The 2nd Belmont principle is that of Beneficence,
which is described in the report as securing the well-being of the research
subject. You can think of this as being kind to the subjects, and treating them
as you would like to be treated. It is this principle that leads the IRB to
evaluate the risks and benefits of your research.
The risks of the research must be justified by the potential
benefits to the individual and to society. Let me give you a common issue that
arises in the Walden IRB, a researcher wants to go into an elementary school
and administer a scale to students measuring something unrelated to their
schoolwork (e.g., their relationships with their pets). There may be some
benefits to society to know about this topic, however, the risks of students
missing classwork for a study unrelated to school is too high. The researcher
would be told to find another venue to recruit participants.
A final aspect of this principle is that conflicts of
interest must be managed so that bias in important judgments related to
research conduct is unlikely. An example of this might be an instructor
recruiting his or her students. It would be very difficult for students to say
no, if asked directly. Other potential conflicts are having some financial
interest in the results (for example, to show that your program works). The
researcher may consciously or unconsciously influence the results because of
their interests in the outcome.
This principle can be best understood as treating the
participants as you would like to be treated. Again, as a researcher you have a
responsibility to protect those who volunteer for your study.
Next time I will examine the third Belmont principle:
Justice. Do you have an issue or a question that you would like me to discuss
in a future post? Would you like to be a guest writer? Send me your ideas! leann.stadtlander@waldenu.edu
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