Aims of this Portion

• To increase awareness of research ethics principles

• To encourage connections between your research projects and
internationally recognized principles of research ethics
• To offer guidance on School and University research ethics procedures
Norms of Scientific Research #6
 Valid research design – takes into account relevant theory, methods, and prior
findings
 Competence of researcher – capable to carry out the procedures
 Identification of consequences – assessment of risks and benefits (maximizing
benefit and minimizing risk)
 Selection of subjects – appropriate to the purposes of the study, representative
of the population that will benefit from the research and appropriate in number
 Voluntary informed consent – obtained before study begins, without undue
threat or inducement, with enough information, and agreement to participate
 Compensation for injury – responsibility for what happens to the subject (federal
law requires that subjects be informed about compensation, but does not
require compensation)
Research Ethics
 “Ethics is the disciplined study or morality….and morality asks the
question…what should one’s behavior be”.
 Ethics is about creating a mutually respectful relationship with the research
population
 Subjects are pleased to participate
 Community regards the conclusions as constructive
Research Ethics

 Research ethics is a world-wide set of principles

 Governing the way any research involving interaction between
the researcher and other humans or human tissue or data
relating to humans, is designed, managed and conducted.
 In preparing a research project, the dignity, rights,
safety and well-being of human participants must at all
times be considered, respected and safeguarded’

 University of Manchester Research Ethics Committee

(UREC
 Research ethics refers to the norms and guidelines that distinguish between
acceptable and unacceptable behavior in the field of research.
 It encompasses the principles and standards that guide researchers in
conducting their studies with integrity, respect for life, and adherence to
human rights.
 The study of these norms and their application in research is an important
aspect of the field of research ethics
 Research ethics encompasses norms of conduct and concomitant
discourse pertaining to the delineation of good or acceptable from bad or
unacceptable behavior in research. Some norms (e.g., respect for life) are
widely regarded as universal, as they cut across different societies.
 A few are arguably more pervasive and more commonly observed (e.g.,
‘human rights’ as articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
in some cultures than in others. A study of these norms – as they are
practiced in, or applied to research – is also within the scope of research
ethics.
 Research ethics relates to the moral principles undergirding the design and
execution of research projects that involve observing and recording other
people's lives.
 In other words, it deals with the technicalities of ethics related to research,
such as informed consent, power relations, and confidentiality.
 It may also deal with issues like conflict of interest in relation to the
sponsorship of research projects and the researcher's personal safety
Failure to treat subjects with respect can result in data that is:
 Misleading
 Inconclusive
 biased
Two Types of Ethics

 Basically, there are two types of ethics,

 Descriptive Ethics which asks:
 what does the culture or society believe is morally correct?
 Prescriptive Ethics
 The Prescriptive Ethics asks:
 How should I behave as a researcher?
 What character traits should I cultivate?
Importance
Why is this so important?
 You will have many questions to answer and you will need a framework
from which to answer those questions.
Two types of ethical decision-making
 Deductive or principle based reasoning
 Inductive or case based reasoning
Deductive or principle based

 Deductive or principle based reasoning

 Start with an ethical theory—
 Continue with a specific principle
 Develop rules
 Make judgments
Case Based Reasoning

 Decisions we have made – precedent

 Look back at those decisions and combine them in order to make a judgment
 Judgments reflect back on rules
 Rules reflect on our principles
 Principles reflect back to the ethical theory
 Decisions we have made – avoid war and move to Canada (U.S. declares war
on Canada)
 Judgment – defend yourself
 Rule – join Army (protect children
 Principles – family important
 Ethical theory
 When deciding on research methods, we may reflect on moral issues such
as follows:
 How do we ensure the confidentiality of our respondents?
 How can unequal power relations between the researcher and the researched
be avoided?
Reasons: Why It Is Important To Adhere To Ethical Norms
In Research

