Disaster Research “Methics”: Ethical and Methodological Considerations of Researching Disaster-Affected Populations

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (8) ◽  
pp. 1050-1065
Author(s):  
Bethany L. Van Brown
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Disaster Research ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Recovery Trajectory ◽  
Hurricanes Katrina And Rita ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
Domestic Violence Organizations

How we do research directly affects what we know about the subject matter under study. While the study of disaster events continues to grow, rigorous inquiry on disaster research methodology is limited because it is confounded by the disruption a disaster presents. Yet it is precisely at that point that special methodological problems emerge. The methodological—and inherently ethical—challenges disaster researchers face became apparent to me during my own fieldwork on domestic violence organizations and their recovery trajectory following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In this article, I explore methodological and ethical issues that lay beneath “studying” people in the wake of disaster events and argue that ethical concerns should have the same, if not greater, primacy as methods; a dual consideration I refer to as “methics.” My findings support this argument and add to the growing chorus advocating for a paradigm shift in disaster research methods.

Text Messaging and Private Practice: Ethical Challenges and Guidelines for Developing Personal Best Practices

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 211-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Sude
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Private Practice ◽  
Text Messaging ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Message Service ◽  
Impact Of Technology ◽  
The Impact

The impact of technology on mental health practice is currently a concern in the counseling literature, and several articles have discussed using different types of technology in practice. In particular, many private practitioners use a cell phone for business. However, no article has discussed ethical concerns and best practices for the use of short message service (SMS), better known as text messaging (TM). Ethical issues that arise with TM relate to confidentiality, documentation, counselor competence, appropriateness of use, and misinterpretation. There are also such boundary issues to consider as multiple relationships, counselor availability, and billing. This article addresses ethical concerns for mental health counselors who use TM in private practice. It reviews the literature and discusses benefits, ethical concerns, and guidelines for office policies and personal best practices.

Ethical Issues in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahanika Ratnayake ◽  
Christopher Poppe
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ◽  
Professional Ethics ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Behavioral Therapy ◽  
Practical Rationality ◽  
Cognitive Behavioral ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Behavioral Techniques ◽  
Cognitive Techniques

This chapter identifies ethical challenges in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). It focuses on cognitive and behavioral techniques separately. The first part examines cognitive techniques, where the authors show that evaluating cognitions in terms of validity and utility entails evaluating failures of epistemic and practical rationality. This reveals concerns for professional ethics. For instance, if evaluating cognition for utility involves evaluating practical rationality, then CBT’s evaluation of cognitions is more value laden than first supposed and consequently presents a richer set of challenges for the therapeutic alliance. The second part highlights ethical challenges in exposure-based therapy (EBT) for behavioral therapy. The initiation of EBT provides particular ethical concerns relating to the issues of harm and informed consent. The authors argue that under a will-oriented conception of harm, EBT involves harm. Therefore, clients encounter EBT with rational ambivalence. The possibility of using motivational interviewing (MI) to resolve this ambivalence is discussed.

scholarly journals Value Sensitive Design to Achieve the UN SDGs with AI: A Case of Elderly Care Robots

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Umbrello ◽  
Marianna Capasso ◽  
Maurizio Balistreri ◽  
Alberto Pirni ◽  
Federica Merenda
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development Goals ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Elderly Care ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Value Sensitive Design ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Care Robots ◽  
Development Goals ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Design Requirements

AbstractHealthcare is becoming increasingly automated with the development and deployment of care robots. There are many benefits to care robots but they also pose many challenging ethical issues. This paper takes care robots for the elderly as the subject of analysis, building on previous literature in the domain of the ethics and design of care robots. Using the value sensitive design (VSD) approach to technology design, this paper extends its application to care robots by integrating the values of care, values that are specific to AI, and higher-scale values such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The ethical issues specific to care robots for the elderly are discussed at length alongside examples of specific design requirements that work to ameliorate these ethical concerns.

