4.5 Ethical issues affecting research Quiz: WJEC Eduqas Sociology, Unit 4

The 20 questions

1. What term describes participants agreeing to take study part with full understanding?

   • Covert observation
   • Peer debriefing
   • Informed consent
   • Data triangulation

2. Why is obtaining informed consent fundamental in sociological research?

   • Guarantees high representativeness
   • Removes all researcher bias
   • Respects participant autonomy
   • Lowers project costs

3. What ethical practice involves keeping participants' personal identities strictly private?

   • Deception
   • Operationalisation
   • Confidentiality
   • Triangulation

4. What ethical issue involves misleading participants about the true nature of a study?

   • Right to withdraw
   • Confidentiality
   • Deception
   • Informed consent

5. Which ethical issue is most directly associated with covert participant observation?

   • Data confidentiality
   • Financial cost
   • Sample representativeness
   • Deception

6. What term covers physical, psychological or social damage caused by a study?

   • Observer bias
   • Methodological error
   • Sample attrition
   • Participant harm

7. Which strategy directly helps protect participants from psychological distress?

   • Covert recording
   • Random sampling
   • Right to withdraw
   • Gatekeeper veto

8. Which practical method helps maintain participant confidentiality in published data?

   • Public archiving
   • Live streaming
   • Open interviews
   • Using pseudonyms

9. What is the primary purpose of debriefing participants after research concludes?

   • Collecting financial donations
   • Testing memory recall
   • Selecting random samples
   • Explaining study purpose

10. What invalidates informed consent before a sociological study begins?

    • Using written questionnaires
    • Secure data storage
    • Providing anonymous feedback
    • Unclear participant information

11. Observing a group in public without their knowledge primarily violates which two ethics?

    • Consent and deception
    • Cost and sampling
    • Funding and validity
    • Attrition and piloting

12. Assigning pseudonyms to study participants is a key strategy for ensuring what?

    • Representativeness
    • Generalisability
    • Standardisation
    • Anonymity

13. What ethical risk is most associated with asking participants about sensitive personal experiences?

    • Psychological harm
    • Financial cost
    • Sample bias
    • Data formatting

14. Which ethical issue involves deliberately misleading participants about the true purpose of a study?

    • Deception
    • Confidentiality
    • Right to withdraw
    • Informed consent

15. What must researchers balance against the potential benefits of conducting a sociological study?

    • Sample size
    • Research funding
    • Survey length
    • Participant wellbeing

16. A researcher publishes an interview extract that reveals the name of a participant’s employer. Which ethical principle has been breached?

    • Representativeness
    • Access
    • Sampling
    • Confidentiality

17. Which ethical safeguard allows participants to leave a research study at any time without penalty?

    • Right to withdraw
    • Informed consent
    • Debriefing protocol
    • Data anonymisation

18. What term describes ensuring that individual participants cannot be identified from published research data?

    • Gatekeeping
    • Anonymity
    • Triangulation
    • Deception

19. Which research practice is most likely to cause emotional distress to participants?

    • Random sampling
    • Data coding
    • Pilot testing
    • Questioning trauma

20. Why should researchers address ethical issues before data collection begins rather than afterwards?

    • Preventing harm
    • Speeding analysis
    • Increasing sample
    • Reducing budgets

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