Ethics
Learning Outcomes
- Describe key ethical guidelines in sociology
The American Sociological Association, or ASA, is the major professional organization of sociologists in North America. The ASA is a great resource for students of sociology as well. In 1970, the ASA adopted its first Code of Ethics—formal guidelines for conducting sociological research—consisting of principles and ethical standards to be used in the discipline. It was developed out of necessity as a result of several (in)famous studies that were found to have harmed human research participants.
Today, the ASA Code of Ethics consists of the following six principles:
- Professional competence
- Integrity
- Professional and scientific responsibility
- Respect for people’s rights, dignity, and diversity
- Social responsibility
- Human rights
In addition, there are nineteen ethical standards, covering the following topics: competence, representation and misuse of expertise, delegation and supervision, discrimination, exploitation, harassment, employment decisions, conflicts of interest and commitment, public communications, confidentiality, informed consent, research planning, implementation, and dissemination, plagiarism, authorship, publication process, responsibilities of reviewers, education, teaching, and training, contractual and consulting services, and adherence to the code of ethics.
The ethical standards that relate most to the research process itself are: confidentiality, informed consent, research planning, implementation, and dissemination.
Each of these principles and ethical standards have detailed descriptions and parameters in the 2018 ASA Code of Ethics.
The Tea Room TRade
So why did the ASA create a Code of Ethics? What kinds of studies were occurring that necessitated a clear code to mandate researchers’ responsibilities to their human research participants (sometimes referred to as “subjects”)? Read on, and consider the ethical issues that arose in sociologist Laud Humphrey’s The Tea Room Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places (1970).
Laud Humphreys, a sociologist (and an ordained minister), had a suspicion that sex between men was occurring in public places. To understand this secret behavior, he served as a “lookout” or “watch queen” and gained mens’ trust in a variety of public restrooms, which he called “tearooms.” Humphreys then recorded these mens’ license plate numbers, utilized a contact at the police department, and tracked them down at their homes a year later under the guise of a social health surveyor. He interviewed the subjects to understand their motivation, what types of work they did, and their marital status. In the course of his interviews, he also discovered that only 14% self-identified as homosexual (Humphreys 1970).
Observing deviant and (in this case) illegal behavior is risky for the researcher but riskier still for the research subjects. During the 1960s, anti-sodomy laws were on the books in most states and were used to criminalize