 First, norms promote the aims of research, such as knowledge, truth, and
avoidance of error. For example, prohibitions against fabricating, falsifying,
or misrepresenting
 Second, since research often involves a great deal of cooperation and
coordination among many different people in different disciplines and
institutions, ethical standards promote the values that are essential to
collaborative work, such as trust, accountability, mutual respect, and
fairness. For example, many ethical norms in research, such as guidelines for
authorship, copyright and patenting policies, data sharing policies, and
confidentiality rules in peer review, are designed to protect intellectual
property interests while encouraging collaboration. Most researchers want
to receive credit for their contributions and do not want to have their ideas
stolen or disclosed prematurely.
 Third, many of the ethical norms help to ensure that researchers can be
held accountable to the public. For instance, federal policies on research
misconduct, conflicts of interest, the human subjects protections,
and animal care and use are necessary in order to make sure that
researchers who are funded by public money can be held accountable to
the public.
 Fourth, ethical norms in research also help to build public support for
research. People are more likely to fund a research project if they can trust
the quality and integrity of research.
 Finally, many of the norms of research promote a variety of other
important moral and social values, such as social responsibility, human
rights, animal welfare, compliance with the law, and public health and
safety.
 Ethical lapses in research can significantly harm human and animal
subjects, students, and the public.
 For example, a researcher who fabricates data in a clinical trial may harm
or even kill patients, and a researcher who fails to abide by regulations and
guidelines relating to radiation or biological safety may jeopardize his
health and safety or the health and safety of staff and students.
Applying The Principles
Research ethics include:
 Confidentiality
 Researchers must keep information about participants
confidential and not share it in ways that violate their
agreement.
 Integrity
 Researchers must respect the results of others and practice
good science. They must not conceal, misrepresent, or falsify
information.
 Informed consent
 Researchers must fully disclose all important information about a
study and ensure that participants understand the research.
 Beneficence
 Researchers must ensure the well-being of participants by
minimizing harm and maximizing benefits.
 Justice
 Researchers must ensure that the benefits and burdens of
research are distributed fairly.
 Respect for persons
 Researchers must recognize the autonomy of participants and
protect those with diminished autonomy.
Ethical Principles
 The following is a rough and general summary of some
ethical principles that various codes address
 Honesty
 Strive for honesty in all scientific communications. Honestly report data, results,
methods and procedures, and publication status. Do not fabricate, falsify, or
misrepresent data. Do not deceive colleagues, research sponsors, or the public.
 Objectivity
 Strive to avoid bias in experimental design, data analysis, data interpretation,
peer review, personnel decisions, grant writing, expert testimony, and other
aspects of research where objectivity is expected or required. Avoid or minimize
bias or self-deception. Disclose personal or financial interests that may affect
research.


 Integrity
 Keep your promises and agreements; act with sincerity; strive for consistency of thought and action.

 Carefulness
 Avoid careless errors and negligence; carefully and critically examine your own
work and the work of your peers. Keep good records of research activities, such
as data collection, research design, and correspondence with agencies or
journals.
 Openness
 Share data, results, ideas, tools, resources. Be open to criticism and new ideas.

 Transparency
 Disclose methods, materials, assumptions, analyses, and other information needed to evaluate your
research.
 Accountability
 Take responsibility for your part in research and be prepared to give an account (i.e. an
explanation or justification) of what you did on a research project and why.


 Intellectual Property
 Honor patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property. Do not use unpublished data,
methods, or results without permission. Give proper acknowledgement or credit for all contributions
to research. Never plagiarize.


 Confidentiality
 Protect confidential communications, such as papers or grants submitted for
publication, personnel records, trade or military secrets, and patient records.
 Responsible Publication
 Publish in order to advance research and scholarship, not to advance just your own career.
Avoid wasteful and duplicative publication.

 Responsible Mentoring
 Help to educate, mentor, and advise students. Promote their welfare and allow them to
make their own decisions.

 Respect for Colleagues

 Respect your colleagues and treat them fairly.

 Social Responsibility
 Strive to promote social good and prevent or mitigate social harms through research, public
education, and advocacy.

