Research Ethics
Research ethics are the moral principles that guide how sociological research should be conducted, protecting participants and researchers and maintaining the discipline's reputation.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- When asked to identify an ethical issue, name the specific principle involved, informed consent, right to withdraw, confidentiality, anonymity, protection from harm, or deception, rather than a vague claim that something 'is unethical'.
- Distinguish confidentiality, personal information kept private, from anonymity, identity not revealed at all, as examiners credit the correct term.
- When evaluating a method's ethics, link the ethical issue back to the specific design feature causing it, for example that covert observation breaches informed consent because the group is unaware it is being studied.
- Weigh ethical costs against the value of the knowledge gained: sociologists sometimes argue a small ethical breach is justified if it produces socially valuable findings and participants are properly debriefed afterwards.
- Remember vulnerable groups, such as children, people with disabilities, or victims of crime, require extra ethical safeguards, such as parental consent or extra care over protection from harm.
- For 'discuss' questions comparing ethics with validity, structure the answer around the trade-off: methods that maximise validity, such as covert observation, often create the greatest ethical problems, while the most ethical methods can sometimes reduce validity through the Hawthorne effect.
Worked example
A sociologist carries out covert participant observation of an extremist online forum, joining under a false name to study how members are radicalised, without the members' knowledge. Identify and explain two ethical problems with this research design.
- Identify the first ethical problem: lack of informed consent, since the forum members have not agreed to take part in research and do not know their posts and behaviour are being studied and recorded.
- Explain why this matters: without informed consent, the members have also lost the right to withdraw, since they cannot choose to opt out of a study they do not know is happening.
- Identify the second ethical problem: deception, since the researcher has adopted a false identity to gain the members' trust, which breaches honesty and could cause harm, for example reputational or psychological, if the members later discover they were studied.
- Note that a sociologist might only justify this design if the research produces socially valuable findings, such as helping to understand and prevent radicalisation, that outweigh these ethical costs, and if steps are taken to protect participants' anonymity when reporting the findings.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1What is meant by 'informed consent'?Show answer
Answer: Participants agreeing to take part in research after being told its true purpose and nature, so their agreement is freely and knowingly given.
Q2What is the difference between confidentiality and anonymity?Show answer
Answer: Confidentiality means a participant's personal information is kept private and not shared; anonymity means the participant's identity is not recorded or revealed at all.
Q3Name the organisation whose guidelines set out ethical standards for UK sociological research.Show answer
Answer: The British Sociological Association.
Q4What is meant by the 'right to withdraw'?Show answer
Answer: A participant's right to leave a study, or have their data removed, at any point, without having to give a reason and without facing any penalty.
Q5Give one reason covert observation is considered ethically problematic.Show answer
Answer: It usually involves deceiving participants about the researcher's identity and purpose and does not gain informed consent, since the group does not know it is being studied.
Q6Give one example of a group of participants who may need extra ethical protection in sociological research.Show answer
Answer: Children, or another vulnerable group such as people with disabilities or victims of crime, who may need parental or guardian consent and extra safeguarding.
Q7What is 'debriefing' and when is it used?Show answer
Answer: Explaining the true purpose of research to participants after the study has finished, used especially when some deception was necessary during the research.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Sociology exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain two ethical principles a sociologist should follow when researching a sensitive topic such as domestic abuse.
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A researcher studying gang violence uses covert observation and avoids naming any individuals in her published report, but only studies one gang in one city over three months. Evaluate how representative this study's findings are likely to be of gang violence nationally.
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Discuss the ethical problems sociologists may face when researching vulnerable groups such as children.
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See real GCSE Sociology past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the research ethics worksheet pack - 9 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
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