Ethica questions

Originally I wanted to call this entry "ethical questions," but I decided I liked the typo. Ethica, like Ithica. Only it's a place where one goes to figure out what's right and what's wrong.

In any case, in my research methods class (wait! don't go! I promise I'll get more interesting! Oh... well, as long as a few of you still stick around) we talked about doing survey research. If you're doing a research project where the goal is to gauge people's feelings around a certain issue, is the best way to go about it to ask them questions through an online survey and then have them check 1 through 5 to tell you their feelings? Or to sum up in three sentences how they feel about a certain experience?

Many quantitative researchers have found that these methods do not really get at the heart of what they are trying to discover. And in fact, although a survey seems neutral, it can change the way people feel about a certain issue. My professor told a story of one researcher who surveyed people about marriage. She said he received a hand-written note from one of the respondants, who wrote "Before I took this survey, I wasn't sure about what I should do about my marriage. The questions really made me think, and now I know what I have to do. I'm gong to get a divorce."

Obviously, this particular survey provoked a strong response. And I believe that if you are questioning people about an emotional issue, no matter how benign the survey may seem, you will influence their thoughts and opinions.

In any case, in my work with the charter school kids and the school where I still am involved in some projects, we gave them a survey at the beginning of the sessions (6 sessions, each focused on learning about a different career). Of course, this was before I took the methods class, before I knew about the Internal Review Board you're supposed to clear all research through, and before I absolutely hated working with this particular project because I don't agree with the values it conveys. Now we're giving a final survey, and even though I didn't really design it, I am administering it, and I feel an ethical conflict because I'm not sure of what messages the questions symbolically convey and what emotions they might raise in the children taking them. They're not lab rats, they're real people, and I have a real problem doing this research in what I feel is an unethical way.

-Sigh- last session of this, so maybe I can come to terms with it if we pick the project back up again in the fall.