3D online environments: ethical challenges for marketing research

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 218-234
Author(s):  
Ioannis Krasonikolakis ◽  
Nancy Pouloudi
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Marketing Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Research Gaps ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Related Literature ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Online Environments

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is twofold: to provide an overview of related studies and to highlight research gaps and questions that need to be addressed. Research conducted in three-dimensional (3D) online environments constitutes a different research context, not least because it involves the recruitment of avatars in the research process. Researchers need to appreciate better the ethical concerns that arise in this novel, fast-evolving context and how these concern different stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach – The paper employs an interdisciplinary desk-research approach. It critically reviews related literature, highlights the involved stakeholders, discusses ethical issues from a marketing research perspective and concludes with a discussion of related studies and research gaps, providing direct future research avenues. Findings – The characteristics of the 3D online environments and the behaviour and experiences of their users set the boundaries and guide the way regarding the ethical research in this context. Research limitations/implications – The paper does not present primary empirical results, instead it reviews and critiques related literature in 3D online environments and sets the agenda for future research. Practical implications – The paper provides ethical guidelines and identifies blurred areas in conducting or participating in research in 3D online environments. Originality/value – Based on earlier studies and examples of ethical concerns when studying 3D online environments, this paper emphasises the parameters that should be taken into consideration in current and future research studies.

scholarly journals Ethical challenges experienced by public health nurses related to adolescents’ use of visual technologies

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1822-1833 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hilde Laholt ◽  
Kim McLeod ◽  
Marilys Guillemin ◽  
Ellinor Beddari ◽  
Geir Lorem
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Child Neglect ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Public Health Nurses ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Focus Group Discussions ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Visual Technologies

Background: Visual technologies are central to youth culture and are often the preferred communication means of adolescents. Although these tools can be beneficial in fostering relations, adolescents’ use of visual technologies and social media also raises ethical concerns. Aims: We explored how school public health nurses identify and resolve the ethical challenges involved in the use of visual technologies in health dialogues with adolescents. Research design: This is a qualitative study utilizing data from focus group discussions. Participants and research context: We conducted focus group discussions using two semi-structured discussion guides with seven groups of public health nurses (n = 40) working in Norwegian school health services. The data were collected during January and October 2016. Discussions were audio recorded, transcribed, and coded into themes and subthemes using systematic text condensation. Ethical considerations: The leader of the public health nursing service who agreed to provide access for the study and the Norwegian Center for Research Data that reviewed and approved the study. All participants gave informed consent. Findings: In adolescents’ use of visual materials with public health nurses, ethical concerns were raised regarding suicide ideations, socially unacceptable content, violation of privacy, and presentations of possible child neglect. The nurses utilized their professional knowledge and experience when identifying and navigating these ethical dilemmas; they resolved ethical uncertainties through peer discussion and collaboration with fellow nurses and other professionals. Discussion: We discussed the findings in light of Annemarie Mol’s interpretation of the ethics of care. Mol expands the notion of ethical care to include the action of technologies. Conclusion: Although the increasing use of visual technologies offered benefits, school nurses faced ethical challenges in health dialogues with adolescents. To address and navigate these ethical issues, they relied on their experience and caring practices based on their professional ethics. Uncertainties were resolved through peer dialogue and guidance.

scholarly journals Ethical, Practical, and Methodological Considerations for Unobtrusive Qualitative Research About Personal Narratives Shared on the Internet

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 160940691878820 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meridith C. Burles ◽  
Jill M. G. Bally
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Internet Research ◽  
Institutional Review Boards ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Content ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Methodological Considerations

As Internet research grows in popularity, attention to the ethics of studying online content is crucial to ensuring ethical diligence and appropriateness. Over recent years, ethical guidelines and recommendations have emerged to advise researchers and institutional review boards on best practices. However, these guidelines are sometimes irrelevant, overly rigid, or lack recognition of the contingent nature of ethical decision-making in qualitative research. Furthermore, varied ethical stances and practices are evident in existing literature. This article explores key ethical issues for qualitative research involving online content, with a focus on the unobtrusive study of personal narratives shared via the Internet. Principles of informed consent and confidentiality are examined in depth alongside practical and methodological considerations for unobtrusive qualitative research. This critical exploration contributes to ongoing discussion of ethical conduct of Internet research and promotes ethically aware yet flexible approaches to online qualitative research and creative methodological efforts to overcoming ethical challenges.

