You want to study interactions between young children and their parents.You have access to a day care where there are one-way mirrors allowing you to observe the children without anyone knowing you are there.You decide you will sit behind one of these mirrors and observe interactions between parents and children in the morning during drop-off and again in the evening when the children are picked up.What should you do to make sure that your study is ethical?

If the researcher wants to engage in ethical research,he or she must not sit behind the mirror without anyone knowing about it.Even if the children will never know the researcher is there,the researcher must get permission from the parents for themselves and their children to be part of the study.Also,the researcher should guarantee that information gathered about the parents and children remains confidential.The researcher cannot coerce the parents into giving permission by telling them that their children will not be able to come to the day care center if they do not participate.The researcher needs to be as accurate as possible in making his or her observations and careful of the potential biases that are part of field research,e.g.the researcher may like some children and/or parents more that others and view that interaction more positively.Lastly,the researcher needs to describe the potential limitations of the research in any reports.