UNIT 1 – ETHICAL CONCERNS

Who is a child?
UNICEF defines a child as "a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law
applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier".

WHO defines a child “a child is a person 19 years or younger unless national law defines a
person to be an adult at an earlier age”. However, in these guidelines when a person falls into
the 10 to 19 age category they are referred to as an adolescent.

What is a research?
Research is defined as the creation of new knowledge and/or the use of existing knowledge in
a new and creative way so as to generate new concepts, methodologies and understandings.
This could include synthesis and analysis of previous research to the extent that it leads to
new and creative outcomes.

The primary purposes of basic research are documentation, discovery, interpretation, and

the research and development of methods and systems for the advancement of human
knowledge.

What is a method?
A particular manner or mode of procedure, especially an orderly, logical, established or
systematic way of instruction, inquiry, investigation, experiment, presentation etc. is called a
method.

What is a technique?
The manner and ability with which a person employs the technical skills of a particular art or
field of endeavour. It is the body of specialized procedures and methods used in any specific
field, especially in an area of applied science to carry out a scientific or mechanical operation.
What are the differences between methods and techniques?

METHOD TECHNIQUE

Method is defined as a habitual, logical, or A way of carrying out a particular task,

prescribed practice or systematic process of
achieving certain end results with accuracy
and efficiency, usually in a preordained
sequence of steps.
especially the execution or performance of
an artistic work or a scientific procedure.
Technique means a systematic procedure,
formula, or a routine by which a task is
accomplished.

Method is the plan or procedure of Technique is a procedure or skill for

approach. completing a specific task.

Methods can be changed/altered to an Techniques cannot be modified.

extent.

What are ethics?

The most common way of defining "ethics" is norms for conduct that distinguish between
acceptable and unacceptable behaviour.

One may also define ethics as a method, procedure, or perspective for deciding how to act
and for analysing complex problems and issues. For instance, in considering a complex issue
like global warming, one may take an economic, ecological, political, or ethical perspective
on the problem. While an economist might examine the cost and benefits of various policies
related to global warming, an environmental ethicist could examine the ethical values and
principles at stake.

Although most societies use laws to enforce widely accepted moral standards and ethical and
legal rules use similar concepts, ethics and law are not the same. An action may be legal but
unethical or illegal but ethical.

Why are ethics important?

The need for ethics- There are several reasons why it is important to adhere to ethical norms
in research.
 1. Norms promote the aims of research, such as knowledge, truth, and avoidance of
error. For example, prohibitions against fabricating, falsifying, or misrepresenting
research data promote the truth and minimize error.

2. Since research often involves a great deal of cooperation and coordination among
many different people in different disciplines and institutions, ethical standards
promote the values that are essential to collaborative work, such as trust,
accountability, mutual respect, and fairness. For example, many ethical norms in
research, such as guidelines for authorship, copyright and patenting policies, data
sharing policies, and confidentiality rules in peer review, are designed to protect
intellectual property interests while encouraging collaboration. Most researchers want
to receive credit for their contributions and do not want to have their ideas stolen or
disclosed prematurely.

3. Many of the ethical norms help to ensure that researchers can be held accountable to
the public. For instance, federal policies on research misconduct, conflicts of interest,
the human subjects’ protections, and animal care and use are necessary in order to
make sure that researchers who are funded by public money can be held accountable
to the public.

4. Ethical norms in research also help to build public support for research. People are
more likely to fund a research project if they can trust the quality and integrity of
research.

5. Many of the norms of research promote a variety of other important moral and social
values, such as social responsibility, human rights, animal welfare, compliance with
the law, and public health and safety. Ethical lapses in research can significantly harm
human and animal subjects, students, and the public. For example, a researcher who
fabricates data in a clinical trial may harm or even kill patients, and a researcher who
fails to abide by regulations and guidelines relating to radiation or biological safety
may jeopardize his health and safety or the health and safety of staff and students.

What are the ethical considerations while conducting research?

The following is a rough and general summary of some ethical principles that various codes
address:

Objectivity

Strive to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation, peer review,
personnel decisions, grant writing, expert testimony, and other aspects of research where
objectivity is expected or required. Avoid or minimize bias or self-deception. Disclose
personal or financial interests that may affect research.

Integrity

Keep your promises and agreements; act with sincerity; strive for consistency of thought and
action.
Carefulness

Avoid careless errors and negligence; carefully and critically examine your own work and the
work of your peers. Keep good records of research activities, such as data collection, research
design, and correspondence with agencies or journals.

