Course Description
Exploration of the ethical and moral dilemmas researchers have encountered in conducting research in the social, professional, and human sciences and the sources of ethical principles and practices they have used in addressing these dilemmas.
Athena Title
Research Ethics
Equivalent Courses
Not open to students with credit in QUAL 8595E, ERSH 8595E, ERSH 8595
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
At the end of this course, students will be able to: 1. Identify and articulate their own preconceived moral/ethical assumptions and positions and recognize alternative positions held by others, as well as evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these positions. 2. Express increased proficiency assertively, yet respectfully, engaging in moral conversation in which a variety of opposing viewpoints may be represented. 3. Use classical, postmodern, and feminist ethical theories to reveal the ethical dimension (i.e., overt and covert ethical assumptions, implications, and ramifications) embedded in the research topic and methods of your choice. 4. Identify and apply (as applicable) formal regulatory guidelines established by statutory standards (e.g., the Belmont Report), professional codes of ethics, local and international institutional review board policies, and religious or other nongovernmental codes of conduct (e.g., the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki). 5. Identify and apply different models of ethical decision making to concrete research situations. 6. Recognize that the ethical analysis and problem-solving tools presented in this course have broader applicability than the formal research process.
Topical Outline
Topics 1.Introduction: What is ethics and how come we keep using the word moral? Is there a difference between “moral” and “moralistic”? Is it possible to engage in moral discourse without being moralistic? What does morality have to do with science? What is the relationship between “is” and “ought”? Is science and research value free, amoral, and ethically neutral; ought it to be? 2.Identifying Presuppositions: How do we know what is ethical and what is not ethical? What is the source(s) of these distinctions (e.g., individual assessment, local community or larger cultural norms, God, Buddha, Allah, etc.)? What are our epistemologies? What are the ethical assumptions embedded in our world views? Do they shape or are they shaped by our research efforts? How do we live with moral certainty or uncertainty in a pluralistic society? 3.Developing Moral Discernment: What are specific ethical challenges faced by everyone engaged in human research? What are ethical surprises, contingencies, and constraints? What ethical issues arise because of the researcher’s role and/or experiences (e.g., social hierarchies and power relationships in research: studying up, down, sideways, and inside and outside groups)? 4.Broadening Ethical Perspectives: What do different ethical traditions (i.e., classical, postmodern, and feminist theories) identify as ethically relevant and what is considered ethically irrelevant? What standards are established by formal regulatory guidelines such as governmental law (e.g., the Belmont Report), professional codes of ethics, local and international institutional review board policies, and religious or other nongovernmental codes of conduct (e.g., the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki)? 5.Applying Ethical Analysis: What role does ethics play in selecting research topics and the formulation of research problems (i.e., studying AIDS, domestic abuse, and other sensitive issues)? How does ethics apply to action research, insider research, participatory action research? What is the role of ethics in the design and conduct of research studies? What can’t researchers do? What “ought” they to do? How are institutional review board expectations and constraints managed in practice? What is the relationship between ethics and research participants and settings? How do researchers conceptualize those they study (i.e., as subjects, participants, coresearchers)? How do ethical considerations affect data representation, research applications, and implications? What do we do when the needs of scholarship conflict with the needs of research participants? How do the norms and mores of the participants being studied affect our ethical decision making? 6.Practicing Concrete Ethical Problem Solving: What models for problem solving are presented by different ethical traditions (i.e., classical, postmodern and feminist theories)? What are the strengths and weaknesses associated with these models? What model or combination of models is intuitively most appealing? Why? Why not others? How do you justify ethical decisions? What is the impact of setting and context on ethical decision making (i.e., ethics in the academy and other professional venues like school districts and human service agencies)? How do we live with the ethical ambiguity and uncertainty that come from having to choose between multiple viable ethical options? What is ongoing moral reflection?