Understanding Ethical Responsibilities in Research Methodology

This essay addresses the ethical issues inherent in research involving human participants, highlighting the tension between demanding experiments and upholding ethical standards. It emphasizes the necessity of human participation for valid research, while also considering the impact of environmental events on participant behavior. The essay underscores the importance of adhering to ethical measures and moral rules set by society, including respecting participant comfort levels and ensuring confidentiality. It references guidelines such as those from the British Educational Research Association (BERA) and legal requirements like the Data Protection Act (1998), emphasizing the need to safeguard participant information and privacy. Examples such as the 'youth gun and knife crime' awareness issues in London are used to illustrate the impact of ethical considerations in social research.

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Ethical Issues pertaining to research
The ethical researchers generally carry out the experiments that seem to be demanding in
nature which has led to the increase in the authority within the various outcomes of the research.
This has led to the various ethical issues in the field of the researches that are conducted with the
human participants. On the other hand, it might also follow the ethical practices that mentioned
that the participation of humans in the ethical researches are necessary in order to put forth a
valid research in the concerned field. Bronfenbrenner (2009) opines that the consideration of the
human considerations will not be validated in order put across a validation of the concerned
research.
The other major issue that might arise in the matters that pertain to the human
participants in the concerned research are the impacts of the environmental events upon the
behaviors that are depicted by the concerned human participants. Newby (2014) opines state that
the concerned researchers might have certain assumptions and expectations on the result of the
concerned researches thereby constituting the reasonable behavior in the concerned environment.
A researcher must always abide by the ethical measures that are set by the concerned
society while involving a human participant in the concerned research. The researchers are also
advised to follow the moral rules that have been set by the society. Basit and Tomlinson (2012)
opine that the ethical consideration s should be considered to be a guideline that provide the
concerned researchers with the various rules that need to be followed in order to be proven to be
ethical as well as reliable.

The researcher is advised to look in to the comfort levels of the concerned participant.
The researchers are advised to put special consideration to the areas that pertain to the various
ethnicity, disability, gender, race and other such matters that might be sensitive issues for the
concerned person. The researcher should also keep a look out for the usage of the language that
is being used as well as the areas of social exclusion that the concerned participant might go
through, the “youth gun and knife crime” awareness issues in London as for example. The
concerned society had been claiming the fact that the residents had not been feeling loved and
happy due to the “epidemic of violence, crime and drunkenness has made the Britain scared of
its young” that had been observed within the Urban Youth (Archer, Hollingworth and Mendick,
2010, cited in Mayer, 2008:2). a researcher is often advised to ensure the participant of the
confidentiality of the matter and respect the choice of withdrawal of the participant.
The researchers are often advised to maintain the strict confidentiality of the information
that has been collected from the participants of the concerned research. Oliver (2010) opines that
the participant information should always be confidential as the concerned participants might not
prefer the publicity of the information that they have been sharing with the researcher. The
researcher must also look out for the safeguarding of the information from being leaked to the
other sources.
There are various such researches that need to follow the various matters that deal with
the information and the guidance on the various ethical practices in the fields of research. One
such example is the ‘Council of the British Educational Research Association’ or the BERA
wherein the codes are written on the article stating the “Responsibilities to Sponsors of
Research”.

Strech and Schildmann (2011) state that the researchers must ensure the recognition of
“the participants’ entitlement to privacy and must accord them their rights to confidentiality and
anonymity”. The authors further state that the researchers might further act in compliance with
the various legal requirements of storing the personal data of the participants as according to the
Data Protection Act (1998) and other similar legal measures.

References
Archer, L., Hollingworth, S. and Mendick, H. (2010). Urban youth and schooling. Berkshire,
England: Open University Press.
Basit, T. and Tomlinson, S. (2012). Social inclusion and higher education. Bristol: Policy.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (2009). Ecology of Human Development. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press.
Newby, P. (2014). Research methods for education. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, Taylor and
Francis.
Oliver, P. (2010). The student’s guide to research ethics. England: University Press.
Strech, D. and Schildmann, J. (2011). Quality of ethical guidelines and ethical content in clinical
guidelines: the example of end-of-life decision-making. Journal of Medical Ethics, 37(7),
pp.390-396.