Ethical Issues in Dissemination and Implementation Research

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. DuBois ◽  
Beth Prusaczyk
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Decision ◽  
Ethical Decision Making ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Dissemination And Implementation ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Specific Complex ◽  
Dissemination And Implementation Research ◽  
Research Regulations ◽  
Human Participants ◽  
Context Specific

This chapter focuses primarily on the protection of human participants in D&I studies. It begins by reviewing the Belmont principles that undergird US research regulations and considering the ethical case for D&I research. It then proceeds to examine some ethical issues that might arise during the course of a public health, D&I research agenda in middle schools. It covers the ethical case for D&I research and common ethical challenges. The chapter also discusses strategies for ethical decision-making. While these strategies may be beneficial to all researchers, the authors believe they are of particular value to dissemination and implementation researchers because the nature of their work—context specific, complex, and unfamiliar to many peers, collaborators, and reviewers—means they will deal with uncertainty and conflict on a regular basis, and solutions to the problems they face will rarely be found through simple reference principles, rules, or regulations.

The neuroethical future of wearable and mobile health technology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karola V. Kreitmair ◽  
Mildred K. Cho
Keyword(s):  
Mobile Health ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Mobile Health Technology ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Healthcare It ◽  
Mobile Mental Health ◽  
Privacy And Confidentiality

Wearable and mobile health technology is becoming increasingly pervasive, both in professional healthcare settings and with individual consumers. This chapter delineates the various functionalities of this technology and identifies its different purposes. It then addresses the ethical challenges that this pervasiveness poses in the areas of accuracy and reliability of the technology, privacy and confidentiality of data, consent, and the democratization of healthcare. It also looks at mobile mental health apps as a case study to elucidate the discussion of ethical issues. Finally, the chapter turns to the question of how this technology and the associated “quantification of the self” affect traditional modes of epistemic access to and phenomenological conceptions of the self.

Pandemic Disease, Public Health, and Ethics

2019 ◽  
pp. 796-811 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxwell Smith ◽  
Ross Upshur
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Pandemic Preparedness ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Ethical Frameworks ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Care Workers ◽  
The Face ◽  
Conducting Research

Infectious disease pandemics raise significant and novel ethical challenges to the organization and practice of public health. This chapter provides an overview of the salient ethical issues involved in preparing for and responding to pandemic disease, including those arising from deploying restrictive public health measures to contain and curb the spread of disease (e.g., isolation and quarantine), setting priorities for the allocation of scarce resources, health care workers’ duty to care in the face of heightened risk of infection, conducting research during pandemics, and the global governance of preventing and responding to pandemic disease. It also outlines ethical guidance from prominent ethical frameworks that have been developed to address these ethical issues and concludes by discussing some pressing challenges that must be addressed if ethical reflection is to make a meaningful difference in pandemic preparedness and response.

The Ethics of AI in Biomedical Research, Patient Care, and Public Health

2020 ◽  
pp. 702-718 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Blasimme ◽  
Effy Vayena
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Patient Care ◽  
Biomedical Research ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Ethical Review ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Healthcare Provision ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Ethical Frameworks

This chapter explores ethical issues raised by the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the domain of biomedical research, healthcare provision, and public health. The litany of ethical challenges that AI in medicine raises cannot be addressed sufficiently by current regulatory and ethical frameworks. The chapter then advances the systemic oversight approach as a governance blueprint, which is based on six principles offering guidance as to the desirable features of oversight structures and processes in the domain of data-intense biomedicine: adaptivity, flexibility, inclusiveness, reflexivity, responsiveness, and monitoring (AFIRRM). In the research domain, ethical review committees will have to incorporate reflexive assessment of the scientific and social merits of AI-driven research and, as a consequence, will have to open their ranks to new professional figures such as social scientists. In the domain of patient care, clinical validation is a crucial issue. Hospitals could equip themselves with “clinical AI oversight bodies” charged with the task of advising clinical administrators. Meanwhile, in the public health sphere, the new level of granularity enabled by AI in disease surveillance or health promotion will have to be negotiated at the level of targeted communities.

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