Openness

Share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Be open to criticism and new ideas.

Transparency

Disclose methods, materials, assumptions, analyses, and other information needed to evaluate
your research.

Accountability

Take responsibility for your part in research and be prepared to give an account (i.e. an
explanation or justification) of what you did on a research project and why.

Intellectual Property

Honour patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property. Do not use unpublished
data, methods, or results without permission. Give proper acknowledgement or credit for all
contributions to research. Never plagiarize

Responsible Publication

Publish in order to advance research and scholarship, not to advance just your own career.
Avoid wasteful and duplicative publication.

Responsible Mentoring

Help to educate, mentor, and advise students. Promote their welfare and allow them to make
their own decisions.

Respect for Colleagues

Respect your colleagues and treat them fairly.

Social Responsibility

Strive to promote social good and prevent or mitigate social harms through research, public
education, and advocacy.

Non-Discrimination

Avoid discrimination against colleagues or students on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or
other factors not related to scientific competence and integrity

Competence
Maintain and improve your own professional competence and expertise through lifelong
education and learning; take steps to promote competence in science as a whole.

Legality

Know and obey relevant laws and institutional and governmental policies.

Animal Care

Show proper respect and care for animals when using them in research. Do not conduct
unnecessary or poorly designed animal experiments.

Human Subjects protection

When conducting research on human subjects, minimize harms and risks and maximize
benefits; respect human dignity, privacy, and autonomy; take special precautions with
vulnerable populations (such as children); and strive to distribute the benefits and burdens of
research fairly.

Confidentiality

Protect confidential communications, such as papers or grants submitted for publication,

personnel records, trade or military secrets, and patient records.

Honesty

Strive for honesty in all scientific communications. Honestly report data, results, methods and
procedures, and publication status. Do not fabricate, falsify, or misrepresent data. Do not
deceive colleagues, research sponsors, or the public.

What are the ethical considerations when conducting research on children?

Research in children is recognized as a moral duty based on several ethical principles. These
principles are universal, though there are of course many subtleties and diversities, and the
contingent aspects of how principles are understood, interpreted and practiced can vary from
place to place. In child research, the ethical questions about how to conduct research are
deeply connected with the content of social or clinical theory. However, many factors have to
be taken into consideration so that the general research conditions are improved and not to
the benefit of any particular party.

The general purpose of research that involves children is to obtain and produce scientific
information about them. In this backdrop, the researchers should focus on the issues arising
during research and take all reasonable precautions to ensure children will not be harmed or
adversely affected by participating in the research. Similarly, researchers have to ensure that
the children participating do so at their own volition and that the rights of the child are fully
respected in the research process. The researcher is also obligated at all times to use the least
stressful research procedure whenever possible. But the benefits of conducting such research
must be balanced with ethical concerns. The research in children has based its ethical
guidance around some of the following principles:
1. Informed consent: In every case informed consent must be obtained from the child’s legal
representative and the child’s assent should be obtained through the provision of age-
appropriate information. The application of general principles indicates that, where children
have “sufficient understanding and intelligence to understand what is proposed”, it is they
and not their parents whose consent is required by law. According to the Declaration of
Helsinki, even though a child may not be legally competent to give consent, researchers
should gain informed consent. This means that parental consent is not enough and that both
the parents and child should be informed about the implications of the research. Parental
and/or guardian’s (informed) consent is required for a child (a person below the age of 18) to
participate in research. It is essential that the child has the full information about the research
in order to give their ‘informed consent’ to take part, and that consent is ‘freely volunteered’

2. Assent and children’s indications of rejection: Information presented to the child and
parent, should explain: what will happen; what is being asked of the child; that the child can
agree – or disagree to take part – without adverse consequences; and may withdraw at any
time; and be given in clear language at a level that the child can understand, using visual aids
if necessary. If children are not fully informed of the research topic, informed consent is
automatically denied even if the children are able to decide about participation, since
informed consent exists only when one is fully informed.

