ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Anyone involved in social scientific research needs to be aware of the general agreements shared by researchers about what is improper in the conduct of scientific inquiry (Babbie, 2007:62). Ethics is concerned with the attempt to formulate codes and principles of moral behaviour. The focus is on the capacity for ethical inquiry to inform reasons for action in the conduct of social research and to protect participants and the integrity of the inquiry (May, 2011:61).

There are four sub-themes of ethics. They are mentioned by Mertens and Ginsberg (2009:5) as descriptive, normative, meta, and applied ethics The authors state that descriptive ethics are relevant to social research, as they show how people actually behave and what ethical values they hold.

Ethical guidelines that are vital to this research are avoidance of harm to participants, ensuring informed consent, the avoidance of deception, and the avoidance of the violation of anonymity, privacy and confidentiality.

1.11.1 Informed consent

Informed consent involves ensuring that all potential research participants are fully informed about every aspect of the investigation and any issues that might influence their decision to participate (Hardwick & Worsley, 2011:33). This definition is expanded on by Polit and Beck (in Streubert & Carpenter, 2011:62) by stating that participants are supposed to be capable of comprehending the information, and have the power of free choice, enabling them to consent voluntarily to participate in the research or decline to participate.

There are three elements involved for informed consent to be regarded as valid as suggested by Hardwick and Worsley (2011:33):

 Firstly, the person must be capable of making the consent decision.

 Secondly, the person must be acting voluntarily and must not, for example, be under obligation to give his or her consent.

 Thirdly, the person must be provided with enough information to enable him or her to make an informed decision.

For this particular study, the researcher issued the participants with an information and consent form document (Addendum B) which explained the purpose and procedure of the study. Each participant signed a form before participating after they had agreed to the contents. Participants were allowed to seek clarity on those aspects they did not understand for them to be able to make a sound decision about taking part in the study.

1.11.2 The right to privacy

Securing privacy for participants involves ensuring that they are given an opportunity to control if, when and under what circumstances they reveal or grant access to personal information on their behaviour, values and/or beliefs. There are three ways of protecting participant’s privacy. Confidentiality means ensuring that information

or data collected from participants in the investigation is not revealed in a form that can be linked or traced back to individuals. Anonymity refers to ensuring that real names are replaced by pseudonyms, thus protecting the participant’s identity.

Finally, editing allows participants to see data that relate to them and decide whether they wish these to be revealed or edited out (Hardwick & Worsley, 2011:35).

The researcher included a confidentiality clause in the information and informed consent form and gave reference to it.

1.11.3 Avoidance of deception

Deception is when a researcher gives incorrect information about the research. This could entail withholding important information from the participants or giving incorrect information on the actual purpose of the research (Babbie, 2013:70).

According to Whitley and Kite (2013: 77) deception is lying. The authors describe deception in two forms; active and passive deception. Active deception is when the researcher provides participants with false information, for instance about the purpose and nature of the research (Whitley & Kite, 2013:75). Passive deception is when the researcher withholds information from the participants or observes their behaviour without their knowledge (Whitley & Kite, 2013:76).

The researcher avoided deception by informing the participants about everything they needed to know and answering questions as truthfully as possible. The researcher used the information and informed consent document to formalise the procedure.

1.11.4 Debriefing of participants

Debriefing entails interviews to discover any problems generated by the research experience so that those problems can be corrected (Babbie, 2013:71). The researcher also ensured the participants’ right to self-determination in that they could withdraw from the research any time they felt any discomfort. The researcher made arrangements with colleagues for the referral for debriefing of participants who may have been affected emotionally and for therapeutic support should it be necessary.

1.11.5 Management of information

With reference to managing information provided by participants and ensuring anonymity and confidentiality, the researcher followed the procedures proposed by Holloway and Wheeler (2010:45-46):

 Digital records, notes and transcripts were kept secure at all times. They were locked away in a cabinet that only the researcher had access to.

 To ensure anonymity, names of participants were not written on the digital record files, notes or transcripts, but the researcher allocated pseudonyms to them to hide their identities. The researcher ensured that the lists containing the real names and pseudonyms allocated to participants were kept away from the digital record files, notes or transcripts of the interviews.

 When other people (supervisor, independent coder and editor) had access to the information, the researcher did not disclose the participants’ names. The participants’ identities were disguised at all times.

 Finally, the researcher erased digital records and transcripts on completion of the research.