The Handbook of Ethical Research with Ethnocultural Populations and Communities
- Joseph E. Trimble - Western Washington University, USA
- Celia B. Fisher - Fordham University, USA
What steps can be taken to incorporate a cultural perspective to the evaluation of research risks and benefits? How can investigators develop and implement respectful informed consent procedures in diverse cultural and language communities? What are ethical pitfalls and successful approaches to engaging in community and participant consultation? The Handbook of Ethical Research With Ethnocultural Populations and Communities, edited by Joseph E. Trimble and Celia B. Fisher, addresses these and other key questions in the first major work to focus specifically on ethical issues involving work with ethnocultural populations. Filling gaps and questions left unanswered by general rules of scientific conduct such as those embodied in federal regulations and professional codes, this Handbook will help guide ethical decision making for social and behavioral science research with multicultural groups for years to come.
Key Features:
- Brings together for the first time a multidisciplinary blend of national leaders who specialize in the area of conducting research with ethnocultural populations
- Addresses existing issues at methodological, procedural, and conceptual levels for the responsible conduct of research in the field
- Incorporates as background a summary of leading research and scholarship on various topics framed within the authors' personal successes, challenges, and failures in the dynamic process of creating a multicultural research ethic
- Includes real-world case examples to illustrate significant ethical principles in the research venture more concretely
The Handbook is designed for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in Psychology and will also be valuable for social and medical science researchers and institutional review boards. This book will also be of interest to ethicists and bioethicists, policy makers, and foundations that fund research involving multicultural populations.
."A timely topic . . . [t]his might be an excellent book as a text for a graduate class. All APA-approved clinical and counseling programs have to teach a class on ethics and this would be a good reader, or supplementary reader, for such a class."
In recent years, there has been much criticism in the literature about the development and quality of research in the area of the psychological study of ethnic minority issues. This criticism, whether real or imagined, has nevertheless influenced the kind of research that has emerged during the past few years. This Handbook, edited by Joseph Trimble and Celia Fisher, is, in my opinion, an outstanding response to this criticism. They have provided a book that clearly articulates an important ethical imperative: As the faces of America changes, so too must we as researchers transform our research designs to be more culturally inclusive. This Handbook pokes, prods, and pushes its reader to shift research paradigms, creating for some a dialectical tension that challenges preconceived notions of ethnic minority research. Imagine, as Trimble and Fisher point out, that 'soon the people of America will be better described as America's People of Color.' If such is the case, then those of us who choose to engage in this research must be prepared to acknowledge and understand that as scholars we must lead by example. This Handbook provides the reader with all of the tools to do so and must be taken seriously by all those who want to participate in the conversation.