3. Child protection and well-being: Research involving children is important for the benefit
of all children and should be supported, encouraged and conducted in an ethical manner. In
the course of research, information comes to the researchers’ attention that may jeopardize
the child's well-being. The researcher has a responsibility to discuss the information with the
parents or guardians and with those experts in the field in order that they may arrange the
necessary assistance for the child. Thus, if at any time during the research process there is an
indication that a child’s safety or well-being is being negatively affected; the research must
be kept suspended until the issue has been addressed. If the child appears to be negatively
affected by the research, the parent or guardian must be informed and the child and family
must be offered with appropriate support. Besides, extra time and support should be given for
the children. Similarly, dissemination of findings will need to be informed by an
understanding of the specific communication needs of the children and their families.

4. Minimizing the risk of harm: Ethical guidance and practices aim to minimize possible
exploitation and ensure that the rights and welfare of children in research. Risk refers to the
potential harm (physical, psychological or social) that may arise from the research. The
researcher should pose more identifiable risks of harm. Similarly, researchers should not use
those types of research procedure that may harm the child either physically or
psychologically.

Contribution of Child Development Research

Child developmentalists conduct research to learn more about healthy child development and
to better understand certain conditions that affect children. This information is used to

 Create prevention, health education, and intervention programs,

 Help communities plan for services for children and their families, and
 Determine what additional research studies are needed.
Investing in our children is investing in our future. Early childhood investment can reduce
costs to society, overall. This includes tangible costs, such as special education, foster care,
welfare, medical care, law enforcement, social security, and social services,
and intangible costs, such as physical and emotional pain experienced by children with
developmental delays and their families.

Researchers in this field collect and monitor information about childhood mental disorders
and to better understand and promote children’s mental, emotional, and behavioural health.
Childhood mental disorders—for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD), Tourette syndrome, behaviour disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, autism
spectrum disorder, or substance use disorders external icon—affect many children and
families. Because of the impact on children, families, and communities, children’s mental
disorders are an important public health issue.
They also help develop intervention programs, designed to prevent developmental delays
among children living in poverty, focuses on the role of parents and ways that they can
positively influence their children. CDC developed the Legacy model, which was then
adapted to provide intervention at two research sites in Miami, Florida and Los Angeles,
California. Legacy activities were designed to build on sensitive and responsive parenting
skills, enhance parent-child interactions, and promote a sense of community. The goal is to
have children grow up emotionally healthy and ready to be productive members of society.

These programs were evaluated in a research study held in Los Angeles and Miami, targeting
low-income mothers and their children. The program enrolled women before birth in Los
Angeles and at birth in Miami, and lasted until children were 3 or 5 years of age, respectively.
Mothers met weekly in parenting groups. Guided by a group leader, mothers talked about
child development, supported each other, learned different parenting skills, and practiced
them with their child.

Initial results of intervention studies showed an overall positive effect on children living in
poverty. There were improvements in the child’s thinking, learning, and behaviour as well as
the interaction between the mother and child.

Ethics after Research

Legality - All the research related laws are studied in detail, especially those that impose
restrictions (e.g., it is forbidden to give questions to children without parental consent) or the
obligation to report possible misconduct. In such situations, there are possibilities to consult
with professionals (general practitioners, psychologists and lawyers) on the best action plan.

Confidentiality - The participants are informed about how their data will be used (file
materials, photos, audio, and video recordings); participants’ consent to use the data is
received.

Security Measures - It is ensured that confidential data will be stored in a secure location
with limited access. Whenever possible, the information allowing the determination of the
identity is removed from the data. The reasons are considered when confidentiality may be
compromised (room without sound insulation, participants writing down their names on
invoices, etc.).
Authorship - It provides credit for an individual's contributions to a study and carries
accountability. Normally, an author is an individual judged to have made a substantial
intellectual or practical contribution to a publication and who agrees to be accountable for
that contribution. Proper authorship must be given in order to ensure credit and
accountability.

Copyright, Patents and Acknowledgement - It is a legal concept giving the creator of an

original work the exclusive rights to it and to who may use it and for what
purposes. Copyright law was established to encourage authors, artists, and others to create
and share their works by granting them specific exclusive rights in their works. Those rights
are limited by certain exceptions like fair use or the term of copyright. Patents,
acknowledgements, copyright etc must be adequately provided.

