ABSTRACT
Ethical issues are part of all research. This chapter outlines some ethical issues related to working with older populations. It balances realities of aging and federal rules for research with human subjects with commonly held misbeliefs about conducting research with older persons. The chapter reveals how some institutional boards continue to use age as an indicator of "vulnerability" status. Ethical codes of gerontological and social science organizations are included and compared. Recruitment issues of helicoptering, slash/crash and burn participant recruitment, and use of coercion are addressed as are possible protections for participants (e.g., the certificate of confidentiality, CoC, and Evaluation to Sign Consent, ESC, measure for consent). Ethical issues are also addressed by place/research site (e.g., issues for residents in the Continuum of Care) and those that are researcher based and design based (e.g., in qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods designs). The chapter ends with some questions to consider about ethics and gerontological research.
