Mkt10007 Fundamentals Of Marketing - Assessment Answers

Answer:

Actions that can be taken by a researcher to ensure the ethical approach to research participants as well meet the ethical principles.

Research that calls for human subjects and participants brings about special legal, social and political issues. Therefore principles have been set to govern research that pertains to human subjects (Benatar & Singer, 2000). The first principle includes beneficence which gives the researcher a chance to maximize the potential benefit of the study for the participants. The second principle is referred to as the non-maleficence which calls for peace and that no one should be involved in doing any harm (Haggerty, 2004). Respect for persons happens to be another principle which demands dignity and respect for all human beings (Smit, 2018). The last principle happens to be justice which is mainly based on fairness.

Research ethics is the study of the different ethical issues that arise when human beings get to be used as subjects and participants in research (Benatar & Singer, 2000). For human research to be carried out, there must be a relationship between researchers and participants (Haggerty, 2004). Therefore there must be values to govern this relationship to ensure that trust, moral equality, and mutual responsibility is maintained between the researcher and the participants. These values may include; integrity, respect, objectivity, research merit, confidentiality, and justice.

However, respect happens to be one of the most important values when carrying out human research (Benatar & Singer, 2000). Every person should recognize that human life is important. It further states that human beings have they have a right to live their own lives based on their decisions (Smit, 2018).  When conducting human research respect for human beings entails something more than this. It mostly calls for protection to the vulnerable group (Benatar, 2002). The researcher can also choose to empower them if he is capable. Therefore researchers need to ensure that values are upheld when carrying out human research. Respect also demand that the researcher has the knowledge and regards for values, custom, practices beliefs and culture (Benatar, 2002). The research also must be informed of the differences in expectations between him and the participants. These make it possible for the researcher to avoid ‘'difference blindness'' which mainly hinders trustful relationship and integrity. Respect calls for privacy, entitlement, rights, and diversity for every human being.

Another value that the researchers need to acquire is integrity and merit. Researchers need to have integrity because research has merit. Good research should be based on the potential benefit which is also based on new knowledge, improved social good fare, and individual well-being. The research commissioner is mainly tasked with securing the research integrity. Research integrity should be regarded not only when searching for knowledge but also on the way scrutiny and communication is permitted. Therefore research should be protected for participants to be secured.

Researchers also need to ensure justice. Justice calls for human beings to be treated equally. All human beings want to be treated equally. Thus while carrying out research distributive justice should be put in place. Distributive justice requires equal distribution of benefits, procedural justice, and burdens when recruiting participants and also while reviewing research (Oliver, 2010). Benefits of research should also be carried out through justice way.Moreover, they should be distributed equally and not tied to some unfair burdens

Confidentiality and anonymity are also very important values that researchers need to adopt for them to be able to protect participants. Confidentiality calls for the respondent to be known to the researcher and not to the general public (Oliver, 2010). The researcher should also not publish any identifying information. Confidentiality is necessary when people are thought to give some sensitive information which may cause embarrassment when the public come to know about it. A researcher should always maintain the confidentiality of such information because he cannot tell how the public will react towards the given information. He should also make sure that he does not name cities or places rather he should always be giving descriptions (Wiles, 2013). The only best way to make sure that confidentiality is maintained is by ensuring that any identifying information is kept private. Identifying information may include the name or the address of the participants. Researchers also have unique code while researching to make sure that identifying information is kept private

Anonymity should be maintained while researching human participants.  Anonymity entails that the participant is not known to the researcher (Wiles, 2013). This acts as the method to protect human participants (Smit, 2018). It is also very easy to carry out research using anonymity or just observing people rather than requesting them to fill in some forms.

The researcher should also work hard to achieve objectivity. Researchers need to avoid bias as much as possible while carrying out data interpretation, data analysis and experimental design (Smit, 2018). This value needs to be carried out in all aspect of research. Researchers need to be open to participants about how they will benefit from the research they are thought to be carrying out and also how the participants may benefit.

References

Benatar, S. R., & Singer, P. A. (2000). A new look at international research ethics. BMJ: British Medical Journal, 321(7264), 824-826. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1199950

Benatar, S. R. (2002). Reflections and recommendations on research ethics in developing countries. Social science & medicine, 54(7), 1131-1141. https://www.utsc.utoronto.ca/~kmacd/IDSC10/Readings/Ethics/health.pd

Haggerty, K. D. (2004). Ethics creep: Governing social science research in the name of ethics. Qualitative Sociology, 27(4), 391-414. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/B:QUAS.0000049239.15922.a3

Oliver, P. (2010). The student's guide to research ethics. (2nd edition PP 97-101.)  Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Wiles, R. (2013). What are the qualitative research ethics?. (3rd edition PP 33-50.) London: Bloomsbury.

Smit, S. C. T. (2018). Ensuring research integrity and the ethical management of data. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, Information Science Reference.