Ethics

Originally posted in the SOAN 3000: Research Methods blog on Blackboard on February 12, 2016

I'm a little behind...so I will try to get caught up.

The next topic I need to address is 'ethics.'  As a person and a sociologist and an instructor who wants to lead by example, I need to work on my own IRB for my project.  

The MUFON project is tricky, and as I'm still in the musing about stage for this, I won't be going forward on that just yet.  What I've learned from watching Hangar 1 is there's a significant amount of paranoia among people who believe they've seen things or been abducted, so I don't even know whether I should identify myself as a researcher.  

The religion project is a little less dicey, but still not without its difficulties. There will be way less paranoia...I think :)  but other problems may surface.  One thing I've been able to glean from earlier, informal interviews, is that within this community there's a concern that religion may play a roll in employment and custody issues, among other things.  There have been tales of people being fired and losing children in custody battles because of their religion.  Not just urban legend-type friend-of-a-friend tales either.  They could name names and locations and everything.  Therefore, I definitely have a special responsibility to make sure that I maintain the anonymity and confidentiality of my respondents.  Even if they say I can use their names, I don't believe I will.  What if someone could be connected via association with a known name, and loses a job or children because of THAT?  

The other ethical situation, which I did not talk about much, is making sure my own biases (from my political and spiritual slants) do not influence the writing of my questions, the manner in which I address respondents, or interpret results.  We'll probably talk/read more about this when we discuss qualitative research, but it is a concern...the interviewer does not want to lead their respondents.  Think about how lawyers aren't allowed to lead the witness.  Neither should researchers.

Please feel free to pose questions, make comments and suggestions whatever :)