Stanford Prison Experiment (Philip Zimbardo)

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a social psychology experiment conducted in 1971 by
American psychologist and Stanford University emeritus Philip Zimbardo. This experiment
explored the psychological effects of phenomena like deindividuation, perceived power, and
learned helplessness. Zimbardo was concerned with finding out if the violence documented
among guards in American prisons was because of dispositional factors like guards' sadistic
personalities or whether it had something to do with the situational factors like the prison
environment.
Ethical Guidelines Violated
 Human Relations –
Avoiding Harm: The participants were protected from physical harm but not psychological
harm. After 36 hours, one inmate had to be released due to uncontrollable bursts of
screaming, crying and anger. The entire experiment was shut down in six days instead of the
planned duration of fourteen days because of the extensive psychological impact of this study
on the mental wellbeing of all the participants.
Informed Consent: There was an informed consent but it wasn't fully informed as it didn't
make the participants aware of the nature of the experiment or its goal as the experimenter.
 Advertising and Other Public Statements
Deception: Since the informed consent had no mention of any arrest, the students and their
parents were deceived into being arrested by real cops, taken to the station, go through with
the entire procedure of an arrest and then finally being moved to the mock prison.
 Withdrawal - The participants were not allowed to withdraw from the experiment
even though they were experiencing extreme negative emotions. Only one participant
was allowed to leave on the third day due to a severe stress disorder. But the rest had
to continue the experiment.
 External Intervention – No one who visited them made any efforts to shut down the
study even after witnessing the adverse effects first-hand. It was only after
Zimbardo’s partner, Christina Maslach who was also a psychology graduate from
 Stanford, pointed out just how inhumane this experiment was, that the experimenters
decided to prematurely terminate the experiment

The Bobo Doll Experiment (Albert Bandura)

The experiment involved exposing children to two different adult models an aggressive
model and a non-aggressive one. After witnessing the adult's behaviour, the children would
then be placed in a room without the model and were observed to see if they would imitate
the behaviours, they had witnessed earlier.
Ethical Guidelines Violated
 Advertising and Other Public Statements
Withdrawal - The APA guidelines require an individual to be allowed to withdraw from the
experiment at any point, but Bandura prevented this from happening by guarding the door
and not allowing the children to leave
 Human Relations –
Avoiding Harm - It was unethical for him to exhibit aggressive behaviour toward children.
The Bobo doll experiment had a significant impact both on children that took part in it and
psychology, as a whole. In the first case, many kids demonstrated the ability to reproduce the
aggressive behaviour patterns several months after the end of the study. However, it has also
made a revolution in psychology by demonstrating that children can use the models of
behaviour as a means of acquiring new behaviours that would not have developed otherwise.
It is impossible to predict how long the aggressive tendencies acquired during the experiment
will remain in the ranks of behavioural models of kids. There is no guarantee that the learned
patterns of aggression will not last for the participant’s lifetime, thus making him/her
potentially dangerous for the society.

The Milgram Shock Experiment (Stanley Milgram)

This experiment was conducted post World war II and the holocaust period. It was aimed at
examining the reasons and justifications provided by the War criminals, as to why they
followed such immoral orders. The reason provided for their obedience was that they had
simply been following orders given to them by their superiors. He was interested in studying,
just how easily people would involve themselves in such atrocious behaviour.
Ethical Guidelines Violated
 Human Relations –
Deception: The participants of the experiment were made to falsely believe that they would
not be inflicting real shocks to the learner, but in fact it was all just an act. The learner was
actually a confederate of Milgram who was pretending and helping Milgram conduct his
obedience study. The participants were kept in the dark about this, and talked about it only in
the end during the debriefing.
Protection From harm: During the course of the experiment, the volunteers were put in
extremely stressful situations. These may have caused a negative effect on the participants
and led to psychological harm. There were visible signs of tension, trembling, sweating, nail
biting and other such reactions seen among the participants. It was also noted that some of the
participants had uncontrollable seizures and pleaded to withdraw but were denied that right.
This was backed but by Milgram by saying that these were only short-term effects.
 Advertising and Other Public Statements
Lack of Withdrawal: There was no document presented to the participants stating that they
could withdraw from the experiment. They were persuaded by the learner on several
occasions when the teachers were apprehensive to administer shocks. The teachers were
presented with prods such as “Please continue”, “The experiment requires you to continue”,
“It is absolutely essential that you continue”, “You have no other choice but to continue”.
Bias Sampled: The participants for this particular study were all males and of the same
descent. Due to this bias in the experiment, it would be unsure to say that the findings of the
experiment would imply those belonging to other cultures and ethnicities. An exclusion of
female participants lacks gender integrity and the findings duplicated in the opposite gender
can also be questioned.