IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v65y2007i11p2284-2295.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Proposing modesty for informed consent

Author

Listed:
  • Burgess, Michael M.

Abstract

The extension of informed consent into social science research has met with considerable opposition. The history and concept of informed consent, however, is based on a substantive ethical notion of the research relationship as informed and voluntary that is appropriate for social science research relationships. Yet social science research might sometimes be different from health research in ways that justify a different approach to informed consent and research relationships. Social science research tends to have a lower magnitude of risk, usually does not need to disrupt the therapeutic assumption common in health research contexts or when researchers are health professionals, and recruitment is sometimes incremental and reflects a building of trust and development of the research participant's role. These differences may sometimes justify novel approaches to the research relationship and require case-by-case evaluation to determine their relevance to establishing the informed and voluntary nature of the relationship through the use of informed consent procedures. Ultimately, respect for research participants requires social research into practices that can support or replace informed consent. The institutional role of informed consent and the goal of informed and voluntary research participation serve modest but important roles in health and social research. Their proper role in health and social research requires flexibility and experimentation, but does not justify abdication of informed consent or the notion of informed and voluntary participation.

Suggested Citation

  • Burgess, Michael M., 2007. "Proposing modesty for informed consent," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(11), pages 2284-2295, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:11:p:2284-2295
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(07)00438-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benatar, S. R., 2002. "Reflections and recommendations on research ethics in developing countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 54(7), pages 1131-1141, April.
    2. Kaufmann, Caroline L., 1983. "Informed consent and patient decision making: Two decades of research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 17(21), pages 1657-1664, January.
    3. Ubel, P. A. & Loewenstein, G., 1997. "The role of decision analysis in informed consent: Choosing between intuition and systematicity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 647-656, March.
    4. Kent, Gerry, 1996. "Shared understandings for informed consent: The relevance of psychological research on the provision of information," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 43(10), pages 1517-1523, November.
    5. Murphy, Elizabeth & Dingwall, Robert, 2007. "Informed consent, anticipatory regulation and ethnographic practice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(11), pages 2223-2234, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Philippe Robert-Demontrond & Amélie Bellion, 2016. "L'éthique en ethnomarketing : de la juridictionnalisation des recherches à une morale incarnée," Post-Print hal-01865104, HAL.
    2. Secko, David M. & Preto, Nina & Niemeyer, Simon & Burgess, Michael M., 2009. "Informed consent in biobank research: A deliberative approach to the debate," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 781-789, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simon, Christian & Mosavel, Maghboeba & van Stade, Debbie, 2007. "Ethical challenges in the design and conduct of locally relevant international health research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(9), pages 1960-1969, May.
    2. Malcolm Man-Son-Hing & Brian F. Gage & Alan A. Montgomery & Alistair Howitt & Richard Thomson & P. J. Devereaux & Joanne Protheroe & Tom Fahey & David Armstrong & Andreas Laupacis, 2005. "Preference-Based Antithrombotic Therapy in Atrial Fibrillation: Implications for Clinical Decision Making," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 25(5), pages 548-559, September.
    3. Mohajan, Haradhan, 2020. "Quantitative Research: A Successful Investigation in Natural and Social Sciences," MPRA Paper 105149, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Nov 2020.
    4. Barsdorf, Nicola Wendy & Wassenaar, Douglas Richard, 2005. "Racial differences in public perceptions of voluntariness of medical research participants in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 1087-1098, March.
    5. Tate, Alexandra, 2020. "Invoking death: How oncologists discuss a deadly outcome," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).
    6. Catherine Molyneux & Jane Goudge & Steve Russell & Jane Chuma & Tebogo Gumede & Lucy Gilson, 2009. "Conducting health-related social science research in low income settings: ethical dilemmas faced in Kenya and South Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(2), pages 309-326.
    7. Coleman-Brueckheimer, Kate & Spitzer, Joseph & Koffman, Jonathan, 2009. "Involvement of Rabbinic and communal authorities in decision-making by haredi Jews in the UK with breast cancer: An interpretative phenomenological analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 323-333, January.
    8. Stefan A. Hajkowicz, 2012. "For the Greater Good? A Test for Strategic Bias in Group Environmental Decisions," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 331-344, May.
    9. Heimer, Carol A., 2013. "‘Wicked’ ethics: Compliance work and the practice of ethics in HIV research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 371-378.
    10. Kamat, Vinay R., 2014. "Fast, cheap, and out of control? Speculations and ethical concerns in the conduct of outsourced clinical trials in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 48-55.
    11. Verheggen, Frank W. S. M. & van Wijmen, Frans C. B., 1996. "Informed consent in clinical trials," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 131-153, May.
    12. Swallow, Julia, 2017. "Expectant futures and an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease: Knowing and its consequences," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 57-64.
    13. Guta, Adrian & Nixon, Stephanie A. & Wilson, Michael G., 2013. "Resisting the seduction of “ethics creep”: Using Foucault to surface complexity and contradiction in research ethics review," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 301-310.
    14. Virginia Mapedzahama & Tinashe Dune, 2017. "A Clash of Paradigms? Ethnography and Ethics Approval," SAGE Open, , vol. 7(1), pages 21582440176, March.
    15. Hedgecoe, Adam, 2005. "'At the point at which you can do something about it, then it becomes more relevant': Informed consent in the pharmacogenetic clinic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 1201-1210, September.
    16. Molyneux, Sassy & Geissler, P. Wenzel, 2008. "Ethics and the ethnography of medical research in Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 685-695, September.
    17. Valdez-Martinez, Edith & Trumbull, Bernardo & Garduno-Espinosa, Juan & Porter, John David Henley, 2005. "Understanding the structure and practices of research ethics committees through research and audit: a study from Mexico," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(1), pages 56-68, September.
    18. Dawson, Liza & Kass, Nancy E., 2005. "Views of US researchers about informed consent in international collaborative research," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 1211-1222, September.
    19. George Loewenstein, 2005. "Projection Bias in Medical Decision Making," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 25(1), pages 96-105, January.
    20. Janet Boddy, 2014. "Research across cultures, within countries: Hidden ethics tensions in research with children and families?," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 14(1), pages 91-103, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:65:y:2007:i:11:p:2284-2295. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.