ABSTRACT
A code of ethics is a set of moral principles about how people should conduct themselves and gives clear guidance on the appropriate way that people should act or behave. This chapter considers the difference between teleological, deontological and situational theories of ethics. In ethnographic and other forms of qualitative research, ethical issues often emerge during the data collection phase and ethnographers regularly struggle to meet the ethical requirements that professional bodies such as the British Educational Research Association (BERA), the British Sociological Association (BSA), the Social Research Association (SRA), the Department of Health and in the USA the Code of Federal Regulations have developed for good research practice. Getting informed consent from participants in a research project is a common requirement found in all ethical codes of research conduct. The purpose of ethics committees is to prevent misconduct in the research process. For Laud Humphreys the ethics in social science research are situation ethics.
