Subject, project or self? Thoughts on ethical dilemmas for social and medical researchers

Jane A. Batchelor and Catherine M. Briggs

Social Science & Medicine, 1994, vol. 39, issue 7, 949-954

Abstract: In this paper we address an important but sadly neglected area; namely some of the ethical issues which arise for social and medical researchers in the course of their work. Our concern is for a wide spectrum of researchers using the full range of social research methods from small-scale in-depth qualitative work through to large scale quantitative studies. The unifying factor is that they all have an element of contact and hence the potential for interaction between the researcher and the subject. In our experience (with the exception of some ethnographers) few if any social researchers will have had adequate training about the interactional aspects of their work. As a result they are unprepared for the ethical dilemmas and conflict of loyalties which they might experience. To understand these issues it is important to look at the context within which such research is undertaken.

Keywords: Ethics; research; interviewing; interaction; confidentiality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1994
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(94)90206-2
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:39:y:1994:i:7:p:949-954

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().