Original scientific paper
Ethical Aspects of Field Studies
Mirjana Adamović Topolčić
; Unemployed Sociologist, Zagreb
Abstract
The text deals with the ethical aspects of the method of observation, experiments and surveys. As a separate field are discussed ethical aspects of publishing results. Formal ethical rules of certain sociological institutions contain only general denotation of ethically acceptable procedures. That is why researchers interpretate them differently while understanding intervention s into the »dynamic social tissue«. The author has author has analyzed those experiences of certain researchers which have provoked contradictory reactions within the scientific community, i. e. those which are considered to be on the verge of ethics.
Within the generally accepted ethical rules the author has found arguments for totally different research practices and tried to suggest several new principles:
- secret observations are basically unethical and should be avoided and possibly substituted by other modes of the observation method;
- secret observations are allowed only in research of institutions whose purpose is the common well-being, or in observations of masses and public places;
- the method of experiment should be based on the willingness of the examinees and should be led by humane goals.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
155330
URI
Publication date:
30.6.1990.
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