When conducting social research it is important for sociologists to consider the range of ethical factors that they might face, as failure to do so may affect the participants or even the overall outcome of the sociological data. From the informed consent of participants to covert research, it is essential to examine the most important ethical issues as they play an important part in the construction of research data. An ethical problem that could be encountered by sociologists when conducting research is the issue of informed consent. Informed consent is given when the participants of the study agree to the terms and conditions of the true aim of the study. However, some results may be invalidated by the participants knowing either the true aim of the study or the fact that they are being studied at all.
However, they are opposed by Interpretivists who say they impose the researcher’s framework of ideas on the respondents and they claim this may influence the respondents’ view on the question being asked. A reason as to why some sociologists choose not to use questionnaires when conducting research is because of a chance of a low response rate. This may be a result of people who receive questionnaires being not bothered to complete and return it. This can be a problem as the people who do not respond having a different opinion to those who do respond, this does not provide accurate representativeness. A higher response rate can be obtained if follow-up questionnaires are sent, but this can add to the cost and time.
They enable us to gain professional development and provide a way to identify good practices. 1.4. Describe how own values, belief systems and experiences may affect working practice? Values, belief systems and experiences may affect my working practise because if I treat people differently or force my views and opinions on to people it can cause conflict. By listening and understanding other people’s values and beliefs I can understand them and their beliefs better and improve communication with them.
This is because they may not want to be recorded and if they find out, you may not be able to use the information gathered. Feedback Feedback is when you give back information of what you have found from your research to those who were involved. This is because they may want to know how their input helped in the outcome of the overall research and find out if the research was a success. Vulnerable People Vulnerable people are those that need to have their feelings handled with special care. You need to address them in a way that will not upset them or make them feel unhappy.
Methods of micro sociology include symbolic interactionism, phenomenology and ethnomethodology. However there is opposing argument as macro sociologists think the opposite as although they concentrate on individuals as well they also look at families and other larger groups in society in which an individual is part of. Weber a social action theorist believes people hold meanings about the world and consciously act on the basis of meaning. He saw behaviour in terms of the meanings people action to actions and classified them into four types. Instrumentally rational action is when a goal is not desirable but an induvidual still works out the best way to reach it.
1. What is reflective practice? Answer Reflective practice is a process which enables you to achieve a better understanding of yourself, your skills, competencies, knowledge and professional practice. The way things are done may not always be the only way to do them... Reflecting to see this helps identify gaps and areas that can be improved.
Why or why not? In my honest opinion prejudice is hard to measure because it cannot accurately be predicted or judge by a test. I feel like prejudice cannot be measured accurately because the test shows the association between different groups. The only thing I can see the implicit association test is measured are the groups that I may belong to or fit in. People cannot show the result of being or prejudice because people are known to select things that they are more familiar with, things that they are more commutable with, and things that they see in their everyday environment.
In order to participate in any type of study individuals must be informed of the purpose, the risks, and what is expected from the target group. Another issue is the use of money as an incentive to consent to testing and interviews because it compromises truthfulness from the target. Informed consent can be verbal or written; however, if the consent is verbal the participant must give a definite yes or no answer. Yeah, sure, and I guess so answers are not acceptable responses when attempting to gain
Could have been the clothes or the living conditions, a change that could have been made to do the experiment better could be to use normal clothes or have the researchers play the guards. Whether you call it uninformed consent or deception I think this is the most problematic issue in the video. This type of experiment is an important one in the history of social research because it demonstrates how easily one can become wrapped up in research and forgets about the values of the participants. Although because it is sometimes difficult to address social ethical issues you must not choose to ignore
Commitment blocking occurs when a person looks at a problem through past prism or life experiences and use those past experiences as a model in solving current problems. Compression problems occur when people make their own assumptions about their problems and create artificial constraints around it that inhibits their ability in solving the problem. Complacency blocking arises because people do not ask questions regarding their problems thinking that people will consider them to be less intelligent.