 Non-Discrimination
 Avoid discrimination against colleagues or students on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, or
other factors not related to scientific competence and integrity.
Scale Measurement and
Hypothesis Relationships
By: Dr. Mulugeta W. and Mr. Dagne A.
Portion 2
Concept and Variables
 Concept: an idea, a general mental formulation
summarizing specific occurrences

 A label we put on a phenomenon, a matter, a “thing”

that enables us to link separate observations, make
generalizations, communicate and inherit ideas.

 Concepts can be concrete, abstract, tangible or

intangible.

Concrete: Height, Major

Abstract: Happiness, Love
Transferring Concepts into something Measurable

Variable:
 A representation of concept in its variation of degree, varieties or occurrence.

 A characteristic of a thing that can assume varying degrees or values.

 Fixed meaning = constant

 Most variables are truly variable = multiple categories or

variables
Example: Concept and Variable
Concept:
Political participation

Variables:
 Voted or not
 How many times a person has voted
 What party a person votes for
Variable Attribute Choices
Variable attributes need to be exhaustive and
exclusive

Represent full range of possible variation

Degree of Precision
selection depends on your research interest

Is it better to include too much or too little?

Variables
 The dependent variable is the variable that the researcher measures; it is
called a dependent variable because it depends upon (is caused by) the
independent variable.

 The independent variable is the one that the researcher manipulates.

 Example: If you are studying the effects of a new educational program on student achievement,
the program is the independent variable and your measures of achievement are the dependent
ones.
Variables
 Qualitative Variable: Composed of categories which are not comparable
in terms of magnitude

 Quantitative Variable: Can be ordered with respect to magnitude on some

dimension

 Continuous Variable: A quantitative variable, which can be measured with

an arbitrary degree of precision. Any two points on a scale of a continuous
variable have an infinite number of values in between. It is generally
measured.

 Discrete Variable: A quantitative variable where values can differ only by

well-defined steps with no intermediate values possible. It is generally
counted.
Types of Measurement Scales
1. Nominal

2. Ordinal

3. Interval

4. Ratio
Scales of Measurement
Scales of Measurement

Scales of measurement include:

The scale determines the amount of information

contained in the data.

The scale indicates the data summarization and

statistical analyses that are most appropriate.
Nominal Scale
 The only property they have is identity or name (nominal=name).
 Numbers if used are simply codes for the real names of the properties.
 Only offer a name or a label for a variable
 There is not ranking
 They are not numerically related
 Gender; Race
 Nominal Scales - there must be distinct classes but these classes have no quantitative
properties. Therefore, no comparison can be made in terms of one category being higher
than the other.

 For example - there are two classes for the variable gender -- males and females. There
are no quantitative properties for this variable or these classes and, therefore, gender is a
nominal variable.

 Other Examples:
 country of origin
 biological sex (male or female)
 married vs. single
 Political Orientation e.g NDC, NPP, CPP
Which recreational activities do you participate in?
(Please circle the number of all that apply)
1 HIKING
2 FISHING
3 PICNICKING
4 BOATING
5 SWIMMING
Which recreational activities do you participate in? (Please list the activities in
the spaces below)
1__Baking ________
2__Gardening_____
3__Playing football____________
4__Reading Statistics books____
 Sometimes numbers are used to designate category membership

 Example:
Country of Origin
1 = Ghana 3 = Canada
2 = Nigeria 4 = Other

 However, in this case, it is important to keep in mind that the

numbers do not have intrinsic meaning
Data are labels or names used to identify an
attribute of the element.

A nonnumeric label or numeric code may be used.

 Nominal
 Example:
 Students of a university are classified by the
 dorm that they live in using a nonnumeric label
 such as Farley, Keenan, Zahm, Breen-Phillips,
 and so on.

