IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsoctx/v9y2019i4p79-d288983.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Reinforcing and Reproducing Stereotypes? Ethical Considerations When Doing Research on Stereotypes and Stereotyped Reasoning

Author

Listed:
  • Mathilde Cecchini

    (Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark)

Abstract

Many social scientists are interested in studying stereotypes and stereotyped reasoning. This interest often comes from a wish to contribute to creating a more just and equal society. However, when we as scholars study stereotypes and stereotyped reasoning, we risk reproducing and maybe even reinforcing these processes, and thereby harming individuals or groups of individuals. The debates of this ethical issue mainly take the form of general discussions of research ethics and of weighing the aim of the research against potential harm to participants. While these reflections are extremely important, there is a need for discussing how this ethical issue can be handled in practice. The aim of this article is to develop a set of practical guidelines for managing this ethical issue, based on the examination of ethically delicate moments experienced during an ethnographic study of the construction of health and risk identities among seventh-graders in Denmark. Three guiding principles are proposed: Develop an ethical sensibility in order to identify ethically delicate moments; consider ethics as well as methods when constructing and posing questions; more specifically, briefings and debriefings can be used to address ethical issues; and, finally, make participants reflect upon their opinions and answers.

Suggested Citation

  • Mathilde Cecchini, 2019. "Reinforcing and Reproducing Stereotypes? Ethical Considerations When Doing Research on Stereotypes and Stereotyped Reasoning," Societies, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-13, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:9:y:2019:i:4:p:79-:d:288983
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/9/4/79/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/9/4/79/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, C.C. & Morrel-Samuels, S. & Hutchison, P.M. & Bell, L. & Pestronk, R.M., 2004. "Flint photovoice: Community building among youths, adults, and policymakers," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 94(6), pages 911-913.
    2. Gitte Sommer Harrits & Marie Østergaard Møller, 2014. "Prevention at the Front Line: How home nurses, pedagogues, and teachers transform public worry into decisions on special efforts," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 447-480, May.
    3. Imelda T. Coyne, 1998. "Researching children: some methodological and ethical considerations," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(5), pages 409-416, September.
    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. Christina Prediger & Robert Hrynyschyn & Iasmina Iepan & Christiane Stock, 2022. "Adolescents’ Perceptions of Gender Aspects in a Virtual-Reality-Based Alcohol-Prevention Tool: A Focus Group Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-17, April.
    2. Christina Prediger & Katherina Heinrichs & Hürrem Tezcan-Güntekin & Gertraud Stadler & Laura Pilz González & Patricia Lyk & Gunver Majgaard & Christiane Stock, 2023. "LGBTQIA+ Adolescents’ Perceptions of Gender Tailoring and Portrayal in a Virtual-Reality-Based Alcohol-Prevention Tool: A Qualitative Interview Study and Thematic Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-20, February.
    3. Ingfrid Mattingsdal Thorjussen & Terese Wilhelmsen, 2019. "Ethics in Categorizing Ethnicity and Disability in Research with Children," Societies, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-15, December.

    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. Imelda Coyne, 2006. "Consultation with children in hospital: children, parents’ and nurses’ perspectives," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(1), pages 61-71, January.
    2. Zietz, Susannah & de Hoop, Jacobus & Handa, Sudhanshu, 2018. "The role of productive activities in the lives of adolescents: Photovoice evidence from Malawi," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 246-255.
    3. Oelberger Carrie, 2024. "Avoiding Burnout with Compassionate Accompaniment: A Novel Approach to Training, Selecting, Managing, and Regulating Frontline Workers," Nonprofit Policy Forum, De Gruyter, vol. 15(2), pages 153-166, April.
    4. Julia Díez & Pedro Gullón & María Sandín Vázquez & Belén Álvarez & María Del Prado Martín & María Urtasun & Maite Gamarra & Joel Gittelsohn & Manuel Franco, 2018. "A Community-Driven Approach to Generate Urban Policy Recommendations for Obesity Prevention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-15, March.
    5. David J Marshall & Lynn A Staeheli & Dima Smaira & Konstantin Kastrissianakis, 2017. "Narrating palimpsestic spaces," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(5), pages 1163-1180, May.
    6. Lauri Andress & Matthew P Purtill, 2020. "Shifting the gaze of the physician from the body to the body in a place: A qualitative analysis of a community-based photovoice approach to teaching place-health concepts to medical students," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-15, February.
    7. Hani Nouman & Nissim Cohen, 2023. "When active representation is not enough: ethnic minority street-level workers in a divided society and policy entrepreneurship," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 56(4), pages 777-795, December.
    8. Cannuscio, Carolyn C. & Weiss, Eve E. & Fruchtman, Hannah & Schroeder, Jeannette & Weiner, Janet & Asch, David A., 2009. "Visual epidemiology: Photographs as tools for probing street-level etiologies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(4), pages 553-564, August.
    9. Switzer, S. & Guta, A. & de Prinse, K. & Chan Carusone, S. & Strike, C., 2015. "Visualizing harm reduction: Methodological and ethical considerations," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 77-84.
    10. Minh Ngo & Michael Brklacich, 2014. "New farmers’ efforts to create a sense of place in rural communities: insights from southern Ontario, Canada," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 31(1), pages 53-67, March.
    11. Na Tang & Muyu He, 2023. "The times make a hero: Street‐level policy entrepreneurship in major crisis responses in China," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 40(4), pages 490-508, July.
    12. Carlie D. Trott & Andrea E. Weinberg, 2020. "Science Education for Sustainability: Strengthening Children’s Science Engagement through Climate Change Learning and Action," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-24, August.
    13. Helle Ørsted Nielsen & Vibeke Lehmann Nielsen, 2023. "Different encounter behaviors: Businesses in encounters with regulatory agencies," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 17(1), pages 61-82, January.
    14. Patrick Brown & Nathalie van Eijk, 2021. "Cultural Processes Shaping Stop-and-Check Practices and Interaction Dynamics in a Large Dutch City: Police Vulnerabilities, Thought Styles and Rituals [‘Police Suspicion and Discretionary Decision ," The British Journal of Criminology, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, vol. 61(3), pages 690-709.
    15. Melinda Butsch Kovacic & Sara Stigler & Angela Smith & Alexis Kidd & Lisa M. Vaughn, 2014. "Beginning a Partnership with PhotoVoice to Explore Environmental Health and Health Inequities in Minority Communities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-20, October.
    16. Sadler, Richard C. & Hippensteel, Christopher & Nelson, Victoria & Greene-Moton, Ella & Furr-Holden, C. Debra, 2019. "Community-engaged development of a GIS-based healthfulness index to shape health equity solutions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 227(C), pages 63-75.
    17. Lisa Hansson & Åsa Weinholt, 2019. "New Frontline Actors Emerging from Cross-Sector Collaboration: Examples from the Fire and Rescue Service Sector," Public Organization Review, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 519-539, December.
    18. Nunes, João & Lotta, Gabriela, 2019. "Discretion, power and the reproduction of inequality in health policy implementation: Practices, discursive styles and classifications of Brazil's community health workers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    19. Susanne Kean, 2010. "Children and young people’s strategies to access information during a family member’s critical illness," Journal of Clinical Nursing, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1‐2), pages 266-274, 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:gam:jsoctx:v:9:y:2019:i:4:p:79-:d:288983. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.