Ethics & Professional Standards Flashcards

A CSP practitioner is retained by a government agency to evaluate a social program. The agency asks the practitioner to frame the final report positively regardless of findings. The practitioner should:

Answer: Decline to misrepresent findings and explain professional obligations to the client

Misrepresenting evaluation findings violates core integrity standards; practitioners must report accurately even under client pressure.

Which of the following best characterizes the 'relational ethics' approach in qualitative sociological research?

Answer: Ethics emerging from ongoing attentiveness to relationships, context, and power dynamics throughout the research process

Relational ethics emphasizes the continuous, context-sensitive negotiation of ethical responsibilities within researcher-participant relationships.

A participant in a longitudinal study develops a close personal relationship with the researcher over five years. The most important ethical concern is:

Answer: Whether the closeness creates dependency or blurs boundaries that compromise informed consent and objectivity

Long-term researcher-participant relationships risk boundary erosion that can impair both participant autonomy and research validity.

Under FERPA, a practitioner conducting research in a U.S. educational institution must:

Answer: Protect the privacy of student education records and obtain appropriate consent or institutional authorization

FERPA restricts disclosure of student education records; research access requires either consent or qualifying institutional authorization even with IRB approval.

A CSP practitioner discovers a colleague has fabricated survey data in a joint publication. The practitioner's ethical obligation is to:

Answer: Confront the colleague privately and, if unresolved, report to the relevant professional body or institution

Research misconduct must be addressed; private confrontation first is appropriate, but institutional reporting is required if the misconduct is not corrected.

Which best describes the concept of 'epistemic justice' as it applies to sociological practice ethics?

Answer: Recognizing and correcting harms done when marginalized groups are systematically excluded from knowledge production or not believed as knowers

Epistemic justice addresses how social inequalities—such as credibility deficits and hermeneutical gaps—systematically harm marginalized communities in knowledge contexts.

When is it appropriate for a sociological practitioner to break confidentiality without participant consent?

Answer: When there is a clear and imminent threat of serious harm to the participant or identifiable others

Confidentiality may only be broken without consent when there is a credible, serious, and imminent safety threat—not for research or policy convenience.