Overview

Steps in measurement

An illustration

Level of measurement

Validity

Reliability

Relationship between
validity and
reliability

Reactivity

Ethical considerations

Aids

Voluntary participation only

Researchers agree that participation in a study should be voluntary: no one should be forced to participate in a study against his or her will. Trying to force persons to participate in a study is not only unethical; it is also shortsighted and dumb. Uncooperative respondents are also more likely to give invalid and unreliable responses.

Avoiding harm

Another point researchers agree on is that no harm should come to any participants in a study.    How, you might ask, could participation in social research hurt anyone?   Physical harm is unlikely, but psychological damage in the form of lowered self respect or embarrassment can occur.

Studies that focus on unpleasant experiences, such as death, circumcision, divorce, or on sensitive areas, such as family planning, sometimes cause embarrassment or unpleasantness. In these situations, the researcher should have a strong justification for any study that can cause these kinds of reactions and should seek to minimize possible harm.

Protecting participants

As a researcher you also have an ethical responsibility to protect the privacy of persons who supply data. First, you should guarantee either confidentiality or anonymity to respondents; second, you are responsible for seeing that whatever level of privacy is promised is actually carried out. Confidentially means that while the researcher may know persons' responses, he or she promises to hold these in confidence and not make them available to anyone else. This is the usual case when a survey is conducted. Questionnaires can be matched to individual respondents, but the researcher guarantees that no one else will be able to do this. Anonymity means that not even the researcher is able to match questionnaires or other data with persons who provided the data. Once all the questionnaires or other data are collected, anonymity can be achieved by removing all identification numbers, names, addresses, or other information that could identify respondents. Assuring respondents of anonymity or confidentiality at the beginning of an interview helps gain their cooperation and helps ensure obtaining valid and reliable data.

Accuracy of reporting

Another set of ethical issues sometimes arises at the end of a study. These concern what is reported about a group that was studied. When results do not please sponsors or participants in a study, they may try to get the researcher to present the results more to their liking. If caught in this kind of a situation, you have three choices:

1. You can stick to your findings and present them clearly and honestly and be prepared to accept whatever consequences may occur;
2. You can decide not to publish anything rather than falsify the results in some way; or
3. You can try to negotiate the differences while preserving the basic scientific integrity of your research.  

A better course of action is to think ahead and try to avoid this kind of situation.