 A numeric code can be used for

 the school variable (e.g. 1: Farley, 2: Keenan,
 3: Zahm, and so on).
Ordinal
 Variables with attributes that can be rank ordered

 Can say one response is more or less than another

 Distance between does not have meaning

 lower class, middle and upper class

 Note: Scales and indexes are ordinal measures, but

conventions for analysis allow us to assume equidistance
between attributes (if it makes logical sense); treat them like
“interval” measures; and subject them to statistical tests
Ordinal scale

1. Has identity
 Other examples
 Age (youngest; young; old; older).
 Size (smallest; small; big; biggest).
 Quality (Poor; good; excellent).
 Income (low; middle; upper).
 Achievement at school (poor; moderate; high).
 2. Have magnitude (order). A>B>C>D. We know relative order.

 Some examples
 Age (youngest; young; old; older).
 Size (smallest; small; big; biggest).
 Quality (Poor; good; excellent).
 Income (low; middle; upper).
 Achievement at school (poor; moderate; high).

 There are distinct classes but these classes have a natural ordering or ranking. The
differences can be ordered on the basis of magnitude.
 Another example - final position of horses in a race is an ordinal variable. The horses
finish first, second, third, fourth, and so on. We know the ORDER in which the horses
finished the race. So we can RANK them in that order. But we do not know how close the
competition was between the horses.
3. We DO NOT KNOW the relative difference between two magnitudes.
 A>B>C>D. We know relative order, but not how much A is better than B.
Eg. In an examination candidates are graded A , B, C, D, ect. according to
performance. We know that A is better than B which is also better than D.
But is A 4 times better than D? Is it 2 times better than D. We do not know
this.
Another example
 Take the example of the horse race. We know which horse was 1st , 2nd , 3rd
, 4th ect. But we do not know how close the competition was between the
1st and the 2nd horses.
 We only know that the horse which came first outperformed the one which
came second
4. Ordinal Scale does not assume that the intervals between numbers
or magnitudes are equal.

 The distance between two adjacent categories on the scale are not equal and cannot be
determined.
 Example

Consumers of a product are asked to indicate

whether the product is the best on the market by
checking one of these responses:
 Strongly disagree
 Disagree
 Undecided
 Agree.
 Strongly agree
 The difference between the responses Strongly disagree and Disagree
 is probably not equivalent to the difference between Strongly agree Agree
Ordinal

The data have the properties of nominal data and

the order or rank of the data is meaningful.

A nonnumeric label or numeric code may be used.

Ordinal
 Example:
 Students of a university are classified by their
 class standing using a nonnumeric label such as
 Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, or Senior.

 A numeric code can be used for

 the class standing variable (e.g. 1 denotes
 Freshman, 2 denotes Sophomore, and so on).
Interval Measures

Distance separating attributes has meaning and

is standardized (equidistant)

“0” value does not mean a variable is not

present

Score on an ACT test 50 vs. 100

 does not mean person is twice as smart
Interval Scales
This scale has all the characteristics:
 Identity (Helps researcher to determine whether 2 values are the same or
different
 Can determine whether one values is greater or smaller than the other
 Can also determine the degree of difference between values
 Contains equal interval
 But it has no zero point
Example
We can group students according to their IQ
1. 200
2. 100
3. 140
This means that the students have different IQs
(remember that this is a nominal measurement).
 Example continued.
We can also rank and order the students from the highest to the lowest
(Remember that this is an ordinal measurement). So in ordinal terms the first
student has a higher IQ than the second and third.
We can also calculate the difference in IQ among the students and conclude
that the IQ of the first student is 100 points higher than the second student.
(This is a characteristic which the ordinal and nominal scales don’t have).
 One other characteristic of the interval scale is that it has equal interval but
has no true zero point.
 Example - Celsius temperature is an interval variable.
 It is meaningful to say that 25 degrees Celsius is 3 degrees hotter
than 22 degrees Celsius, and that 17 degrees Celsius is the same
amount hotter (3 degrees) than 14 degrees Celsius.
 Notice, however, that 0 degrees Celsius does not have a natural
meaning. That is, 0 degrees Celsius does not mean the absence of
heat!
Interval

The data have the properties of ordinal data, and

the interval between observations is expressed in
terms of a fixed unit of measure.

Interval data are always numeric.

