conducting socially sensitive research

• Sieber and Stanley (1988) used the term socially sensitive to describe studies where there are potential social consequences for the participants or the group of people represented by the research
• Psychologists need to be conscious of the implications of researching particular topics that may be deemed controversial, such as the cause of homosexuality, as well as how any findings they may gather could be used in wider society.
• research is used to shape public policy and more informally it feeds the media headlines - have quite an impact on both individuals and groups in society -> important that researchers construct their research carefully and also present the data clearly with focused interpretations.
• before beginning research, the researcher should carefully consider their research question(s) to ensure that they are not biased or harmful in any way - e.g. which gender is better at memory processing? -> could be detrimental because it assumes that one gender is better at memory processing than another - this could affect job opportunities, for example. 
• socially sensitive research examples

  • racial or ethnic differences
  • sex/gender differences
  • cultural/subcultural differences
  • research where ppts may experience distress, physical or psychological harm
• research likely to be socially sensitive

  • highly personal or private topic
  • focus on deviant behaviour
  • questions authority
  • questions anything sacred
• whether a piece of research is seen as socially sensitive will depend on the context in which the research takes place. A lot of psychological research takes place as a response to events in society and developments in existing research. 
• not socially sensitive research

  • Kohlberg -> looked at moral development cross culturally in Taiwan and the USA.
  • Gould -> looked at how race plays a factor into IQ which led to changes in law to allow discrimination, fuels racism and intolerance, segregation, promotes inequality