Clinical Value Assessment

757 Words2 Pages

Social and clinical value
Social and clinical value assessments are subjective and provide opportunities for ethical issues to arise based on conflicts of interests. These conflicts may arise due to pressure on the researcher to gain funding for their study increasing their motivation to slant their proposal toward increased value of their research where possible. Further motivation for accenting the positive nature of the research may be found in the personal biases of the researcher. This study uses a team approach intended to mitigate the impact of these conflicts and biases.
Scientific validity Scientific validity’s ethical issues revolve around manipulating and presenting the data in ways that increase its perceived value thereby enhancing …show more content…

By nature, the interview process is designed to uncover facets of elder abuse that could not be anticipated in advance of the preparation of the survey questions. The relationship between the interviewer and the participant will be different for each interview. To improve our findings and gain consistency, the study will utilize one interviewer for all interviews. Furthermore, the study will conduct all interviews in the same or similar neutral setting. Scientific validity can be compromised if the interviewer was a clinician or counselor prior to becoming involved with the research study. This ethical issue can result in unintentional manipulation of the participant should the interviewer change roles back and forth between clinician and interviewer during the interview process. This study utilizes a graduate research assistant with no prior clinical background to avoid this ethical …show more content…

Some of the known issues involve confidentiality of the interview data, the relationship between the interviewer and the participants and the reasons why the participant decided to share their experiences with the interviewer. Additional ethical issues are created by the environment chosen to conduct the interview, the social interaction between the interviewer and the participant, the distress level of the participant during the interview, the potential reporting requirements should additional unreported elder abuse become know, the possibility the research questions may be mis-understood by the participants causing them to feel deceived by the question.
Unless the interviewers are trained, licensed counselors, they have a moral obligation to stop the interview when it is obvious to them that the participants could benefit from counseling (Orb, 2001). The possibility must be considered that, by experiencing old wounds, a caregiver might be triggered to perform another act of elder abuse. This possibility exposes both the interviewer and their institution to unwanted legal consequences.
Independent

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