 Example: Average Starting Salary Offer 2003
 Economics/Finance: $40,084
 History: $32,108
 Psychology: $27,454

 Econ & Finance majors earn $7,976 more than

 History majors and $12,630 more than
 Psychology majors.

 Source: National Association of Colleges and Employers

Ratio Measures
 Attributes of a variable have a “true zero point” that means something

 Waist measures and Biceps measures

 Allows one to create ratios

Ratio Scales
 Ratio Scales - captures the properties of the other types of scales, but also
contains a true zero, which represents the absence of the quality being measured.

 For example - heart beats per minute has a very natural zero point. Zero means no
heart beats. Weight (in grams) is also a ratio variable. Again, the zero value is
meaningful, zero grams means the absence of weight.

 Example:
 the number of intimate relationships a person has had
0 quite literally means none
a person who has had 4 relationships has had twice as many as someone
who has had 2
Ratio

The data have all the properties of interval data

and the ratio of two values is meaningful.

Variables such as distance, height, weight, and time

use the ratio scale.

This scale must contain a zero value that indicates

that nothing exists for the variable at the zero point.
 Example:
 Econ & Finance majors salaries are 1.24 times
 History major salaries and are 1.46 times
 Psychology major salaries
Hierarchy and Properties of the scales
 Each of these scales have different properties (i.e., difference, magnitude, equal intervals,
or a true zero point) and allows for different interpretations.
 The scales are listed in hierarchical order. Nominal scales have the fewest measurement
properties and ratio having the most properties including the properties of all the scales
beneath it on the hierarchy.
 The goal is to be able to identify the type of measurement scale, and to understand proper
use and interpretation of the scale.
Hypotheses
 Hypotheses: Untested statements that specify a relationship between 2 or
more variables.

 Example: Milk Drinkers Make Better Lovers

Characteristics of Hypothesis
 States a relationship between two or more variables
 Is stated affirmatively (not as a question)
 Can be tested with empirical evidence
 Most useful when it makes a comparison
 States how multiple variables are related
 Theory or underlying logic of the relationship makes sense

 Hypotheses should be clearly stated at the beginning of a study.

 Do not have to have a hypothesis to conduct research, general research

questions.
Positive and Negative (Inverse) Relationships

 Positive: as values of independent variable increase, the values of the

dependent variable increase

 Negative: as values of independent variable increase, the values of the

dependent variable decrease (or vice versa)
Two-directional Hypotheses

More general expression of a hypothesis

Usually default in stat packages

Suggests that groups are different or concepts

related, but without specifying the exact
direction of the difference

Example: Men and women trust UK security differently.

One-directional hypotheses
 More specific expression of a hypothesis

 Specifies the precise direction of the relationship between the dependent

and independent variables.

 Example: Women have greater trust in UK security compared to men.

Determining Quality of Measurement
 Accuracy and Consistency in Measurement

 Validity is accuracy

 Reliability is consistency
Reliability

 Definition -- The extent to which the same research technique applied

again to the same object (subject) will give you the same result

 Reliability does not ensure accuracy: a measure can be reliable but

inaccurate (invalid) because of bias in the measure or in data
collector/coder
Validity and Types

 Definition -- The extent to which our measure reflects what we think or want
them to be measuring
Face Validity

Face validity: the measure seems to be related

to what we are interested in finding out even if it
does not fully encompass the concept

concept = intellectual capacity

 measure = grades (high face validity)
 measure = # of close friends (low face validity)
Criterion Validity

Criterion validity (predictive validity): the

measure is predictive of some external criterion

 Criterion = Success in College

 Measure = ACT scores (high criterion validity?)
Construct Validity

Construct Validity: the measure is logically

related to another variable as conceptualized it
to be

 construct = happiness
 measure = financial stability
 if not related to happiness, low construct validity
Content Validity:

Content Validity: how much a measure covers a

range of meanings; did you cover the full range
of dimensions related to a concept

 Example: You think that you are measuring prejudice, but you only ask questions
about race

what about sex, religious etc.?