ABSTRACT
This paper provides an overview of Tapp et al. (1974) and subsequent IUPS symposia and resolutions on cross-cultural research ethics. Various ethical guidelines, including recommendations that researchers “engage only in activities abroad that are ethically acceptable at home” and that they recognize meanings attributed to those research activities by the host community, are considered. It is argued that these guidelines do not provide researchers with ways of resolving ethical dilemmas that arise from (a) research in their own culture and (b) conflicting Western and non-Western systems of ethics. Examples of dilemmic cross-cultural research, including studies of community attitudes and responses to HIV, suicide ideation, substance misuse, and child sexuality, and contrasting ethical approaches to these dilemmas are discussed.
