adhered to?
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Correct answer:
d) All of the above.
Feedback:
Homan (1991:73, cited on page 133) suggests that it is "easier said than done"
to follow the principle of informed consent because of a number of factors. It may not be practical and realistic to tell every participant in a large study all the background information about it; the researcher sometimes wants to withhold certain (minor) details about the procedure so that people will not be dissuaded from taking part; and doing so helps to avoid reactive effects, in that
participants are less likely to make their behaviour conform to the researcher's expectations.
Page reference: 133 Question 8
Apart from the fact that it is "not a nice thing to do", what is an important ethical disadvantage of deceiving participants?
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Correct answer:
a) It can damage the professional reputation of the researcher and their discipline.
Feedback:
It is widely regarded as unacceptable to deceive participants about the nature of the research and their involvement in it. This is mainly because it is unfair and unkind to force people to participate in a project without their being aware that they are being studied and giving informed consent. However, it can also be very damaging for the researcher's professional reputation if they are known to have indulged in such unethical practices, and this in turn can reflect negatively upon their discipline as a whole. It is therefore each researcher's responsibility to ensure that their research is as ethically sound as possible and to "leave the field clean" for future researchers.
Page reference: 137 Question 9
Which of the following is an example of deception in business research?
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Correct answer:
c) The researcher representing their research as being about a different topic.
Feedback:
By informing participants that the research is about something different than it actually is, the researcher is purposefully deceiving the participant. To some degree this is prevalent in all research so that researchers can maximize the natural response to the questions asked.
Page reference: 136 Question 10
What problem does a research organization face when drawing up an ethical code?
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Correct answer:
b) Reflecting the difficulty of making truly ethical decisions.
Feedback:
The difficulty of drawing up an ethical code for researchers to follow is that it is difficult to give guidance on marginal ethical decisions that almost all
researchers are likely to face.
Page reference: 143,144
Chapter 06
Instructions
Choose your answer by clicking the radio button next to your choice and then press 'Submit' to get your score.
Question 1
An operational definition is:
a) one that bears no relation to the underlying concept.
b) an abstract, theoretical definition of a concept.
c) a definition of a concept in terms of specific, empirical
measures.
d) one that refers to opera singers and their work.
Question 2
The importance of measurement in quantitative research is that:
a) it allows us to delineate fine differences between people or
cases.
b) it provides a consistent device or yardstick.
c) it allows for precise estimates of the degree of relationship
between concepts.
d) all of the above.
Question 3
The difference between measures and indicators is that:
a) measures are unambiguous quantities, whereas indicators are