On Wednesday (12/1), the Doctoral Program in Psychology UGM held a second day Research Ethics Series with Dr. Diana Setiyawati, M.HSc., Psy., Psychologist and Aliza Hun from Australia National University. The event began with a speech delivered by the Head of the UGM Psychology Doctoral Study Program, Edilburga Wulan Saptandari, S.Psi., M.Psi., Ph.D Psychologist. “Thank you also to the ladies and gentlemen who were present, both doctoral students and friends from various places and various institutions. Today is the second day of the Research Ethics Series, yesterday we discussed research ethics in general and tomorrow there will be once more webinar session,” said Edilburga through his speech.
“Maybe I’ll repeat some principles because that’s basically ethical, but later we will elaborate further with a discussion with Aliza,” explained Diana as the first session filler. Before delivering the material, Diana had time to give some questions to the participants with the aim of making the interaction better. These questions revolve around when someone is in pasung who can give consent, is it allowed to take data in a familiar environment for researchers, and why we must respect or uphold research ethics.
The number of violations that occur when conducting research makes a research ethics important. One of the efforts to minimize violations during research is the existence of the Declaration of Helsinki. The declaration states several things, that research in humans must protect participants, even the benefits obtained by participants must outweigh the risks. “Even though we are researchers, it does not mean that researchers are in a superior position,” explained Diana.
Based on the Bellmont Report, there are three basic research ethics consisting of Respect for Person, Justice, and Beneficence/Non-Maleficence. There are several forms of respect for person that can be done when conducting research, such as giving informed consent to participants, maintaining confidentiality, and participants’ freedom to withdraw from the research process. In addition, one of the ways to maximize the welfare of research participants is to maximize the benefits of participating in the research process. Finally, fairness includes selecting participants according to research procedures and results can be accessed without commercialization.
Then the next session was delivered by Aliza Hun with the title Research Ethics in Survey Research Method. “I was invited to talk a little about personal reflection when taking data in Indonesia”, explained Aliza. Aliza admitted that her condition as a someone who came not from Indonesia, including her institution’s origin from abroad, influenced her research process. In addition, Aliza also said that there will be many parties who must be contacted regarding research ethics before collecting data. “In fact, there are differences that I have to live with, one of which is that researchers from abroad must obtain permission from the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education, while research from Indonesia is not necessary,” said Aliza