Personal values as well as paradigm values lead us to consciously as well as unconsciously construct a partial view of the world. Value concerns about what is right or wrong also arise when we consider research ethics . Research ethics are based on the same ideas as all other ethics. Research involves intervening in others lives. As with other parts of life, we need to ask basic questions such as why are we doing any particular activity, is it worth the price of affecting others in certain ways, do we need their permission or consent , should we provide full disclosure ahead of time about what we are trying to do, to what extent should we guarantee research subjects anonymity or confidentiality.
Anonymity is where they remain unknown to the researcher.
Confidentiality is where the researcher knows who they are but will not disclose that to anyone else. Often research is done without full disclosure on the grounds that if subjects knew why they were being studied they would withhold information, behave differently and generally prevent researchers from finding out what they were trying to study. Social work researchers also need to consult the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics , especially about the profession s commitment to empowering clients. We need to ask whether our research helps empower clients to be able to better act on their own behalf or whether that research only manipulates and exploits them for information. Values affect research in other ways starting with how we frame a research problem.